Recipero News & Comment

Recipero is delighted to have been the recipient of a judges’ special mention naming us the “Best Bootstrapped/non-VC funded company” last night at the “Telegraph Tech Start-Up 100: Class of 2011“ awards ceremony.

The awards were given to notable companies in a range of sectors and were judged by a panel of experts including venture capitalists and angel investors. The panel was supported by a team of analysts, including associates from Balderton Capital, Accel Partners, DFJ Esprit and others, who helped to define the criteria and methodology the judges used in their deliberations.

Neil Stewart, Recipero’s Commercial Director who attended the awards said:

“I am delighted that Recipero has received this special recognition, it means a great deal to everyone involved in the company and is something that we are all very proud of. Getting to this point has certainly had its challenges, but it continues to be a great business to be part of esspecially as we expand the  further into Europe and the USA.”

For more information about the Telegraph Start-up 100 including details of the category and overall winners please go to: www.telegraph.co.uk/startup100

If you are interested in the methodology behind the selection please see: www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/technology-startup100/8397541/Start-Up-100-let-judging-commence.html

For more information about Recipero please go to: www.recipero.com

Recipero is very pleased to announce that it has been chosen by the Telegraph Newspaper as one of Europe’s Top 100 Technology Start-Ups and has moved into the final round of judging.

The Telegraph has collected and filtered some of the most exciting Tech companies from all over Europe and over the past 6 months a panel of expert judges has whittled that list down to just a hundred that make up the “Telegraph Tech Start-Up 100: Class of 2011“.

Recipero is being considered in the category of “Enterprise: Security, Storage, Collaboration, Databases” along with 15 other Tech Companies that make up the 100. The overall winner, runner-up and the individual category winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in London on 12 April.

The “Telegraph Tech Start-Up 100″ is a relatively new list, but attempts to be the most reliable, authoritative and trustworthy guide to exciting young tech companies throughout Europe. It is judged by a panel of  world-class industry experts, serial entrepreneurs, investors and the like, who are themselves judged have the knowledge and experience to give an expert and realistic opinion. For more about the Telegraph Tech Start-Up 100 please go to: www.telegraph.co.uk/startup100

Ross Stewart Chairman of Recipero said:

“we are delighted that our hard work and enterprise has been recognised by the judges of this competition. As a privately funded company with no outside VC type investors it is quite hard to get noticed in the Technology sector but this should start to make people aware of what we do and how successful we are at doing it.”

For more information about the Telegraph Start-up 100 please go to: www.telegraph.co.uk/startup100

If you are interested in the methodology behind the selection please see: www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/technology-startup100/8397541/Start-Up-100-let-judging-commence.html

For more information about Recipero please go to: www.recipero.com

Today July 23rd it was officially agreed that CheckMEND would be the first approved due diligence service to be used and officially endorsed under a new Home Office/recycling industry code of practice.

The signing of the new code of practice by over 90% of the mobile phone recycling industry means that for the first time there are agreed guidelines for the checking of handsets offered for sale to the industry and this includes using the CheckMEND service to check the National Mobile Phone/Property Register.

Adrian Portlock CEO of Recipero the operator of CheckMEND said:

This is a major step forward for the industry and CheckMEND and we are really pleased the industry has recognised their responsibilities in checking products they are buying, this model needs to be extended to all handlers of used goods and retailers taking trade ins and we will be pushing for this to be the case, but this is an excellent start.

For more information please see the following sites:

• CheckMEND – www.checkmend.com
• Phone Recycling Code of Practice site – www.stoprecycledstolenphones.com
• Home Office Press Release – www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/press-releases/code-practice-stolen-mobiles
• The Police NMPR (National Mobile Phone/Property Register) – www.thenmpr.com
• Immobilise National Property Register – www.immobilise.com
• Recipero – www.recipero.com

Boston Police have today (30th June 2010) agreed to a 30 day trial of the new CheckMEND service in the USA prior to it going live with all pawn and second-hand dealers in their jurisdiction. If the trial is successful Recipero see this as a very exciting opportunity to extend the service to every US law enforcement agency to create a national free transaction submission and Police checking service.

Unlike Europe second hand dealers and pawnbrokers in the US have to supply details of transactions to their local law enforcement agencies so CheckMEND has widened its remit to include this in the process of running a due diligence check. At the same time Recipero, the owner of CheckMEND, has rewritten its US NMPR platform so free of charge US law enforcement will be able to view CheckMEND transaction data via the US NMPR as well as being able to match the data with crime reports provided to the NMPR (via the Trace Checker system) from over 18,000 US law enforcement agencies.

Ken Bouche who leads business development for CheckMEND and Trace Checker in the US said:

This is the culmination of over 2 years work to allow traders and pawn brokers to supply for free transaction data to an online database that can be checked also free of charge by the Police. Bolting on the stolen data from Trace Checker which Recipero took over late in 2009 is inspired and provides a whole new service for the trade to ensure they are not buying stolen or dubious goods that have been reported as stolen to their local law enforcement agency. If the service grows to be as popular in the US as it is in Europe this will be a very significant step for forward for everyone involved

For more information please contact us: www.recipero.com/contact

Recipero’s CheckMEND service in conjunction with the Police’s NMPR system has proven to be a key tool in the identification and prosecution of crimes related to stolen goods.

On the 14th May, a man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for handling stolen goods. Alexander Smith, aged 40, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court after a two year investigation conducted by Avon and Somerset Police’s burglary team and crime reduction unit in Bristol.

Officers were able to prove that Smith had been knowingly buying stolen mobile phones by utilising an online system known as CheckMEND. This system allows members of the public to check if a mobile phone is stolen before buying it.

Police searched a shop in East Street, Bedminster and identified more than 20 phones that were stolen from victims in both burglaries and robberies, many of which had occurred in the South Bristol area. A stolen pedal cycle was also found at Smith’s home address.

During one of these incidents, a female victim positively identified her stolen phone in Smith’s shop. Smith then demanded £40 from the victim before he would return her phone.
PC Frank Simonds, from Bristol Crime Reduction Unit, said:

The use of CheckMEND technology now allows the police to prove if stolen phones are being bought and sold by second hand retailers.

We will be relentless in our pursuit of those dealing in stolen goods.

Many phones that were proven to be stolen had been registered by owners on the Immobilise database. Registering phones enables the police to return them to their rightful owners.
Members of the public can register their phone for free by visiting www.immobilise.com

Members of the public can check if a mobile phone is stolen by visiting www.checkmend.com.

Retailers can receive advice on protecting their business from handling stolen goods as part of Operation Recover run by Avon and Somerset Police.

To read the source release in full please go to: Avon & Somerset Police

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: PLEASE NOTE THAT AS DATA FROM TRACE IS CURRENTLY BEING INTEGRATED WITH OUR SYSTEMS WE RECOMMEND USERS ALSO RUN A FREE SEARCH ON TRACE (www.trace.com) WHILST THE WORK IS COMPLETED.

CheckMEND the world’s largest due diligence service which is owned by Recipero is delighted to announce the recent acquisitions of two US centric businesses, the Trace due diligence system and PhoneHistoryReport the stolen phone checking service. The data from both businesses will be incorporated into the CheckMEND service over the next few weeks.

Both services will complement the existing CheckMEND service providing millions of new records to the CheckMEND website. Of particular note is that the acquisition of Trace will allow CheckMEND to access stolen property data from over 18,000 US law enforcement agencies vastly expanding their reach in the US market. Adrian Portlock CEO of Recipero commented:

These two acquisitions are strategically very important to us as we look to replicate the huge success of CheckMEND in the UK and Europe in the USA. We are already talking to a range of organisations who wish to use the new enhanced CheckMEND service in the US and we are very excited about the potential opportunities this provides to the US consumer buying and selling on sites such as EBay and Craig’s List.

Recipero is delighted to have secured a contract to provide the Avalon real time stolen phone blocking system to Asian networks. The contract will allow consumers to report their phones as stolen to their home network and be blocked within minutes across all participating networks.

This will be the first time a system of this type has been implemented anywhere in the world as all other systems currently have a delay of at least 24 hours. Adrian Portlock CEO of Recipero commented:

This is a major step forward for the Avalon service and we are delighted to have secured this agreement, it will prove to networks all over the world that using cutting edge internet technology will offer a better service to the consumer and reduce the appeal to steal mobile phones. We are hopeful of having around 20 networks on the system over the next couple of years if all goes well.

As of the 8th June The Carphone Warehouse have extended their trade-in scheme to include iPods and GPS equipment. Every item is checked in real-time on Recipero’s CheckMEND due diligence service.

The system has been integrated with Carphone Warehouse’s EPOS systems in over 800 UK stores, their website, and direct sales channels, allowing them to ensure only ‘bona fide’ customers can benefit from their trade-in offers.

With nearly 50 billion items of serial numbered goods recorded CheckMEND is the world’s largest database of stolen goods, making it an obvious partner for Carphone Warehouse.

For more information please visit the following links:

www.carphonewarehouse.com

www.checkmend.com

www.recipero.com/cpw_expand_checkmend_use

On the anniversary of its first year of operation, Avon and Somerset Constabulary has just announced that Reportmyloss.com has won an award in this years’ Problem Solving Competition.

The competition serves to recognise initiatives that bring direct and significant improvements in service to the public.

Reportmyloss was introduced by the Force as a quick and effective way to record lost property. It continues to go from strength to strength, with over 70% of the Force’s lost reports being submitted online. The system has helped to reunite thousands of items with their owners and to reduce the numbers of calls to their Force Service Centre.

ReportMyLoss wins Problem Solving Competition

For more information about the ReportMyLoss system please go to: www.reportmyloss.com

To visit Avon and Somerset Constabulary please go to: www.avonandsomerset.police.uk