From Bootstrapped to Backed: How SPACE4 Helped Illuminate Tech Build a Safer Internet

Illuminate Tech builds risk management software for tech platforms. Our product, Oscar, helps online services identify and mitigate harms to their users, from illegal content to risks facing children. We were founded by two former Ofcom regulators with a simple mission: breaking down barriers to a safer, more trusted internet.

We first came to SPACE4 as a young start-up making our first hires. We wanted to give our new joiners somewhere to work together. We’d tried a WeWork, but we felt we needed a space with a community spirit, where collaboration happens naturally. We found SPACE4 online and thought the values aligned well with our own.

More than an office

As a bootstrapped company, our early days came with tight cash flow and no office budget. SPACE4 gave us a professional base to work and collaborate from when we couldn’t have afforded one otherwise. This allowed us to stay motivated and collaborate more effectively than we would have been able to working fully remotely, while also chatting to other startups (and freelancers) and learning from them. At times it has felt like more of an incubator than an office.

It was here that we signed the first ever contracts for our product. We’re now onboarding household-name tech brands, and that traction has helped us raise our first funding round.

The connections that mattered

The most important connection we made at SPACE4 was Nich. He came through the Founders and Coders programme based in the space, and joined us as a software developer, our fourth permanent hire. Nich has been central to building Oscar into the product it is today. We’re proud to have hired talent trained in this space – and grateful to have found a colleague who shares our creative, mission-driven mindset.

SPACE4 also let us punch above our weight in our own sector. Without an events budget, we were able to host a gathering that brought together key players in the online safety civil society ecosystem. Those conversations have shaped our product and our network.

Growing out of the nest

We’re now hiring again, which means we’ll soon need more room than SPACE4 can offer. We’ll be sad to leave but SPACE4 gave a bootstrapped start-up the foundations to grow into a funded, hiring company. We couldn’t recommend it more highly to any early-stage founders.