Issue #283: Teesside AI acquisition is big boon for Boro

Today we celebrate an exit, a raise, fast-growth, new hubs and so much more.

Mar 07, 2025

Well, well, well… you’ve returned, have you? I feared the worst when I saw the latest come out of Greggs on Wednesday. With the bakery boys topping £2bn in sales for the first time ever, I had serious concerns that The Newcastle Retail Digest would be the only show in town this week. But if there’s one thing I say about you Tech Digest readers it’s that you’re so loyal and so beautiful and ever so incredibly intelligent. Ok, maybe I say multiple things about you. ~~Please,~~ ~~never~~ ~~leave me.~~

Flytta acquisition

Right, enough nonsense, we’ve much to champion from across the ecosystem today. I want to begin today with warm congratulations to Teesside tech entrepreneur Owain Brennan. This week Owain revealed that his customs AI-powered automation solution, Flytta, has been acquired by London tech company Sedna.

The acquisition will reportedly play a 'central role' in Sedna's growing AI strategy, embedding artificial intelligence into the core of global trade workflows. Moreover, the deal expands Sedna's UK presence with a new office in the Tees Valley, with the company investing in the region's growing AI talent base to accelerate product development.

Many of our readers from the North East startup community with know Owain from his stewardship of AI-powered data analysis platform, SeerBI. In a LinkedIn post (see Post of the Week below) Owain revealed he will remain on the Seer board but will step out of day to day ops to as he links up with the Sedna team moving forward. This is an outstanding achievement, certainly from a founder so early in his career.

Congratulations and a huge well done.

FT1000 Inclusion

I noticed one North East tech company on the FT1000 list, an annual study which has looks at Europe’s fastest-growing firms. Newcastle firm Opencast, which provides digital transformation for Government departments and other organisations, ranked a mighty 365th in the table.

Rankings are based on compound annual growth rate between 2020 and 2023; Opencast enjoyed 76.2% growth over that period, as well as more than tripling its headcount. This is a brilliant achievement, well done team Opencast!

Royal Academy Hub

And for those of you here demanding to know what I’ve been up to this week (we all know of my high-octane lifestyle) I spent Wednesday at Newcastle’s Common Room, as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Newcastle Enterprise Hub launch. I urge you to read more about the hub in our headlines below.

FWIW I thought the event was fantastic, so much so I even scribbled some thoughts about it on that er LinkedIn thing you all know and love. I flag this one as I really enjoy the Academy’s approach, it’s collaborative and it’s progressive. Great to catchup with NE tech founders and readers, as ever, too.

Paul Smith Office Hours

It never fails to surprise me the amount of founders in the region who have harrowing experiences from bad actors in the community. You’ll have read my takes on this before; I’ve had many a startup share horror stories, particularly when finance is involved.

For those of you who are reading this and are actively growing a tech startup, Paul Smith is offering his free, online weekly office hours in person next week. Paul can advise on fundraising pitfalls from angel to pre-seed to Series A, give him a shout if you’re keen to know what to watch out for. Read more here.

That’s all, folks. Have a lovely weekend. Thanks, Jamie