CREATIVE DIGITAL

SOFTWARE FIRM INVESTMENT

Bodmin-based hotel software firm, Caterbook, has secured £100k of equity investment from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF), as part of a larger £200k funding round.

The investment will help the business expand its sales and marketing functions to accelerate growth. Over the next three years, six new jobs will be created within the company to strengthen the sales and customer support teams. The business will also seek to appoint a chief operating officer.

Caterbook was founded in 2005 by Chris and Sally Noon, both of whom have significant experience within the hospitality industry. Having had to use multiple, often non-integrated systems within the sector, they embarked on creating a single, allencompassing solution for hotels and other accommodation providers.

The resulting cloud-based property management service (PMS) automates many of the repetitive tasks that hotels face daily and links to many EPOS systems and booking platforms.

BORNIN THE USA

An American company has opened an office in Cornwall as it looks to grow its business in Europe.

Progranalog, a leading provider of power testing solutions, has moved into the Tremough Innovation Centre.

ProGrAnalog already serves a diverse global

Idenna Creative has continued to grow during the pandemic, recruiting five new team members since the start of the year.

The Indian Queens-based full-service creative agency now has 19 employees.

Creative director, James Neale, said: “The past 18 months certainly haven’t been without their challenges in many ways, but to client base from its headquarters in Portland, Oregon, supplying its transient load testing product LoadSlammer to technology providers such as AMD and Xilinx.

Head of UK operations, Rob Misselbrook, said: “Cornwall offers us an alternative way to access the European technology market without relocating to the City. We’re paying almost a quarter of what we would for office space in places like London and Oxford, and the high quality of living in the region is helping us attract some great talent.”

IDENNA GROWTH

be in a position where we were able to take on new members to our amazing team in the middle of a pandemic is something we’re all beyond proud of and incredibly grateful for.”

Robyn Proctor, the first recent addition to the team, was taken on as a creative content copywriter at the beginning of February during lockdown, with Sarah Doney, Idenna’s new account manager, joining the team in early July.

As part of the Government Kickstart Scheme for young adults, Idenna has also taken on a junior digital marketer, a production assistant and a researcher over the past few months.

HIGH FIVEAT PR AWARDS?

A Cornish creative communications agency has been shortlisted for five awards at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ (CIPR) PRide Awards.

Barefoot Media has been shortlisted for Small PR Consultancy of the Year, Best Covid Response campaign, Best Public Sector campaign, and Best Use of Digital and Social Media.

Two of the agency’s account managers, Sophie Peters and Hattie Frisby (pictured), have also been shortlisted for Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year.

Additionally, The Nare hotel, in collaboration with PR agency Wild Card, is in the running in the Travel, Leisure or Tourism Campaign category, for the launch of its new luxury suites.

Wild Card is also shortlisted for the Best Use of Social Digital and Media for its ‘Ginsters Best Enjoyed at Home’ campaign.

The award winners will be announced at a virtual ceremony on October 6.

PUBLISHERS UNITE

and By the Dart Dartmouth magazine, the Alliance says its aim is simple - to celebrate and champion local.

A group of independent publishers from Devon and Cornwall have come together to form the South West Independent Publishing Alliance.

Comprising Launceston Life, Bude Life, the Links Magazines, English Riviera magazine Ellie Mason, director of Launceston Life, said: “As an independent community publisher we understand the true meaning of positive collaboration. We also know how hard our local businesses work for their profits, and how when reinvested into marketing it is essential that it’s with truly effective and authentic community marketing avenues, like our publications.

“That is why we are so delighted to be part of this progressive publishing alliance, to champion those doing what Launceston Life does for our town and parishes in other areas.”