A Leeds-based startup has secured investment from a leading software company, as well as appointing two veterans of the tech scene as non-executive directors.

Calbot, founded in 2019 by Taras Lanchev, has raised funding from Nephos Solutions, a leading supplier of software to the health and fintech sectors, and investors in other Northern tech startups such as Synap and JigTalk. Nephos will also provide technical, marketing and administrative support to Calbot.

Calbot is a meeting scheduling tool that enables different groups and teams to find a mutually available time slot for a meeting in a matter of seconds. It aims to cut down on the costs and frustrations of trying to bring people together. As more people are working remotely, this has become an even bigger issue for UK firms.

Calbot estimates that scheduling meetings takes around 15-17 minutes per meeting and costs UK industry £100m per year.

Calbot was recognised as one of the ‘Stars of the Future’ in the 2019 Mills & Reeve Top Tech Yorkshire Report, with judge Richard Carter of Equiniti commenting that it is “potentially a platform to rival Skype’s global adoption.”

A graduate of the University of Leeds, Taras Lanchev has previously built and sold a tech firm. Originally from Ukraine, he is the recipient of a Tech Nation Visa, which grants a work visa for people building tech firms that show exceptional promise.

Calbot has also appointed two non-executive directors, who are both heavily involved in the northern tech sector as investors and directors. David Pearce is the CEO of Nephos Solutions; Stuart Clarke runs Paceline strategy and PR consultancy, and is the Festival Director of the Leeds Digital Festival.

Commenting on the recent investment, Taras said: 

“Like most people, I’ve had the frustration of trying to organise a meeting with a number of different people and have spent too much time trying to find the right schedule for everyone. It usually involves many emails going back and forth between the groups. We developed Calbot to find the best time for a meeting in seconds and enable people to get on with their jobs rather than spend time organising meetings”.

David Pearce said:

“We’re really pleased to be backing Taras and the team at Calbot. We see Calbot as a unique service that will both reduce frustration and improve the profitability of firms. We’re looking forward to seeing the increased use of Calbot across all sectors”.

Stuart Clarke said:

“I’ve known Taras for a number of years through his involvement in initiatives such as Startup Weekend and Leeds Digital Drinks. He’s building a really important product and it’s great to come on board at Calbot to support its growth. Calbot is yet another example of the thriving startup culture in Leeds.”


Notes to editors:

Founded in 2019 by Taras Lanchev, Calbot is an innovative scheduling tool that enables different groups and teams to find a mutually available time slot for a meeting in a matter of seconds. It aims to cut down on the costs and frustrations of trying to bring people together. 
Calbot estimates that scheduling meetings takes around 15-17 minutes per meeting and costs UK industry £100m per year.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are working remotely, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Business infrastructure has changed drastically, making scheduling an even bigger issue for organisations around the world. In this new world, being able to schedule group time efficiently is critical in managing a successful and productive business.

Calbot is able to integrate with multiple calendars including GSuite, Google Calendars, iCloud, Outlook, Exchange and Office365. The app works across different time zones avoiding small-hours meetings for overseas participants. In the six months of trading, meetings have been arranged in 22 countries across six time zones.

Calbot was born out of Taras’s frustration at trying to find a time for a group of students to meet to work on a project together. Realising that this is a universal problem, Taras set about creating a solution which could find the gaps in people’s calendars to set up a mutually convenient time, enabling people to get on with their work rather than spending time organising meetings.