ICT industry heavyweight Jonathan Kendall joins Augnet

29th August 2019, LONDON: London-based technology startup Augnet, which is set to revolutionise the SMS and messaging space, has appointed well-known information and communications technology (ICT) industry figure Jonathan Kendall as Commercial Director.  Jonathan brings extensive experience and a far-reaching network to further strengthen the company, and will focus on building strategic partnerships, drawing engagement and creating new avenues.   

As an experienced senior leader, who specialises in building enterprise-ready, go-to-market sales and marketing infrastructures, Kendall has led sales teams across the sector, from high-profile companies to industry-challenging startups, through periods of significant growth. Kendall has headed up teams at Juniper Networks, Vodafone, Telstra, Motorola and Cap Gemini. Over the past five years, he was retained by venture capital firms to work within disruptors in their portfolios including Comverse, Skipjaq and Zalaris to deliver fast growth and help initiate and accelerate product-market fit to scale-up challenges and support exit and disposal scenarios.

Augnet Founder and CEO, Daniel Gill, said:

“We are excited to welcome Jonathan Kendall to the Augnet team.   Jonathan’s calibre of experience, network and respect within the industry will be of huge value to us as we continue to transform the SMS and messaging space. He will play a large part in taking Augnet to the next level.”

Kendall said:

“I am delighted to be joining Augnet.  From the first meeting with CEO Daniel Gill and COO Jekaterina Orlova, I was extremely impressed by the Augnet offering, its high growth plans and the clear strategy presented.  I believe that Augnet will increase quality and credibility in the SMS and messaging industry, providing the long overdue ability to deliver compliance and governance to a growing marketplace. Augnet is a no brainer. The technology speaks for itself.  I look forward to working with the team and widening the net in terms of awareness and industry buy-in.”

In the last two months, Augnet has secured a £1.3m investment from industry experts and investors led by the highly-respected VC Triple Point in addition to receiving sought-after funding from the European Innovation Council. Augnet is on track to show substantial growth over the next two years.

London-based start-up Augnet selected for European Innovation Council funding

21st June 2019, LONDON: Augnet, a London-based technology start-up set to revolutionise the SMS and messaging space, has announced it has been selected to receive much sought after funding from the European Innovation Council.

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The “SME Instrument” is part of a European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot that supports top class innovators, entrepreneurs and small companies with funding opportunities and acceleration services. The scheme is aimed at market-creating innovations. Acceptance under the scheme was highly competitive – with 277 companies spread over 25 countries being selected out of 2,822 proposals in the latest round of the SME Instrument.

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Daniel Gill, founder of Augnet, said:

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“We are delighted to have received not only funding from the EIC, but also the recognition that comes with it.“

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“Augnet was formed in 2018 and since then has received a lead investment from highly respected VC Triple Point and has been selected for the prestigious EIC grant, which is given to those the Council believe have what it takes to scale up and create new markets.“

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“We are excited to take Augnet to the next level and are on track to show substantial growth by the end of 2019.”

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The instrument grants a total amount of €13.7 million, spread across 274 projects. Funding covers drafting of business plans and feasibility studies.

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The SME Instrument is part of a European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot, under the Horizon 2020 umbrella, the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme devoted to funding breakthrough discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas to the market.

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Most companies selected for funding are in the field of information and communication technology (ICT), health and engineering. Most companies are based in Spain (46), Switzerland (23) and France (22).

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The European Commission received 2,822 proposals for grant, from which 277 companies were accepted.

Augnet receives £1.3m investment led by Triple Point Venture Fund

• Funds will be used to further develop the platform, support testing and invest in sales and marketing channels

• Platform will enable the delivery of SMS messages from consumer-focused organisations to reduce fraud, cut costs and improve marketing features

20th May 2019, LONDON: Augnet Limited (“Augnet”), the London-based technology start-up set to revolutionise the SMS and messaging space, today announced that Triple Point Venture Fund has led a £1.3M investment into the company. Triple Point invests in Augnet alongside a number of industry experts and investors. The funds will be used by Augnet to further develop the platform, support the testing stage and invest in its sales and marketing channels.

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Augnet has developed a unique technology that enables SMS messages to be tracked and ensures a 100% delivery rate through a patent-protected, encrypted solution. This means that for the first time, it will be possible to audit and trace SMS delivery historically and in real-time, enabling the growing number of ‘killed’ messages – those that are not actually sent to users in order to increase operator profit margins – to be tracked.

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Augnet’s technology facilitates the delivery of SMS messages from consumer-focused organisations to reduce fraud, increase accountability and improve SMS marketing features. The company caters to an established network of organisations, from financial institutions to booking sites and airlines.

The global A2P SMS market is forecast to be worth US$70.32 Billion by 2020 (figures from Transparency Market Research). For companies dealing with time-sensitive or confidential information, the ability to trace and confirm whether or not a message has been delivered has substantial financial and cost-saving benefits.

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The Augnet management team is led by founder and CEO, Daniel Gill, a former Skype executive with 20 years’ telecoms experience who also brings experience as an angel investor and board adviser to a number of start-up businesses. COO Jekaterina Orlova brings commercial and management consultant experience from Skype and Deloitte and the fintech sector, where she specialised in cloud services, and digital workplace transformation projects.