(SCOTLAND)
A pioneering entrepreneur – labelled ‘one of the most influential women in technology’ – has developed a line of products designed to protect the ever growing number of lone workers.
Based in Glasgow, Rebecca Pick is spearheading a new wave of tech innovations, through her company Pick Protection, which can give people working on their own that invaluable sense of security. These include a wearable alarm that alerts a central control centre when a problem arises. Once verified the police are called and can respond swiftly to the user’s location.
Rebecca said: “Growing Pick Protection from the first seed of an idea to a promising young tech company has been a thrilling journey for me and I am delighted to be able to launch our first products. I believe that everyone should feel safe at work, and this safety should be accessible, affordable and reliable. The inspiration behind Pick Protection may not have been work-related – my neighbour at university was attacked and nobody came to help – but after a lot of market research, we have decided to focus the business on lone worker protection.”
From founding the business as a student at the University of Strathclyde, Rebecca has quickly established her company. It has attracted around £1 million of investment and has a team of nine highly experience personnel with decades of combined experience in security and technology. This level of success is exactly why Scottish Development International said she is one of the most influential women in tech.
“The number of lone workers in the UK is growing all the time, yet only around six percent of them currently have protection through monitored safety alarms. However, more and more employers are waking up to the fact that they have a duty of care to ensure the safety of their lone workers. This means there is a huge potential market out there. I believe Pick Protection can be the next high growth tech business to come out of Scotland,” added Rebecca.
Pick Protection has the support of Unipart Security’s ‘alarm receiving centre’ in Oxford, which will track Pick’s devices.
“We are delighted to be able to support and invest in a young start-up company led by Rebecca. She is exactly the kind of energetic entrepreneur that our country needs to help us succeed in the fast changing world of technology,” said Unipart Chairman and Group Chief Executive, John Neill CBE. “It’s a great opportunity for us to help a young person build a business and for our Group to further develop our experience in growing and nurturing start-up technology businesses.”
