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Two North East startups win place on Sage's international exchange programme

Global tech giant Sage has revealed the two North East winners of its inaugural Start-Up Exchange Programme.

The Newcastle-headquartered business has spent the last six weeks searching for two of the region’s upcoming companies to take part, after announcing in July that the selected firms would take part in a residential visit to Atlanta.

The two North-East start-ups chosen for a residency programme to identify potential investors and clients in Atlanta, are Newcastle-based Drone Ops and Gateshead’s Recite Me.

Drone Ops is a business that specialises in the research and development of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) and robotic technologies, whilst Recite Me is a cloud based web accessibility solution aimed at making websites as inclusive as possible.

According to the judging panel, both businesses showed great international scalability and were a good fit for the US marketplace, with solid potential for growth.

Drone Ops, based in Science Central, offers state-of-the-art SUAS applications and robotics commercially to businesses to help collaborate and design cost effective solutions that help to reduce business risk and liability.

Recite me, based in the Baltic Business Centre in Gateshead, provides web software solutions, which includes text to speech functionality, dyslexia software, an interactive dictionary and a translation tool with over 100 languages.

Sage partnered with the UK Department for International Trade, Newcastle City Council, Invest Atlanta and the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, to bring the Atlanta International Start-up Exchange to the UK.

The Minister of State in the Department for International Trade, Greg Hands, said: “Drone Ops and Recite Me are showcasing the sort of creativity and innovation, which makes the North East a global tech hub.

“It’s great to see them given this opportunity to reach new international customers with Department for International Trade support along with Sage, Invest Atlanta and the City of Newcastle.”

Alan Laing, Managing Director, UK and Ireland, Sage, added further explanation to the origins of the initiative.

He commented: “Sage started as a small business in the North East of England back in 1981 so we understand the mentality and raw ambition business owners here have particularly at this early phase of their growth.

“We know by nurturing innovation early in a business’ life cycle you can improve their growth prospects. This programme is important to Sage, as the champion of small and medium businesses.

“We want to help give back and provide businesses with invaluable support and guidance for taking their next steps, whether that’s growing, expanding into new markets, or looking at how tech can help them be at the forefront of innovation.

“Ultimately, that helps the UK economy - as these businesses have a vital role to play in boosting productivity and fuelling the economic growth within their region.”