From sustainable banking to anti-superficial dating – these trailblazing apps are changing how we live and work.
Apps are taking over your bank account, dating life and fitness routine. But how are the city’s businesses contributing to this ever-growing industry? These five tech companies have created innovative apps that are disrupting the market and changing the way we do things. Find out who they are and what they’ve done as we do a deep dive into these game-changing products.
Tred
Fintech just got a whole lot greener thanks to Tred. This eco-friendly debit card helps you save the planet. Buy a coffee or a flight with their recycled card and the app will tell you the environmental impact of your spending. You’ll get a better idea of the carbon footprint of your shopping habits, so you can make smarter, more environmentally-friendly decisions.
Tred founders, Peter Kirby and Will Smith, wanted to help people make better decisions with their money for the good of the planet. And so, Tred was born and it took off. Their waitlist exploded in numbers with 30,000 people signing up to join the movement. And it doesn’t stop there – the company raised over £600,000 in crowdfunding in just ten minutes!
Caterpillar Health
Caterpillar Health is an app designed to reward healthy lifestyle choices with loyalty points. It connects to health-tracking apps like Google Fit and Apple Health, so you can set achievable goals like increasing your daily steps or making beneficial dietary changes. Every time you achieve your goals, you earn points that can be redeemed for cinema tickets and gym passes.
Based in the University of Leeds, the team behind Caterpillar are taking a different approach to tackle preventable illnesses. The onset of obesity, Type-2 diabetes and heart failure can be significantly reduced with behavioural changes. The team won the backing of renowned behavioural scientists and received £450,000 in funding towards developing the app.
Jigsaw
Jigsaw is the anti-superficial dating app. Rather than swiping right, it puts character and conversation ahead of looks. Their unique concept anonymises users, covering their faces with a 16-piece digital jigsaw puzzle. All you have to go off are prompts, or icebreaker questions, that you answer as part of your profile. The more you talk, the more the jigsaw puzzle reveals.
When best friends Alex Durrant and Max Adamski realised that 70% of dating app users find the experience shallow and 67% are sick of being judged only on looks, they saw an opportunity to buck the trend. Now over 100,000 people have joined Jigsaw, fuelling the deeper dating movement. The company also scored £2.7 million in seed funding for their expansion.
Tappit
Tappit has set the new standard for going cashless. Their platform integrates with mobile apps, so when you’re at an event, you can make seamless payments, monitor your spending and access your tickets, all with a touch of a button. Their digital cashless payment solution has elevated the customer experience at sporting events, festivals, theme parks, hotels and resorts.
This Leeds company has gone from strength to strength, helping high-profile events around the world. They’ve worked with the likes of the Dubai Sevens, Bestival and Formula 1 to increase sales and offer valuable customer insights. This data reveals who spent what, when and where, uncovering what works and what doesn’t, giving event planners a new stream of insight.
BigChange
© Copyright Leeds-List 2022 by Jeremy Kelly
BigChange is a job management platform designed for field service businesses like construction, plumbing and electrical. The app gives companies complete control of their projects from scheduling a job right through to sending a digital invoice. Most importantly, it means you can save time by keeping admin and paperwork to an absolute minimum.
BigChange started when a man with a van had a big idea – Martin Port wanted to replace paper with digital. Now they’re trusted by 50,000 field-service workers across the globe. They’ve been named among the UK’s fastest growing technology businesses, winning big clients and signing contracts worth more than £6.5 million between July and September 2022.
