Pioneering tech firm grows click-by-click

One of the UK's fastest growing ConTech and PropTech businesses is looking to continue growing post-pandemic, after creating 10 new jobs at its North East head office.

Software as a Service provider clixifix® played a key role in helping the UK housing industry deliver better, fairer housing during the pandemic thanks to its pioneering defect and repair resolution software.

The web-based platform provides developers and their customers with an easy to use, cloud-based platform, which tracks the progress of repairs and speeds up the reporting process, leading to significantly lower costs and higher customer satisfaction.

Based out of the Evolve Business Centre in Houghton-le-Spring - which is owned and operated by Sunderland City Council - the company has since gone on to work with some of the UK's leading developers and construction companies and saw business boom during the pandemic.

James Farrell, CEO and co-founder of clixifix®, said: "As we begin to adjust to life with Covid and the construction industry continues to bounce back, clixifix® is enjoying a huge increase in demand from our existing clients. We are also building relationships with lots of new service users and I'm delighted that in turn this has enabled us to rapidly expand and create so many new jobs at our North East offices."

Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Association (MTVHA) - which oversees a housing portfolio of around 50,000 properties and builds around 1,000 homes every year - was just one of the companies to sign up to the platform during the pandemic.

This saw clixifix® integrate its unique web-based defect and repair platform across all of MTVHA's systems, enabling the housing association and its principal contractors to collaborate effectively on snagging, reported defects, customer queries and aftercare.

Nadine Dack, Head of Sales at clixifix®, said: "This was an incredibly exciting project for us and one that has thrown up many unique challenges, such as ensuring that our system integrates successfully with those operated by Metropolitan Thames Valley and the principal contractors it works with".

"MTVHA has really embraced the clixifix® platform and has resourced a dedicated team to oversee its successful integration and ensure it is used correctly to maximise its effectiveness."

"Working with a housing association of this size on a project of this scale represents a real milestone for clixifix® and shows just how much the company has grown since its launch almost a decade ago."

This success has not only led to clixifix® expanding its footprint across the UK, but also to the creation of a number of highly skilled jobs and has helped cement the company's place as one of the UK's fastest growing construction technology businesses.

Over the next few months, this will see the firm advertise roles for five new sales development representatives, as well as welcoming its new CTO, Mark Stephenson; CFO, Richard Barrett; Ruby on Rails developers John Yeates and Alex Malik and Customer Success Manager Abby Moorhead.

clixifix® has been supported since its relocation to Evolve Business Centre in 2018 by the business investment team at Sunderland City Council. It has since tripled its headcount from 7 to 24 employees, and is now expanding its floorspace from 700 to 1700 square feet ahead of the next recruitment drive.

Cllr Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: "The Evolve Business Centre has acted as an incubator to scores of successful tech businesses over the past decade and clixifix® is the latest in a string of success stories to emerge from the hub.

"To see the company continuing to invest in the city and creating highly skilled jobs is fantastic to see and we're delighted to have worked with them to make this happen."

For more information on clixifix®, visit: https://www.clixifix.com/