Insider Media
Artificial intelligence (AI) specialist Nightingale HQ has been awarded £50,000 from the UK Government’s research and innovation organisation after successfully pitching to its Innovate UK grant fund.
The Cardiff-based developer is one of 800 UK companies to be awarded funding to develop projects that will support businesses across the country, making them better placed to deal with future disruption similar to that of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nightingale’s AI Productivity Toolbox project will support SMEs across the UK that need to lower costs by creating six, free-to-use, AI-based tools.
Steph Locke, data scientist and chief executive of Nightingale HQ, said: “Our mission has always been to help organisations and businesses get AI-ready.”
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FAQs
What did the Innovate UK grant mean?
The £50,000 Innovate UK grant that Insider Media reported on was transformational for Nightingale HQ at that stage of its development. It funded six months of development work — including five additional hires — that produced the GoSmarter toolbox and established the company’s position as a provider of practical AI tools for SMEs.
Insider Media’s coverage reached the Midlands and North of England business community — a region with a significant manufacturing base and a growing technology sector. For a Cardiff-based company, coverage in Insider Media helps build a national profile that goes beyond Wales and Ireland.
What is the competitive context?
The grant was awarded as part of Innovate UK’s COVID-19 Fast Start Fund. Being one of 800 companies selected from a much larger pool of applicants reflects the quality of Nightingale HQ’s proposal. The companies selected were chosen because their projects would deliver real, measurable support to UK businesses — not just good intentions and a slide deck.
The £50,000 grant was matched by Nightingale HQ’s own investment in the project, following the Innovate UK model of shared risk between public funding and private commitment.
What is Insider Media?
Insider Media is a B2B media group covering business news across the Midlands, North West, Yorkshire, and South West of England. Its publications reach senior business decision-makers in manufacturing, property, finance, and professional services — an audience that is central to the UK’s industrial economy.
Coverage in Insider Media positions a technology company as part of the broader business landscape, not just the technology sector. For GoSmarter, that positioning matters — the people who need GoSmarter are manufacturers and production managers, not software buyers.