Software startup Xpand secures €1m investment in Ulster Bank Accelerator

Local software startup and Ulster Bank accelerator member Xpand has secured a €1m investment to develop its Xpand Insights programme.

Managing the economic development of an entire region is a tall order, with key decisions in economic development plans relying on statistics and assessments that can take time to complete. Entire oversight departments often need to be set up just to keep track of money invested into the economy in key interventions and then assess the relevant outcomes.

The Xpand Insights platform is designed to support this process with real-time data and assessment to help organisations access up to date information when making those key decisions. It features a dashboard to present realtime data and an analytics platform to keep track of the impact of public policy interventions in a faster and simplified manner.

Xpand has developed its offering thus far thanks to the expert mentorship and help with funding application processes afforded by the Ulster Bank Entrepreneur Accelerator Programme. This has ultimately helped the startup secure this €1m investment from the European Institute of Technology and Innovation (EIT).

Co-founder James Gumble explained the importance of the platform: "There are so many complex factors at play when you are trying to measure something like public spending. We knew the problem was crying out for a digital solution but we couldn’t find nay software on the market that could track the impact of public investment quickly and effectively."