Real Business

Even as an MBA student, Tim Critchley looked set for great things. A fellow former Manchester Business School student says of him on LinkedIn: “Tim is certainly one of the most intelligent and professional people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. His contributions to classes and group work during our MBA at Manchester Business School were always excellent, while his friendly and open manner made him well liked by his fellow students. I know he will be a valuable addition to the management of any company.”

A former colleague says: “Tim is an excellent manager who trusted in the professionalism of his team and providied a clear framework of expetations for KP and the client which enabled me to work with clients making the tactical decisions necessary quickly without long winded administrative referals. My exeprience of working as a member of the Knowledge Pool team whilst Tim was the COO was very positive and I learned a lot form my association with KP and Tim about how to work effectively with clients.”

No surprise, then, to see Critchley leading London-based call-centre software business Semafone to a successful recent fund-raising. The firm has received £1.9m from Octopus Ventures. Alliott Cole, investment director at Octopus, said: "We were impressed with the progress CEO Tim Critchley and his team have made in the relatively short period of time since the Company devised and marketed Semafone. The combination of a growing pipeline of sales, a passionate and committed management team, and a large addressable market, makes Semafone an exciting business to partner. We look forward to working with the team in the months to come."

Critchley has worked at a number of telecoms and communications agencies in his career, most recently at KnowledgePool as COO, before joining Semafone in 2009.

Semafone aims to secure sensitive data passed over the phone, including bank details, personal identification data and credit/debit card transactions.  Without interrupting caller and agent dialogue, customers input their card details via the telephone keypad, eliminating the need to read out the card number and three digit security number to the phone operator, removing the risk of operator fraud.

In the last 12 months Semafone has secured valued customers such as the John Lewis Partnership, Argos, Specsavers and the Manchester Airports Group.  The new investment from Octopus will accelerate the Company's growth in the UK and abroad, through investment in sales and marketing.

Critchley has a not very active Twitter account at http://twitter.com/securevoice