Last month, Vortex IQ was crowned the winner of GoFocal Demo Day — a milestone we’re incredibly proud of, not just because we won, but because of what we showcased, who we met, and where we’re headed next.

GoFocal brought together some of the most promising early-stage startups in AI, SaaS, fintech, and beyond. Standing out among such a strong cohort — and earning top honours from the judging panel — was both a validation and a catalyst.

In this post, we’re sharing our experience, what we presented, why we believe it resonated, and what’s next for Vortex IQ.

What We Presented

Our pitch focused on a powerful but under-addressed challenge in e-commerce:

“Merchants are surrounded by data but starved of action.”

While others are building dashboards and analytics layers, we’re doing something different:
We’re building AI agents that act.

Our Demo Showcased:

Agent Builder Studio – Create fully functional AI agents from natural language prompts
MCP Server – Our open protocol that transforms APIs into intelligent, callable actions
Live e-commerce agent use cases, including:

  • SEO optimisation
  • Inventory updates
  • Pricing automation
  • Website backup and rollback
    Real-world traction from 130+ paying merchants
    Strong partner momentum with BigCommerce, Shopify, and global agencies

The judges didn’t just see a concept — they saw a working product, solving a real pain point, with infrastructure-level potential.

Why We Think We Won

1. Clear Problem, Big Market

We framed a growing gap in the market: insights without action.
Our AI agent platform plugs that gap directly for e-commerce, SaaS, and platform teams.

2. Execution, Not Just Ideation

We showed working agents, real deployments, and validated use cases — not just slides.

3. Team Credibility & Vision

We backed our story with:

  • £700K ARR
  • 130+ customers
  • A clear roadmap towards a £5M seed round and open agent marketplace

4. Agentic AI Infrastructure

While many startups are building AI apps, we’re building the rails for autonomous execution — the underlying infrastructure for the AI agent economy.

The Feedback We Received

“Most technically credible and commercially ready platform in the room.”
“Impressive clarity between infra, use cases, and future ecosystem.”
“Loved the agent marketplace vision. Feels like Zapier for AI — but smarter.”

What’s Next for Vortex IQ

  • Preparing our £5M seed round, focused on product expansion, go-to-market scale, and enterprise readiness
  • Launching the Agent Marketplace, enabling developers and agencies to monetise AI agents
  • Expanding support for platforms beyond BigCommerce and Shopify (Salesforce, WooCommerce, custom APIs)
  • Hiring across GTM, partnerships, and product

Deepening integrations with partner platforms and accelerators

Thank You, GoFocal

To the organisers, judges, mentors, and fellow startups — thank you.
You’ve helped spotlight what we’ve been building quietly — and now we’re ready to scale loudly.

And to every founder thinking about Demo Days: they’re not just competitions — they’re catalysts.

Final Thought

Winning GoFocal wasn’t just a trophy. It was confirmation that our vision — building the infrastructure layer for agentic automation — is resonating.

We’re proud of this moment, but even more excited about what comes next.

Want to invest, partner, or test your first agent? Email us at [email protected]

Learn more: vortexiq.ai

Let’s build the Agentic Future, together