[From the industry] JECO secures £960,000 pre-seed investment led by the British Business Bank and the Games Angels

This is a press release posted in addition to our usual editorial content.

JECO, an automated toolset designed specifically for video games software developers and digital creatives looking to streamline their development processes and future-proof their products, today announced it has secured $1.3MM / £960,000 in growth funding led by​ the British Business Bank, and the Games Angels.

Co-​Founded by Emily Bailey ​(Inaugural UK Video Games Council Member, Code Coven CIC, Antler Studios Co-Founder & board member, Forbes 30 Under 30, BAFTA Member) and Simon Barratt (Cooperative Innovations CEO & Founder, Ukie Trade Association board member, BAFTA Member), JECO is an industry first; enabling developers to increase performance whilst reducing production costs, timelines, and carbon consumption by adopting an automated suite of optimization tools for all software, on any device.

JECO is a B2B tech toolkit designed to drive meaningful change at the development stage of making games. JECO’s SDK collects performance data, and automatically profiles then fixes flaws from the CPU, GPU, RAM, Network, and Disk usage. Combined with an easy to navigate energy dashboard app that fuels smarter decision making around optimisation by providing real-time energy use and carbon insights, JECO is set to transform how games and interactive experiences are created.

CEO and Co-Founder Emily Bailey said: “JECO was born out of the belief that if developers are given frictionless ways to improve and enhance their development processes, they can find quicker, cost effective routes to market, and can also start to play an important role in addressing wider environmental issues that may impact our industry in the future. I am incredibly grateful to all our investors for supporting us in our mission; to support developers in making positive behavioural changes through the power of technology.”

Mark Barry, Senior Investment Director at British Business Bank, said: “We are delighted to make this first co-investment with the Games Angels as part of the Regional Angels Programme. The investment into JECO aligns​ with our programme goals to strengthen the UK’s regional economy and,​ leverage investment potential into innovating​ entrepreneurs in key sectors.”

Nick Button-Brown, Lead Investor, former Chair of the BAFTA Games Committee, and now Founder at Games Angels said: “Software development is fundamentally flawed. It’s built fast and on tight budgets, where performance is an afterthought, and is costly and time-consuming to fix. I thought Co-Founders Emily and Simon were building an incredibly strong team around an idea that addresses this, and simply makes so much sense, so it was a fairly easy choice to invest. What they have already achieved is phenomenal and I think JECO will have a great impact over the next few years.”

Jon Gillard, Investor, former Global Head of Licensing at Games Workshop and now a prominent games business advisor said: “JECO’s technology is a progressive and necessary step for the games industry in particular and technology companies in general. It also fits with my personal ethics and views on sustainability. Simon and Emily are a credible team with a good mixture of technological, management, and startup experience. I felt confident backing them. I also believe the opportunity for significant growth in the company is strong, and I’m happy to be part of the journey.“

With the recent appointments of CTO Colin Riley, and COO Nickie Whitfield, the majority of the funding will be dedicated to the development of JECO’s energy dashboard monitoring app which will automatically track costs to run, hardware specifications, and carbon data, and will be available Q4 2025.

Additionally, a significant portion of the funding will accelerate JECO’s strategic sales and marketing efforts. Already partnering with a 90 person studio with three titles during this R&D period, JECO is now welcoming new game dev-partners to explore the toolset, stress test the SDK, and evangelise the software.

To find out more, visit www.jeco.co