Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Director operating in the Augmented Reality space. If you think a Director is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Steven Hartland
Senior Director, Sports & Live Entertainment of Unity Technologies
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About Unity Technologies: Unity provides multiplatform tools and services to developers of interactive content.
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Dima Roznouski
Sr. Director, Managed Accounts – Operate of Unity Technologies
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About Unity Technologies: Unity provides multiplatform tools and services to developers of interactive content.
Ben Dawson
VR Director of MelodyVR
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About MelodyVR: MelodyVR is a destination for music in virtual reality.
Zarir Vakil
Non Executive Director of WRLD
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About : A 3D cloud-based platform of real-world environments to create digital twins.
Zarir Vakil
Non Executive Director of WRLD
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About : A 3D cloud-based platform of real-world environments to create digital twins.
Anna Lowe
Director of Partnerships & Co-Founder of SMARTIFY
Anna is CoFounder and Director of Partnerships at Smartify a global platform for art described by the New Scientist as “the Shazam and Spotify of art”. A firm believer that culture needs stewardship not disruption, Anna works closely with museums to embrace new technologies that support their growth and resilience. Anna is a Trustee of Tate, the youngest ever trustee of a national museum. Anna also sits on the UK5G Creative Industries working group and is an Industry Champion for the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC).
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About SMARTIFY, Tate: SMARTIFY provides instant access to inspiring art commentary, straight to your smartphone.
Daniela Paredes
Co-Founder and Director of Gravity Sketch
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About Gravity Sketch: Gravity Sketch is a VR-based design and collaboration platform that allows distributed teams to create, share, and build in 3D.
Steven Dorning
Director of Software of Cubic Motion
Director of Software at Cubic Motion.
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About Cubic Motion: Cubic Motion is the world leader in real-time model-based computer vision and digital animation technology.
Doug Tate
Director of Hardware of Cubic Motion
Doug Tate is a highly experienced software developer with extensive knowledge of animation and a long track record supervising production on extremely high-volume projects. Particular expertise in capture and recording solutions for optimal data acquisition.
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About Cubic Motion: Cubic Motion is the world leader in real-time model-based computer vision and digital animation technology.
Mike Jones
Director of Production of Cubic Motion
Mike Jones is the director of production at Cubic Motion. He used to be the program manager of Image Metrics. He earned his master’s degree at Manchester Metropolitan University.
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About Cubic Motion: Cubic Motion is the world leader in real-time model-based computer vision and digital animation technology.
Greg Furber
VR Director of REWIND
Before joining REWIND Greg worked in stop frame animation on Fantastic Mr Fox, Frankenweenie and Corpse Bride and as a senior director at ASB creating international broadcast commercials and animatics for brands including Burger King, Fairy, Coca Cola and Kellogg’s. Greg heads up the 360 degree production division at REWIND:VR working on pioneering projects for the likes of the BBC, NBC, Formula E and Sony. REWIND is an industry award winning tribe of vibrant creative technologists and digital artists focused on harnessing immersive technologies to deliver groundbreaking VR, AR, Animation, DOOH, VFX and 360 degree video projects for some of the world’s largest companies and brands. REWIND:VR is an approved content developer for Oculus (Rift), HTC (Vive), Sony (PSVR), Samsung (Gear VR) and FOVE. The team was invited by Meta to join its early access programme alongside being an approved filming partner with Nokia Ozo and Google Jump.
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About REWIND: REWIND is an award winning content production agency, working with bleeding edge technology to create unforgettable brand experiences.
Simon Taylor
Co-Founder & Research Director of Zappar
Simon Taylor is a co-founder of Zappar, and the company’s Research Director. Simon graduated with a Masters in Engineering from the University of Cambridge in 2007. He went on to complete a PhD, also at the Engineering Department in Cambridge, entitled “Fast Object Localisation for Mobile Augmented Reality Applications”. Simon’s research focused on the development of fast algorithms for locating known objects in live camera frames from smartphone devices. This research resulted in a novel approach to the problem offering far superior performance to existing published work of the time. The approach was first published at the Workshop on Feature Detectors and Descriptors held as part of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2009. A demo of the approach on a smartphone was also shown at the conference, receiving a “Best Demo” award. Further updates to the approach were published at the British Machine Vision Conference, 2009. The conference organizers selected this paper as one of six to be extended for inclusion in a special edition of the International Journal of Computer Vision, published in 2011. Simon worked with Connell Gauld to integrate his algorithm into a full mobile app for AR content delivery. Together they founded Extra Reality Ltd in 2010 to pursue commercialization of their solution. After meeting Kirk Ewing and Caspar Thykier, they decided to form a new venture, Zappar, to offer a full AR content creation solution for big-brand clients. Simon has led the development of Zappar’s proprietary and patented Zapcode system.
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About Zappar: Zappar is a clever little app that can see and recognise images and objects in the world around us.
Christian Mastrodonato
Director Of Engineering of Digital Catapult
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About Digital Catapult: Digital Catapult drives early adoption of advanced digital technologies to grow the country’s economy.
Jax Ostle Evans
Managing Director of Stink Studios
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About Stink Studios, Stink Studios: A global creative studio for a digital-first world.
James Britton
Global Managing Director of Stink Studios
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About Creative Review, Kingston University, Stink Studios: A global creative studio for a digital-first world.
Mark Sage
Executive Director of Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance
Mark Sage is the founder and managing director of Sagey11 Ltd. His company providers strategic and operational consulting on marketing and business development, focusing on building lasting partnerships especially for technology start-up and scale-up companies. With a background in telecoms (15 years with Orange) he has also worked with and led various Alliances and Associations. Mark is currently the Executive Director of the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA). The AREA is the only global non-profit, member-based organization dedicated to widespread adoption of interoperable AR-enabled enterprise systems AREA. With a focus on creating value and ROI for its members his goal is to develop a robust and active ecosystem for AR within the enterprise. His background includes a strong interest in mobile, AR, VR, and IoT and he is excited to work with AR customers, providers and research organizations.
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About Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance: AREA Webinar: Forecasting Enterprise AR Growth
Ben Dykes
Director of Make Real Ltd
As one of the founding partners, Ben has spent over 10 years overseeing the big picture and plans for our client partners. With a strong commercial head and a technical background, Ben brings the strategic thinking required throughout the life of a successful project. Following an Industrial Design BA from the University of Teesside, Ben started his career in the world of Military Flight Simulation as an engineer at Evans and Sutherland, one of the most pioneering computer graphics companies founded in the 1960’s. Working on a wide range of industry-leading image generator and display system technology, this experience would prove invaluable as Make Real grew as a specialist VR & Immersive business.
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About Make Real Ltd: Make Real make state-of-the-art immersive learning experiences for use at work, at home and on the move.
Robin Scott
Director of Make Real Ltd
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About Make Real Ltd: Make Real make state-of-the-art immersive learning experiences for use at work, at home and on the move.
Tom Painter
Director of Bigman – London studio
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About Bigman – London studio: Bigman is a CGI expert studio bringing ideas to reality with still images, engaging animation or the latest cutting edge VR technology.
Nick Bingham
Director of Business Development of Gamar
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About Gamar: Easily scan and map your surroundings to create natural interactions with 3D augmented reality and increase engagement & footfall.
Lavanya Naga
Director of Experience Design of Gamar
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About Gamar: Easily scan and map your surroundings to create natural interactions with 3D augmented reality and increase engagement & footfall.
Andy Etches
Co-Founder and Director of Rezzil
Andy Etches is the Co-Founder and Director of Rezzil.
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About Rezzil: Rezzil improves resilience ,performance and reaction times across a wide range of sports, from beginner to Elite level.
Adam Dickinson
Co-Founder and Development Director of Rezzil
Adam Dickinson is the Co-Founder and Development Director of Rezzil.
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About Rezzil: Rezzil improves resilience, performance and reaction times across a wide range of sports, from beginner to Elite level.
Gareth Thatcher
Technical Director of Rezzil
Gareth Thatcher is the Technical Director of Rezzil.
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About Rezzil: Rezzil improves resilience, performance and reaction times across a wide range of sports, from beginner to Elite level.
Alan Yeats
Technical Director and Co-Founder of Pocket Sized Hands
Experienced VR/AR and games developer. Co-Founding Pocked Sized Hands in 2017 where I work as the Chief Technical Officer leading our development team alongside working on business development and client outreach. With Pocket Sized Hands we have gone on to win the student award at Herald Digital Business Awards 2017 and reaching the world finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 while also nominated for a game design award at the DC Thompson Game Design awards 2017.
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About Pocket Sized Hands: We specialise in creating bespoke applications and games using the latest XR technologies.
Martin Pearce
Managing Director of Omega Business Travel
Our founder and inspiration, Martin’s thirst for quality is the driving factor across the whole of OMEGA˚.
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About Omega Business Travel: OMEGA BT is an independent business travel management specialist committed to offering the very highest standards of service and expertise.
