From student start-up to £1.4m investment: Catalyst alumnus mytender enters its next chapter

What happens when a promising idea meets the right support, ambition and momentum? For mytender, the journey from University of Southampton student start-up to a fast-growing AI business has now reached another major milestone: £1.4m in follow-on investment.

The funding marks an exciting new chapter for the AI tender-writing company, and a powerful example of where an early-stage idea can lead.

The story began in 2023, when University of Southampton students Samuel Aaron and Jamie Horsnell founded mytender alongside Joshua Aaron and Nicolas Dickreuter. Their idea earned a place in Cohort 14 of the University of Southampton Science Park’s Catalyst accelerator programme. Since then, that idea has become a company of around 13 people, with an international customer base and a new office in Soho, London.

mytender helps bid and business development teams write stronger, more consistent tender responses in less time. Its AI-powered platform analyses tender documents to identify requirements, deadlines and scoring criteria, before helping teams draw upon previous bids, case studies, policies and internal knowledge to develop tailored responses.

The company works with businesses across facilities management, construction, waste and environmental services, and healthcare. Its customer base includes organisations such as Suez, Churchill Group, Priory Group and Samsic.

Turning early promise into momentum

Catalyst helped the founders test their thinking, sharpen their proposition and prepare for growth. The next breakthrough came when mytender secured an initial £250,000 investment from Fuel Ventures, the largest student investment at the University of Southampton at the time. That pre-seed backing accelerated product development, AI engineering and customer growth.

Now, the early promise has translated into further momentum. Fuel Ventures has led an additional £1.4m investment after mytender became one of its highest-performing pre-seed investments. Such was the interest in the business that the company also turned down additional investment offers.

The latest funding gives mytender the means to turn that momentum into scale. The company will invest across four areas: team, product, go-to-market activity and operations, as it expands its AI capabilities and builds the infrastructure needed to support more than 1,000 businesses.

Samuel Aaron, CEO of mytender, said: “We’re growing the team and the office footprint so we can support more enterprise customers winning complex tenders and give businesses a real competitive advantage in work winning.”

Creating a home for the next stage

Growth is not only visible in the numbers. At 5 Margaret Street in Soho, mytender has opened a new office where its expanding team can work side by side. The new base is designed to help the business move faster, collaborate more closely and keep customers at the centre of its technology.

Recent appointments include Senior Account Executive Ruby Kuzemko, AI Engineer Dawar Farooq and Business Development Representative Danny Watson, supporting the continued development of mytender’s sales and technology capabilities.

The company is also strengthening its go-to-market operation to reach more bid teams under pressure to produce high-quality, compliant submissions in less time. Its ambition is clear: to amplify the capabilities of those teams by making their best work repeatable, consistent and scalable.

For the University of Southampton Science Park, mytender’s journey shows what can happen when founders are given the space, challenge, expertise and connections to turn an ambitious idea into a growing business.

Where could your idea take you?

Perhaps you have a business idea you can’t stop thinking about. Perhaps you have already launched and are wondering how to turn early traction into lasting growth. Could your business be the next to build a talented team, reach customers around the world or raise millions in investment? Applications are now open for Cohort 19 of Catalyst, the University of Southampton Science Park’s accelerator programme for ambitious founders of innovation-led businesses. Through intensive workshops, mentoring and access to an experienced network, Catalyst gives founders the challenge and support to test their thinking, strengthen their proposition and take their next confident step.

Find out more and apply for Catalyst Cohort 19