Speaking of the latest investment the founder said: "I have had to fight for it for three years so it is nice to now be in this position and it is a very fair deal, but we have lots of work ahead of us.“The plan is to now make more people aware of this in Manchester, across the UK and around the world."Īnd the headquarters are firmly set in the region as Khalil continues to prove the UK can compete with America when it comes to digital innovation. With a product built, renewed interest came from investors and three years on Wakelet has attracted thousands of users and employs 11 staff at its Manchester city centre base.Īnd it is starting to create a stir, having raised £1m from mainly UK based angel investors but also receiving backing in America.
Later that year he appealed to like-minded local software developers via LinkedIn to help develop Wakelet for a return in the company. I started building this site with a few friends but it was difficult to attract investment." He said: "I have always had this desire to lead a business. The foundations of Wakelet began in 2011 while Khalil was working for Airbus, a global leader in aerospace and defence. "We empower people to organise their own personalised web in a more meaningful and visual way." "We need a better way, a way that’s focused around humans, so we created Wakelet to put control back into the hands of people who ultimately use the web. "As smart as computers and search engines might be in indexing the web, they can only ever do part of what’s needed to organise information.
Khalil, who studied Aerospace Business Systems at University of Salford, explains: “Wakelet starts where web search ends.
The site allows users to create Wakes around a range of themes or topics including research, hobbies and events from revision guides to Xfactor contestant profiles. The latest investment will help take Wakelet to the mass market with a campaign around the theme ‘the humans are coming’, a nod to the company’s vision of empowering people to organise on-line information to make it more personal to users.īut far from trying to compete with the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter - Wakelet claims to compliment what is already out there by allowing users to collate information.
The free visual content platform helps people, businesses and academic institutions organise their online information so it is easier to find and share content. Wakelet, based in Spinningfields, has won the approval of several high-profile backers, including the original publishers of Angry Birds.įounded by Jamil Khalil, a former Airbus employee, Wakelet organises links to articles, videos and images into collections called Wakes. Dubbed ‘the biggest phenomenon to hit the Internet in the coming year,’ a new online platform created by a Manchester entrepreneur has netted £1m of investment.