North West business briefs: Xploro
Manchester-based Xploro, a platform that uses augmented reality, gameplay and artificial intelligence to deliver health information to young patients, has secured a £100,000 loan from the Greater Manchester Export Fund, backed by the Recovery Loan Scheme and delivered by specialist lender GC Business Finance.
Founded as a solution to the lack of quality information available to prepare children for hospitalisation, Xploro uses age-appropriate language and interaction paradigms to reduce stress and anxiety around treatments and improve clinical outcomes. It has already used the funding to recruit four employees to support its expansion into international markets.
With significant experience in gaming and advertising, Rawad Abi Akar has joined Xploro as lead 3D artist to build new environments for the platform, including content for African audiences and content that can explain intravenous injections. Madrid-based Kelvin Tavarez has been appointed as senior growth manager, where he will drive new business acquisition in the Spanish and US markets. Bryony Price joins as customer success manager, where she will focus on helping its customers to achieve maximum value from the platform. In July 2021, Xploro appointed Joe Kemp as head of software engineering to oversee the transfer of the platform’s outsourced operations with Corporation Pop, a Manchester-based digital agency, to in-house at Xploro.
In October 2021, Xploro announced that it was working with World Child Cancer to offer free of charge access to its award-winning app to children in Ghana. Dom Raban, CEO and co-founder at Xploro, said: “We’re so excited to welcome Rawad, Kelvin, Bryony and Joe to Xploro. They have already played a key role in supporting our international growth strategy, and we look forward to them taking us to the next level as we expand into new markets. The support that we’ve received from GC Business Finance and the Greater Manchester Export fund has been second to none, and we’re incredibly grateful to Andy and the team for helping us to scale up globally.”
Andy Nichols, senior loan manager at GC Business Finance, said: “Supporting Xploro on its international growth journey has been a pleasure. The technology is already having a positive impact on young patients in the UK, US, Africa and beyond, and has the potential to expand into more markets. We’re looking forward to supporting Xploro and creating more success stories with businesses in Greater Manchester that have rich export potential but can’t necessarily access export finance from traditional lenders in the near future.”
Original article: North West business briefs: Ash Integrated Services; Xploro; pro-manchester; Ten Locks; Uncle Joe's Mint Balls | TheBusinessDesk.com