Education technology firm Synap is ploughing ahead with its growth plans after securing a six-figure investment.
The Leeds-based company’s funding round was led by Yorkshire funding and investment group Venturian, along with other backers.
The money will be used to further boost the firm’s growth plans and fund developing technology for new sectors.
Synap started life as an intelligent learning platform to help medical students revise for their exams by creating, practising and sharing educational quizzes. It was created by Dr James Gupta and Dr Omair Vaiyani while they were at Leeds Medical School.
Synap has since expanded into other verticals and is now delivering corporate training solutions across a range of industries including financial services, retail and transport.
“We’re at a growth stage at the moment and the funds invested in us will help us reach the high targets we’ve set ourselves,” Gupta said.
“It also shows that ambitious northern startups don’t need to go to London to raise investment.
“We have seen many of our peers head to London to raise funds, but by working with Venturian, we can spend more time on growing our business instead of spending time on trains meeting investors.”
Greg Allsopp, investment director at Venturian, added: “We’ve been talking to James and Omair for a while and have been impressed with how they’ve built a growing business whilst being medical students.
“Since graduating, they’ve taken Synap up another level with a move into workplace learning and we’re pleased to be able to support future growth, not just with funding, but also by bringing our experience into the team.
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning methods are developing into mainstream products and we’re delighted to be working with an award-winning startup that is at the forefront of tech that helps people learn in a more efficient way. We believe Synap is a company to watch.”
As part of the deal, Venturian team members will join the Synap board as non-executive directors. Two other non-executive directors have also been appointed – tech investor Dr David Pearce from Nephos Solutions and Leeds Digital Festival founder Stuart Clarke.