Meet the ventures: The Social Tech Amplifier

The Social Tech Amplifier, a partnership between Catch22, Ufi VocTech Trust and Social Tech Trust, has onboarded 11 ventures – all with a focus on developing and implementing tech solutions to help tackle youth employment.

The Amplifier will help ventures unlock opportunities in the public sector supply chain and prepare them for scale through venture development activities and access to investment. They’ll also receive support from Hatch and Microsoft whose products and expertise will enhance the skills of our ventures – providing them with access to relevant software, guidance and mentorship.

We asked some of the ventures about what they hope to get out of being part of the Amplifier…here’s what they said:

“We’re excited about the impact that voice technology can have on empowering employment advisers to do their best work. We joined Social Tech Amplifier to gain support through our test, learn and iterate process so that we can continuously improve our ability to help providers deliver quality support at scale. We’re also excited about the opportunity to connect, learn from and collaborate with a community of innovators who share our vision for a world in which everyone has the opportunity to achieve their career potential.” Claudine Adeyemi, Founder & CEO, Earlybird

Read more about Earlybird here

“Joining The Social Tech Amplifier is perfect timing; our newest build will improve employment outcomes for young people at scale. Working with Catch22 and their partners, will help us unlock opportunities in the public sector supply chain, as well as build collaborations with the other ventures on our cohort. It’s going to be a huge year for us!” Gem Hallett, MiFuture

Read more about MiFuture here

“AKOU is both excited and honoured to be part of the Social Tech Amplifier, to work alongside such brilliant minds trying to disrupt and innovate pathways to employment for young people! We have high hopes for this journey, we know we are going to build new collaborations, learn a lot and amplify the development of some ground-breaking technology!”  Tilly Harries, Co-Founder and Head of Business Development, AKOU

Read more about AKOU here

“We’re thrilled to be part of the Social Tech Amplifier. The amplifier is the perfect platform to learn from experts such a Microsoft but also gain valuable advice and guidance from Catch22 whilst we develop, test, network and launch our technology into the employment sector.” Marina Hoole, Chief Operating Officer, Imployable

Read more about Imployable here

We’re excited to be joining the programme to increase our work further in the public sector, meet other like-minded ventures and ultimately increase our social impact. Christos Orthodoxou, Director of Innovation, TheTalentPeople / GetMyFirstJob.co.uk

Read more about GetMyFirstJob here

“Career Matters is delighted to have been selected to take part in the Social Tech Amplifier and to receive support from Catch22, Microsoft and Ufi VocTech Trust.  Thrive our hybrid digital provision, funded by Ufi VocTech Trust, is a solution to support young people with experience of the local authority care system into education, employment and training.  The solution also supports employers (including the NHS) who are seeking to create an open and inclusive workforce”.  Hannah Kirkbride, CEO, Career Matters

Read more about Career Matters here

“The Social Tech Amplifier is a unique opportunity to support us in fine-tuning our technology for different target groups in the UK. We look forward to leveraging the strong expertise that partners such as Catch22 or Microsoft provide.” Christoph Bretgeld, Co-Founder & Director of Strategy at SkillLab

Read more about SkillLab here

“Supplytrain is delighted to have been accepted onto the Social Tech Amplifier. We’re excited to work with the amazing partners on the project, to help us grow our online mentoring support. Ultimately, we believe the Amplifier will help us to place more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into great entry-level jobs, and provide the mentoring support they need to thrive in their new roles.” Phil Golding, Managing Director, Supplytrain CIC

Read more about Supplytrain here

As part of the programme, all ventures receive support in:

• Accessing B2G markets
  • The Social Tech Amplifier helps ventures to identify the impact and commercial opportunities for their product or service for use in public service delivery. We’ll help ventures to test and refine solutions through existing supply chain and network partners, and we’ll help them to deploy impactful and commercially successful solutions in the B2G market
• Venture development and contract readiness
  • Ventures that are part of the programme will benefit from a series of workshops including strategy, finance, branding, marketing, sales, and pitching. There will also be peer support, expert coaching and mentoring sessions, and a ‘Demo day’ showcasing their business to a panel of experts
• Technology support
  • Social Tech Amplifier ventures will have access to Microsoft’s start-up resources including Azure credits and access to development and productivity tools including GitHub and Microsoft 365.
  • They will also benefit from expert mentors, hacks and advice and guidance from Microsoft technical experts, and connections to Microsoft customers and partners.
• Raising investment
  • We’ll support ventures in knowing what types of funding and investment is available to them and what best aligns with their goals and needs. We’ll help them understand the process of raising investment and what they need to prepare for fundraising. We’ll also support them to understand what different investors are looking for and start to form an investment strategy