^{The quicker pitch: novabook}

^{Quick Pitch is brought to you by}

Novabook is the accountant for startups.

Their mission is to help founders focus on building incredible things by saving them time, money and admin headaches.

They combine great software and a team of experienced chartered accountants to automate founders’ work and take admin off their plates.

They work with some of the best founders in the UK, ensuring their bookkeeping, payroll, taxes, VAT, and more are done right.

At a glance

The UNA Watch is the GPS watch you’ll never need to replace.

• The team grew tired of wearables that weren't repairable, upgradeable or sustainable so they made UNA Watch which is.

• Modular by design, upgradable for the future and developer ready using their AI-powered SDK.

Quick fire details

• Headquarters: Edinburgh, Scotland

• Employee count: 5

• Business model: Both B2C & B2B

• Backed by: 

  • £320,000 - SFC Capital

  • The UNA Watch launched on Kickstarter in April 2025 and

    generated over £250,000 from 1200+ backers.

• S/EIS: ✅

• Funding amount: £500k strategic angel round (plans to raise a VC backed seed round next year)

The founders

• CEO / Founder, Lewis Allison: CEO & Electronics Engineer with an M.Eng in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Prev Hire Geeks CEO/ founder and CTO at Shot Scope.

The market

• Current GPS watches are not built to last leading to over 60 million tonnes of consumer electronics being discarded every year.

• Running watch market: $2 Billion in 2023 growing 5.6% CAGR.

• Running popularity: Hoka (running shoes) revenue increased 58% to $1.4 Billion in 2023, the 4th consecutive year of growth above 50%.

• Repair survey: 40% of consumers we surveyed encountered a repairability issue with their running watch.

This startup is solving one key problem:

• A cracked screen or dead battery typically means the device is thrown away.

• Repairing or upgrading a watch is almost impossible due to the extensive use of glue, limited spare parts and lack of manufacturer guidance.

Traction metrics

• £250,000 in revenue from 1,200+ pre-orders on Kickstarter (Top 0.25% of UK projects).

• An email list of over 15,000

• 11,000 followers on Instagram

• Six-figure B2B contract delivered in 2024, months after the

  company was founded.

Competitive landscape

• Coros & Garmin are the biggest players in the GPS watch industry.

  • UNA's usp's are simply that it's repairable, upgradable and more sustainable.

^{The quicker pitch: QP RoundUp}

Did you know we have a paid weekly newsletter?

Who’s it for? For those who want to receive a curated list of every startup you need to know about in the eu ecosystem.

Thanks to those who have already purchased their third month 🤝

They know that sourcing top startups is tough. But to succeed in venture it’s crucial.

Every week we leverage our brand in the ecosystem to find the early stage European startups and founders before they become sought after deals.

Now, we want to offer that leverage to you guys.

Acting as your outsourced deal flow for top tier startups.

Our Take

Appeals

• Sustainability: 40% of running watch users have experienced a device failure leading them to buy a new watch earlier than planned. UNA completely solves that problem and are the only ones doing it.

• Impressive traction: Top 0.25% of UK projects are clear strong demand.

• Future-Proof: A massive USP for UNA users is that they can upgrade UNA’s sensors as technology evolves. We’re interested to see what you think this might mean for their business model - tell us in the poll below 

Risks

• Huge market players: Competitors currently dominate the market, which means massive need to prove UNA’s usp's.

• Legacy players own trust: Modular tech is not that common, people might be tentative to adopt.

• Hardware production and supply chain risks: The complexity of the product means supply chain risks could become confusing when scaling especially with relatively smaller balance sheets than more stable competitors.

Request an introduction to the founder

Last feature’s results

Our readers are NOT CONVINCED about The Connect.

Share QP

Know someone who loves startups as much as you do?