Fast-growing tech start-up Wakelet has got the royal seal of approval after being asked to help nurture young entrepreneurs.
HRH the Duke of York has turned to social sharing platform Wakelet to become a part of his Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA).
iDEA aims to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs, and Wakelet has created a virtual ‘badge’ that can be earned as part of the award.
Wakelet’s badge encourages participants to get the most out of the Internet by helping them gather and organise their research in a quicker, easier, and more thorough way.
The company’s COO David Curtis told BusinessCloud: “The opportunity for us to work with the Duke of York is fantastic.
“Our badge will help encourage young people to improve their digital research skills, and take advantage of the wealth of knowledge available online. These skills are important in preparing them for both work, and entrepreneurship.
“We want to help people make sense of the information they find online, so we’re very excited to be a part of this scheme.”
iDEA badges are online learning modules that teach people different digital and entrepreneurial skills to prepare them for work.
Similar to the long established Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, each badge is worth a number of points, which contribute towards earning a Bronze, Silver or Gold iDEA award.
Wakelet’s iDEA badge goes towards earning the Bronze award and is worth 20 points of the 250 they need to qualify.
“Our iDEA badge will show people how to get past the first three pages of Google, and find the information they really want,” explained Curtis. “They can then take this information and save and organise it on Wakelet.
“We think these digital research skills are massively important, especially in the era of fake news.”
Manchester-based Wakelet was founded in 2014 by Jamil Khalil, and has attracted investment from the likes of Chillango founders Chris Byatte and Joe Wee, who published the famously addictive game Angry Birds.
The platform has vastly grown in popularity and is now being used by everyone from students, to top football clubs and celebrities.
Curtis said: “People are using Wakelet in so many different ways. They are using it for promotion, or privately to organise research.
“Lecturers and students are using it to share information everyday, and we are currently working on more new features to make the experience even better.
“Being involved in iDEA is the right thing to do and a good thing to do. If people want to improve their knowledge and make sense of the information they find online, we want to be a part of it and help them to do that.”
Note: the below video is from last summer