We are on a mission to make R&D tax relief claims more efficient and enjoyable

Learn more about what makes Novel's R&D tax relief software special and who is behind it.

But our mission extends beyond

just improving efficiency

We are dedicated to helping our users better serve their clients by transforming the way claims are completed. Relying on decades of experience building tax software (our team are behind two market leading tax software products) we set out to build an in house solution to help improve the process of managing tax relief claims for our internal team of R&D consultants.

Novel was born when we decided to turn our in house project into the go-to software for R&D tax relief claim management in the UK.

Our team is driven by a passion for innovation and a deep understanding of the unique needs of consultants and accountants. We believe that claim preparation should not be a tedious and cumbersome task, but rather an engaging experience that enables professionals to focus on what they do best - helping their clients claim R&D tax reliefs.

Meet the team

Join us on this exciting journey as we revolutionise the world of R&D tax relief claim preparation and help drive more businesses towards innovation.

Tom Elsbury

Co-Founder, Partner

Tom, a co-founder of Novel, brings over ten years of extensive industry experience and a deep understanding of R&D tax relief. His passion for supporting small businesses and fostering innovation led him and the team to create a codified solution in the form of Novel's innovative R&D tax relief software platform. Beyond Novel, Tom actively engages with industry stakeholders and hopes to drive positive change to enhance the R&D tax relief landscape.

Ben Crampin

Co-Founder, Partner

Ben has over ten years’ experience working with SMEs across all areas of business structuring, accounting and tax. His aim is to support business consultants and their customers with educational software products that allow traditionally manual processes to be completed more accurately and much more efficiently. Through automation, he hopes that business consultants will be able to help many more businesses, and provide a better service at a lower cost. Novel is the first of these products.

Ellis Taylor

Chief Technology Officer, Partner

Ellis has been building technology teams for more than five years. His expertise across all software engineering domains allows him to build out of the box enterprise level solutions using a range of technologies that are effective, secure and reliable. He aims to create platforms that revolutionise the R&D and tax sector by making it more accessible through cutting edge technology and continuous automation.

Sanela Tomlinson

UX/UI Designer, Partner

As the resident creative, Sanela is in charge of translating all of the abstract ideas and legislation into friendly software design. As a visual learner herself and someone who lives the quote, 'a picture is worth a thousand words', she believes that anything and everything should be presented in a visually striking way, especially something as dry as legislation.

Andrew Godley

Backend Engineer, Partner

Andy has been into tech from the days of his N64 and as a keen problem solver, backend engineering is the perfect union. He loves the repeatability and simplicity the cloud provides, making deploying and testing new features for Novel a breeze. He is also interested in developer experience and wants to make life easier for all the developers (and himself) within the team.

Jón Lischetzki

Partner

Jón’s childhood fascination for toxicology lead him towards his pharmaceutical studies, and to becoming a ward-based clinical pharmacist. Although he continues to be a qualified pharmacist, specialising in innovation reliefs for companies in the biosciences, he joined our team at Novel to help accountants and tax advisers develop their own R&D tax relief service using our platform.

Sergej Vlasov

Lead Front End Engineer, Partner

Sergej is passionate about writing beautiful and efficient code that translates into intuitive and user-friendly software solutions. He can often be found bickering with the UX designer over the correct shades of blue but as someone who never gives up on a problem, he is one of the most resilient and patient front end developers we’ve ever met.

Hafid Khairoun

Partner

Hafid joins Novel armed with more than two decades of experience across a range of industries, predominantly aviation and publishing. Applying pen to paper, Hafid has been focusing on our educational content. He believes companies can rely on Novel’s guided approach to claiming tax relief whilst knowing it’s backed by experts if things get tricky.

Brian Evans

Full-Stack Engineer, Partner

Brian is a software developer with a focus on web development and big data. He writes modern and maintainable code, and loves learning the latest technologies. His knowledge of Companies House and his fine attention to detail makes working on Novel a great fit. He delights in creating robust software that reduces manual tasks for users by automation.

Mieszko Kycermann

Full Stack Engineer, Partner

Coming from a background of improving existing software solutions, Mieszko writes software that focuses on user journeys. He believes that when an engineer understands a user’s journey, they write software that best supports them. You’ll see Mieszko working closely with others to deliver a smooth user experience. He wants to built functionalities and features that will assist accountants and consultants in the claim preparation process.

Belle Chippington

Partner

Belle comes from a strong academic background in science which fuelled her interest in innovation across a variety of different sectors. Recognising the transformative impact a R&D tax relief software can offer in improving services to clients, she became part of the Novel team. Here, she assists consultants and accountants in preparing R&D claims through the platform.

Pioneering a new way to produce R&D tax relief claims