Chemistry is looking to to give start-ups and small businesses an opportunity to accelerate growth and open up new opportunities

Chemistry, the new accelerator programme from Sopra Steria, has been created to support businesses with innovative solutions that are near market ready or already established in the market and help them grow further and faster. The programme is industry-led and has been specifically designed to help companies get their products to market quickly, using a collaborative, supportive and professional platform. If you are an innovative company looking for accelerated access to key markets, Chemistry has been developed to help you get there.

Please note that applications to this Programme have now closed.  Read the latest news about this Programme here.

What we're looking for

Sopra Steria is looking for partners to work on three Challenges with focus on the business benefit for future clients:

Challenge 1 – Innovating Cyber Security: Keeping our shared clients safe in a world of developing threats.

The Cyber threat across the Public and Private sector has never been greater than it is in today’s markets. Organisations are continuously looking for innovative solutions to help them overcome the associated challenges.

Cyber-attacks are a constant threat, being reported by 32% of UK Businesses in the last 12 months and instigating a total cost £7.1 million in response to attacks in 2017. Sopra Steria is at the front line defending against this constant threat, with an end-to-end Cyber Security offering.

We are looking for partners with a collaborative nature and a highly innovative Cyber Security Solution in the field of Cyber-threat detection, Cyber-training and Cloud Security, to work with us to develop an end-to-end solution.

Challenge 2 – Identity Validation and Verification for the Public Sector: Ensuring accurate provision for all clients and their sensitive data.

As a Strategic Partner to UK government and a leader in European Digital Transformation, we work with many Government clients, all of whom face the key issue of ensuring that an individual applying for access to public services is exactly who they say they are.

Identity validation and verification impacts many aspects of citizen’s interactions with government, from immigration and benefits to licencing for work in hazardous environments or with vulnerable people. All of these examples rely heavily on the accurate and timely validation and verification of the physical identity of an individual.

Sopra Steria are working to transform the provision of citizen and employee services for Government, improving the user experience when gaining access to public services and delivering better outcomes for Government and its employees. Sopra Steria already provides many aspects of these services in the biometric identity verification, document verification and digital identity management spheres.

We are looking for partners with highly innovative identity validation and verification solutions to bolster our current offerings and create new ones across many markets.

Challenge 3 – Transforming the Inspections Process: Capturing and analysing evidence to radically improve inspection.

There are many regulatory and non-regulatory functions involved in the services we provide to the Public and Private sectors, which depend upon an inspection regime for assurance regarding the fulfilment of fiduciary or statutory responsibilities. These inspection processes are often highly resource intensive requiring planning, efficient completion and a mobile field force. Many businesses will be subject to multiple types of inspections, possibly from numerous different bodies. Sopra Steria want to transform this area of operations and deliver improved outcomes for the authority, inspection staff and the service users.

We are looking for partners with highly innovative data-focused solutions using the latest technology (AI, automation or digital evidence capture) to radically transform the process and user experience in a digitally enabled and consistent way, across public services.

What Sopra Steria offers

• Accelerated market access – Strong, and on-going business relationships with major Public and Private sector clients. We have mature existing client relationships and a reputation for business transformation and excellent service delivery.
• European Presence – You’ll have the opportunity to sell internationally with access to clients outside of the UK through our European presence.
• Development and growth of your business and product – We will help you grow, mature, and help build your client base, while respecting that your IP is your IP.
• Development of your people – By joining our programme, you’ll gain access to our masterclasses, expert contacts and a champion within Sopra Steria, all of which will ensure you get the experience and partnership your business needs.
• Industry visibility – Along with a large Private sector presence, Sopra Steria is a Strategic Partner to Government and by working with us you’ll have the opportunity to raise your company’s profile and visibility across these sectors.
• Access to Sopra Steria Facilities – Sopra Steria have collaborative Digilab spaces country wide and will offer design sprints and workshops to help develop the proposition. There is also an opportunity to use office space and board rooms, if required, to grow your business.

Eligibility requirements

• Innovative Product – The product or service you have created should be on the forefront of the relevant industry.
• Existing Clients – You must have delivered services to at least one previous client, with at least a minimum viable product to help provide future clients with confidence in our services.
• Potentially Scalable Solutions – Your product should have the potential to scale to be able to utilise Sopra Steria’s client network and support to deliver to a large range of customers as their requirements develop.
• Business focused – You should have a product focused on the business benefit for the customer as well as the technical challenge

How to apply

If you are the Founder or CEO/MD of a privately held innovative, high growth young business and feel you can meet at least one of the Challenges, please apply by completing this webform by Friday 1^st November 2019. Please note that applications to this Programme have now closed.

Successful applicants will be invited to attend a pitch session at Sopra Steria’s London offices during week beginning 9^th December 2019.

You can download a flyer about the TechMarketView Innovation Partner Programme Chemistry event here. For any further information, please email tipp@techmarketview.com.

Key dates

Applications Open: Monday 14th October 2019

Applications Close: Friday 1st November 2019

Pitch session: W/C 9th December 2019