Manchester’s Wedg Surpasses £71,000 Goal on Indiegogo; Shares Expansion Plans

Wedg 1

Last month, Manchester-based tech startup WEDG launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise £71,000 for its self-titled personal cloud sharing device.

Within only one week, the project surpassed its initial goal and is currently at £83,832 from 539 backers. Now the company announced its ready to start expanding and become a competitor to other major cloud sharing companies. 

During a recent interview, CEO and inventor of WEDG, Shehbaz Afzal stated, “We hit out £71,000 funding target in week one and are now pursuing stretch goals to make WEDG more versatile for our backers and users.The funds will enable us to start manufacturing the WEDG here in Manchester.”

Shehbaz Afzal

“We also have a number of exciting ideas for the money if we overfund, which include a HDMI connection to play movies from the WEDG on your TV; enable wireless capabilities; the abilities to change the color of the LEDs on front of the WEDG to suit your mood or living room/office style; and my personal favorite – to develop a web-based office suite like Microsoft Office or Google docs that’s free and offers the abilities to colleagues to work on a document or presentation together, remotely at the same time.”

As previously reported, WEDG is a self-hosted email and file storage solution that is built on strong security and privacy values. It is “off-cloud,” which means the user’s data doesn’t sit in a vulnerable data center. It is at home or in the office where they knew its safe from threats.

The device does some of the following:

  • WedgSecurity and Encryption: Every user enjoys 512-disk encryption activated the moment they first log-in. Built-in key management helps exchange public keys with trusted users for effortless privacy and data security.
  • Storage, Sync, and Share: NAS like storage with Dropbox like Sync and Sharing but security like no other. Sends files as links with embedded passwords and built-in expiration dates.
  • Apps Capable: Open platforms for developers to build fun and creative apps to further expand WEDG capabilities at home and work.
  • Business Analytics Tools: Install or migrate bespoke business tools like CRMs to WEDG and avoid monthly subscription fees.
  • Email: Intelligent email, address book and calendar for everyone. Works with Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird and an easy-to-use Webmail.

According to Manchester Evening News, Shehbaz established WEDG in December 2013, but the project started in June 2013 following the Edward Snowden’s case hit the spotlight.

WEDG 3

WEDG was initially based at Manchester Metropolitan University small business incubator “Innospace” on Chorlton Street. It was then relocated with Innospace to its new space on Chester Street.

With only five core full-time staff, Shehbaz revealed the ultimate plan is to double the amount of staff members following the crowdfunding campaign. He shared, “Within the next three years we’d like to have an ‘enterprise class’ version of the WEDG, so that we can offer a suitable solution to our growing professional and business clients.”

“WEDG also provides a convenient and simple to use website platform; all together WEDG is business ready without the no monthly fees or free account limitations.”

 


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