By Miles wins £15,000 top prize at Slaughter and May Demo Day
Pay-by-the-mile car insurance company, By Miles, has won £15,000 worth of Slaughter and May legal and value add services after winning the Fast Forward Demo Day on Thursday 24 May.
Demo Day was a competitive presentation event for five participants in Slaughter and May’s Fast Forward technology entrepreneurs’ programme. Each participant gave presentations in front of a panel of industry experts and a large audience of Slaughter and May clients, network friends and staff.
There were two rounds of presentations: Round one saw each participant talk about their company while sticking to a strict four-minute time limit, with three additional minutes to respond to questions from the panel and the audience. Following all the presentations, the audience voted for the company which had made the most effective presentation based on four qualities: entertaining, inspiring, ambitious and convincing.
The second round involved the companies selecting a question on which they then had 10 minutes to prepare a two-minute presentation. The questions included “If you were Prime Minister for the day, what three initiatives would you launch for the fintech community”; and “Rank the following in order of importance: Profit; societal benefit; playing fair; having fun.”
Following both rounds of presentations, the judging panel huddled to decide which company should win, going for By Miles, who in the words of the panel had “enraptured us with the simplicity and huge value add of the company.”
In addition to By Miles; the other companies participating were Digital Fineprint, which helps insurance companies use social media data to find customer and risk insight; Multiply, a company that provides AI-driven personalised financial plans; TrueLayer, which has built API tools to enable other fintechs to capitalise on the open banking initiative; and Valsys, which uses AI to improve the accuracy of private company valuations.
The judging panel comprised: Mish Mashkautsan, partner at seed-stage venture capital firm, LocalGlobe; Phil Pearson, partner at technology investor, Invoke Capital; Dan Cobley, Managing Partner, Fintech, at venture builder, Blenheim Chalcot; Sally Wokes, corporate partner at Slaughter and May; and Alex Woods, Head of Knowledge Management at Slaughter and May.
James Blackham, Founder and CEO of By Miles said: “We’re incredibly pleased to win the Demo Day but also acknowledge that all the other presentations were brilliant.” Oliver Baxter, Head of Brand and Communications at By Miles said: “We liked the format of the event and the short timeframes within which we had to get our messages across and the speed in which we had to prepare, especially for the second round presentations.”
Rob Sumroy, partner at Slaughter and May and co-head of emerging tech and fintech said: “I’d like to congratulate By Miles for their success at Demo Day and their excellent presentations in what was an extremely competitive field. It was especially pleasing to be able to open our doors to potential investors and collaborators and for the companies in our programme to demonstrate what makes them such innovative and exciting businesses.”
Ben Kingsley, partner at Slaughter and May and co-head of emerging tech and fintech said: “It was great to have such a diverse range of businesses presenting – all the presentations were superb. It was also great to see so many people turn out for the day; it’s a testament to the breadth and depth of interest in and support for our programme and for the UK start-up community.”