“Our product wouldn’t be where it is now if we hadn’t had the business support, and we wouldn't be doing what we do if it wasn't for the networking,” says Matthew Napleton of Zizo, a successful scale-up tech firm backed by Connected Places Catapult.

The company was supported six months ago through the Freight Innovation Fund accelerator – delivered on behalf of the Department for Transport – to create a business improvement planning product called Zizo Confluence, and trial the system with haulage firm Welch Group and Portsmouth International Port.

Off the back of the trials, Zizo secured a contract with Welch Group and expects to win several more contracts this year. It has already made around £250,000 in orders for the product for the remainder of 2026, and hopes to generate £1 million from the AI platform within the next 12 months.

“Connected Places Catapult helped us to bring the product to market and deliver coherent messaging about it, which was absolutely brilliant,” says Matthew, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer.

“We received £130,000 from the accelerator which ringfenced the work of software developers, so that we could build Confluence properly.

“As a business, we have been around for a long time – but we are essentially data people. So it’s been really useful to receive support with the business side of things.”

Ask it your burning questions

Zizo Confluence brings together data from a company’s operations with a large language model, allowing users to ask questions of the platform to surface answers that could be useful in making a business run more smoothly or identifying commercial opportunities.

“Rather than customers having to understand what the data means, the system does that for you. You just sit there and talk to it, and ask your burning questions at the forefront of your mind.”

Matthew Napleton, Chief Commercial Officer, Zizo

He adds that the platform “translates hypothetical thinking into operational analysis” and suggests work activities that need attention, “serving up information that drives critical business insight in seconds”.

In terms of maritime and logistics, the platform can interrogate data from a client’s transport management system that oversees the movement, performance and carbon consumption of vehicles. It can also analyse its warehouse operations and financial systems to give bosses a holistic view of what is going on in a company, to allow them to make changes.

“We've been through a number of iterations as an organisation; where we are now is a very different place to where we started. Confluence is a game changer for us in terms of what we do; we've been on quite a journey.”

From parcels to retail, and back again

Zizo’s first client 20 years ago was Royal Mail Parcelforce; providing insight into customers’ online purchasing, and it later started working for Marks & Spencer to offer business intelligence.

It joined the Maritime Accelerator in 2021 and secured a trial with the Port of Tyne – which went on to become a customer – to provide analytics of warehouse operations. It also joined the Freight Innovation Cluster at the Catapult to join other data specialists in the maritime space.

As part of the Freight Innovation Fund, its trial with Welch Group involved interrogating data to make fleets operate more efficiently to save costs. Its work with Portsmouth International Port demonstrated the financial cost and air quality issues associated with lorries arriving to site at peak times.

“We are interested in getting the right data to the right people at the right time; making it usable so it can make an impact,” adds Matthew.

Helping the business to scale

He says the support of Connected Places Catapult through both programmes and the Freight Innovation Cluster has been incredibly valuable. “The best way to grow and scale our business is by interacting with other organisations of a similar or larger size, to understand critical issues and work with people who can help us.

“Those interactions are really important, and we are still working with one or two SMEs we met on the Maritime Accelerator five years ago. The Catapult also gave us a kind of worldview to think outside of our swim lane.”

In 2021, the company’s annual revenue was £1 million and last year it reached £1.6 million. “Confluence is now projected to generate £1 million alone in the next year, and we wouldn't have been able to put forward the product without the support of Connected Places Catapult.”

Matthew adds that the company is now looking to sell the platform to existing clients in the automotive sector, and roll out the product beyond the UK to customers in South Africa, the USA and countries in the Nordic region.

Stakeholder endorsement

Welch Group’s Managing Director, Chris Welch says its association with Zizo has already had a meaningful impact on its logistics operations, by making it easier to turn data into action.

“It has helped us get to answers faster, improve visibility across the business, and create a more consistent way of looking at operational performance.”

Chris adds that the application of the product has moved well beyond reporting alone. “We have been able to shape the next steps around automation and business logic flows based on the information coming through.

“That gives us a clear path towards a more connected and proactive operating model, rather than one that relies on manual intervention and hindsight.”

Chris also says he can “clearly see how this will help change the way we operate across the group for the better: improving decision-making, reducing friction in our processes, and creating a stronger foundation for smarter, more automated ways of working going forward.

“Ultimately it lets our people have more time to think, have less administrative tasks and provide improved communication with our stakeholders.”

Read more about the Freight Innovation Fund accelerator and the Transport Accelerator: Maritime.