Founded in 2017 by Craig Beddis (CEO), Aidon Hobson-Sayer (CTO) & Miriam Keshani (COO), UK-based Hadean, a metaverse infrastructure startup, has been awarded (with support from Connected Places Catapult) a sizeable grant from UK Research & Innovation. The funding foresees Hedean’s tech being used to generate 3D digital twins, providing road mgmt companies real-time highway data & the capacity to model/ simulate it. Emulating whole corridors of automotive traffic, the platform can be used to plan the right infrastructure upgrades. For e.g. Hadean could benefit engineers working on “e-highways”, one of the most radical upgrades of UK highways in decades, to explore installing overhead eletric power cables on certain routes (which similarly to trolleybus or...

UK-based Slingshot Simulations, was founded in 2019 by Dr. David McKee (CTO) as a spin-out from the University of Leeds. The company focuses on using spatial big data, to underpin large digital twin models, for some of society’s biggest challenges like climate change, public health & sustainability. Its main product, “Compass Engine”, is a no-code SaaS platform where enterprises can upload their data, automatically find links within it & create virtual representations thereof. Side note: Slingshot Simulations also participates in global knowledge sharing in the digital twin space, through the industry’s Digital Twin Consortium (of which the founder is a co-chair) & the UK’s Center for Digital Built Britain. It’s worth mentioning that the global...