Guernsey Grown, Future Focused: Our 2024 Reflections
As 2024 comes to an end the Digital Greenhouse team looks back on the year and highlights what’s to come in 2025.
In 2024, the Digital Greenhouse has been able to build on the success of previous years, launch new programmes and continue to work in partnership with a wide range of businesses and individuals. The team have had the pleasure of working with so many entrepreneurs and innovators from across Guernsey’s vibrant business ecosystem. Below we look at some of the key programmes delivered in 2024.
Startup Academy
This year saw 11 new businesses launch through the Startup Academy. Our Academy is a 10-week programme where founders and entrepreneurs work with leading UK-based venture builders, Blenheim Chalcot to accelerate the development of their businesses. Spanning a wide range of areas, from MediaTech, HealthTech, FinTech, Data and more, this year’s participating businesses were all looking to rapidly scale and enable innovation within their sectors.
During the Academy, the group explored key topics such as discovering customer insights, navigating unit economics and business model innovation. Rounding off the programme was the presentation evening, where the founders showcased their businesses. It highlighted the strength and potential of the startups being developed in Guernsey.
Guernsey Venture Challenge
For the third consecutive year, the Guernsey Venture Challenge - a joint initiative by the Digital Greenhouse and Blenheim Chalcot - supports the island's thriving tech ecosystem. This year, a remarkable group of tech-focused entrepreneurs, eager to harness the power of digital tools, platforms and innovative processes participated in the competition. The culmination of this journey was the Pitch Night Final in September, where the businesses pitched competitively for substantial grant prizes totalling £70,000.
The businesses had a brief but impactful seven minutes to pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of expert judges and a large audience. The first prize was awarded to UN1TY who received £40,000 for their ESG Calc product that simplifies risk assessments with intuitive dashboards allowing for accurate reporting and analysis. The second prize was awarded to MAP Health who received £20,000 for their digital platform that allows non-specialist medical professionals to seamlessly integrate personalised medical wellness services into their practice using their dashboard, which allows real-time collaboration between clinicians and their patients as they work to improve selected health metrics. The third prize was awarded to Kloakify who received £10,000 for their business that helps people to send and receive sensitive documents like passport scans securely and easily, allowing them to control how the file is stored and used.
Red Team GenAI Programmes
In the evolving landscape of AI, businesses have been looking to jump into advanced application methodologies and embed technological innovation into their business strategies and operations. Navigating an influx of new tools and policies coming to market, the collaborative workshops run by Blenheim Chalcot’s Red Team have guided industry leaders keen to stay at the forefront of the evolution in their field and adopt innovative solutions. We were pleased to have welcomed over 29 local leaders taking part in our 6-week AI accelerator and 25 leaders taking part in our GenAI sprint workshop.
Innovation Summit
In March, we welcomed 150 business leaders to the Innovation Summit in Guernsey. Taking place at St Pierre Park Hotel, the summit saw 28 speakers from GFSC, ODPA, Collas Crill, Frontier Economics, Prosperity 24/7, Deloitte, Sure, C5 Alliance, Blenheim Chalcot, PwC, First Central and more. Each took to the stage to share examples of how businesses in Guernsey are using digital tools, such as GenAI to improve business practices and drive innovation. As well as looking forward to what the future may look like for Guernsey, with key opportunities and considerations for the audience to think about. This summit brought creativity and technology together and reflected Guernsey's commitment to not just adapting but leading in a world defined by change and progress.
Global Growth Programme
The Global Growth Programme enables Guernsey-based tech businesses to accelerate their growth strategies, supporting their ambitions to expand into international markets. We have six businesses taking part in sectors including SaaS, MusicTech, MarineTech, HealthTech, EdTech and more. Each business on the programme this year had a unique value proposition, reflecting the breadth of innovation emanating from Guernsey’s ecosystem.
The pilot programme launched in June this year and saw the founders of these local tech businesses paired with expert mentors from our programme partner, Blenheim Chalcot. They took part in a series of workshops and masterclasses focusing on key areas including marketing, building strategic partnerships and more. The programme also included a co-construction forum that took place at Scale Space in London, giving the businesses access to a range of experts in a highly collaborative one-day workshop to develop their strategies.
The programme culminated in November when the businesses travelled to Lisbon to attend Web Summit, the world's largest tech festival. Giving the founders the opportunity to promote their businesses to an international audience, connect with partners and investors, and learn from influential industry leaders to accelerate their growth.
Celebrations of Véyaon
The third Véyaon Awards was also a highlight on the 2024 calendar. The awards enable entrepreneurs and innovators from across Guernsey’s business ecosystem to stop, reflect and celebrate the achievements that have been made. This year the event took place for the second time at Beau Sejour and saw 300 people attend to celebrate the winners of the 9 industry-sponsored awards. With over 80 applications for this year's awards and 22 businesses and individuals shortlisted from a range of different sectors, it highlighted the strength of Guernsey’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Looking Ahead
2025 is already shaping up to be another busy year here at the Digital Greenhouse, working with our ever-growing number of expert partners and industry sponsors. We have a range of programmes planned to continue driving entrepreneurship and innovation in Guernsey. If you are looking to start, scale or innovate your business, we encourage you to take a look at our programmes and get involved.
