Sir Terry Leahy-backed tech startup investment and development company Nova has announced seven new hires after seeing a 50% spike in applications during lockdown.
Nova said that many applications came from people who had been furloughed or made redundant due to Covid-19.
The new hires, to be based at Nova’s Liverpool North Docks HQ, include Chief Information Officer Jason Rogers – formerly COO at Trufin – and Investment Director Darren Gowling, previously at Co Angel Investment Services.
Rob White, Chief People Officer at Nova, said: “Thankfully we’re in a position where we’ve been able to retain all of our staff, and due to the uplift in high quality founder applicants coming through we can now make new hires.
“Our founder onboarding team have witnessed a huge amount of new interest in starting a tech startup from people who have recently been furloughed, faced redundancy or job losses.
“It’s been real mixed emotions speaking to these founders, it’s heartbreaking hearing the effects of Covid on the roles and businesses they were working, and yet I am also really proud to be able to offer a route for those people to realise their ambition of now starting their own tech business.”
Since the beginning of the year, Nos have welcomed 12 new ventures into its portfolio, including table service ordering app Qbunk and Picturepath, an app that’s helped autistic families to adjust to home schooling.
Founded in 2014 and backed by investors including former Tesco chief executive Leahy, Nova has already helped raise £10m to support start-ups.
