The Foundry has been recognised twice in the last week as one to watch in the tech space. The Foundry, whose products have been used to make globally acclaimed movies such as Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and District 9 and are backed by Advent Venture Partners, came 34th in the 2010 Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 and featured in the ‘Devices and Technology’ category of the 2010 Tech Media Invest Top 100 list, in association with The Guardian, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kemp Little.
Within the last twelve months, The Foundry’s OCULA stereoscopic tool set has won an iaward for entertainment and media and the company has made the Red Herring Top 100 Europe 2010 awards shortlist as well as receiving a Distinguished Honoree medal in The 2010 International Business Awards (“The Stevies”).
The company engineers its technology in genuine collaboration with clients, both through constant customer interaction and by licensing production-proven technologies where possible. In the last year this strategy has seen The Foundry negotiate deals with industry giants Weta Digital, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Walt Disney Animation Studios to bring internally developed software products Mari, Paint 3D and Katana to market.
Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry, said, “To be ranked twice in one week in the UK’s top 100 high-growth tech companies is a huge accolade and comes on the back of a staggering amount of work and attention to detail from all the teams at The Foundry. Our customers' increasingly ambitious visual effects drive our business, and our staff are passionate about the technology and the support we provide. The company is now on target to double last year’s turnover, which is no mean feat in the current financial climate.”
Mike Chalfen, General Partner at Advent Venture Partners, said, “We look for companies that have more than one way of creating value. The Foundry team has executed on every one of the opportunities we identified together when we invested, and has created more as well. The company culture is fantastic and the team’s work ethic and reputation is second to none. We’re thrilled with the company’s progress and see a lot of value to come.”
The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 ranks Britain’s 100 privately-owned technology (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years of available accounts.
Over the past decade the Tech Track 100 - compiled by Fast Track, the UK’s leading face-to-face networking events and research company focused on top-performing private companies and entrepreneurs - has featured well-known brands, innovative ideas and stock market stars of the future. This year’s companies have on average increased their sales by 67% a year to combined sales of £2.8bn and can count themselves among a host of household names that have featured over the past decade including social networking website Friends Reunited, online map provider Multimap.com, and online fashion retailer NET-A-PORTER.com, as well as companies that have gone on to float successfully such as online antibodies supplier Abcam, financial website operator Moneysupermarket.com, and Ocado.
The 2010 Tech Media Invest Top 100, in association with The Guardian, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kemp Little, showcases high-growth companies that are developing innovative ways to serve business and consumers, and have the potential to radically change the shape of the technology and media industry. The TMI Advisory Board (which consisted of some of the UK’s most experienced investors in modern technology and media - a mix of venture capitalists, investment analysts, professional advisers and technology lawyers) whittled down a pool of eligible, promising companies – looking at both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, innovation, management, global strategy, and ecosystem integration - to get to the top 100 winners.