TECHNOLOGIST · FOUNDER · BUILDER
I’m Darren Crombie. I’ve spent my career turning ambitious technology into practical support for people — first inside big technology organisations, and now as a founder.
Founder of Bridgit Care
Innovation leader · Speaker · Builder
01 / MY STORY
Not technology for its own sake. The useful kind — the kind that removes friction, opens a door or gives somebody a better day.
My career has taken me from global technology organisations to starting companies of my own. Along the way I’ve led innovation projects, worked with brilliant people across sectors and learnt that progress rarely starts with the answer. Usually it starts with a better question — and the willingness to keep going when the route is not obvious.
Today, most of my energy sits where AI, care and public services meet. It’s complicated, important work. That is exactly why I enjoy it.
The documented version of this journey begins with 15 years in health technology and a community nurse team in Manchester. The personal version begins with my family. Both led to the same place.Read the independent profile
02 / THE JOURNEY
Accenture
I started my career at Accenture. It taught me how complex change really happens: listen properly, simplify the problem, bring the right people together and turn a bold idea into something that works in the real world.
DXC Technology
At DXC I got closer to innovation — leading projects, exploring emerging technology and helping teams move from possibility to practical change. The lesson I carried forward was simple: innovation only matters when somebody feels the benefit.
Founder
In 2017, sat at the back of a health innovation event in Leeds, I decided it was time to stop talking about starting a business and actually start one. Upstream Health followed in early 2018 — and the founder chapter began.
Real places. Real people. Real change.03 / THE FOUNDER’S STORY
What if people could find the right support before life reached crisis point?
That question became Bridgit Care: technology designed around unpaid carers, local knowledge and the public services trying to help. The first spark was personal. My Grandad Doug had fallen at home and, without his alarm button, had to crawl to the door and shout for help. My mum Jacqueline was his primary carer. Their experience made the gap impossible to ignore.
The early Upstream idea was broad preventative care. In 2019 we made a deliberate pivot: stop adding to the catalogue of tools for clinicians and focus on the millions of family carers holding care together every day. That decision became Bridgit.
Across the ventures and programmes I have led, I have raised more than £1 million in innovation funding — including a documented SBRI Phase 2 award of nearly £700,000. I’m proud of the number, but prouder of what it represents: other people backing ideas with the potential to improve lives.
By 2025, Bridgit had grown as large as we had originally planned. The strategic partnership with Carers Trust became the next key decision point. It moved the question from “how much more revenue can we grow?” to “how much more impact can local carer charities create if the cost of delivering support comes down?”
THE DOCUMENTED JOURNEY
These milestones are drawn from independent health innovation, government and sector sources — the public record behind the personal story.
2017
At a Yorkshire & Humber health innovation event in Leeds, I made the decision to leave employment and become a founder — with a young family, a big idea and no guarantee it would work.
Health Innovation Network2018
Upstream Health launched with a preventative-care mission: use technology to help patients and teams intervene earlier, before smaller problems become crises.
Health Innovation Network2019
The work changed direction. Instead of adding another tool for clinicians, we focused on family carers — inspired by Grandad Doug and the everyday care provided by my mum Jacqueline and my sister.
Meet the Innovator2020
An SBRI-supported NHS trial led to a Phase 2 grant of nearly £700,000, giving us the opportunity to grow the team and turn the early concept into a broader service.
AHSN impact report2022–23
Bridgit Care won an Innovate UK Inclusive Innovation Award for work helping more carers reach statutory assessments and essential local support earlier.
Innovate UK Business Connect2025
A strategic partnership with Carers Trust changed the next decision. Rather than grow for growth’s sake, Bridgit would help local carer charities extend their reach, reduce delivery costs and demonstrate more impact.
Carers Trust annual reportHEALTH INNOVATION WITHOUT BORDERS
The founder journey opened an international chapter too. Working with the Department for International Trade and Healthcare UK, I joined missions designed to show what proven UK health innovation could offer overseas — and to learn from the people already tackling the same challenges in very different systems.
Bridgit Care was named among the UK’s top 100 digital health and care companies for export and featured in the official UK Digital Health Playbook: recognition that a platform built around family carers and early support could travel well beyond its first home.
A Healthy Ageing mission took the work to China, where I presented to government representatives, universities and health partners. The conversations were about scale, prevention and how technology could help ageing populations stay connected and independent.
In Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai, a UK Tech for Good mission connected Bridgit’s preventative-care model with India’s technology, health and social-innovation communities.
In 2023, an AGE-WELL-supported UK–Canada government trade mission to Toronto helped lay the groundwork for Bridgit Care’s Canadian launch — turning international conversations into a practical next step.
The thread running through it: good health technology should be locally useful before it tries to be globally impressive.
THE DECISION THAT MATTERS NOW
200,000+people supportedBridgit is not trying to replace local carer charities. The aim is to put useful technology behind them, so their knowledge can reach more people without adding more administration or cost.
The 2025 strategic partnership with Carers Trust gave that idea a national route. Together, the focus is affordable digital support, stronger evidence for funders and more time for local teams to do the deeply human work only they can do.
Success is not the size of the software business. It is the number of people and charities that can do more because the platform exists.
FROM CARERS TO COMMUNITY IMPACT
One lesson from Bridgit has kept coming back: communities often do not lack support. The real problem is that people cannot see the whole picture or find the right door into it.
Bridgit Care Local applies the same practical idea more widely. Brum Chat brings social care, housing, finances, wellbeing, work and local services together in one place, helping Birmingham residents find clear next steps and helping local organisations connect their support.
RECOGNISED IN NATIONAL GUIDANCE
In April 2026, government guidance for the Crisis and Resilience Fund featured Birmingham’s commissioning of Brum Chat as a case study in creating a single local front door, keeping the support map live, avoiding duplication and improving referrals.
04 / WHAT I’M BUILDING NOW
Start with a real problem. Listen properly. Use technology to make good support easier and more affordable to deliver — then measure success in lives improved, not revenue accumulated.
CARE · PUBLIC SERVICES · AI
More than 200,000 people supported — with Bridgit Care Local now taking the same practical, place-based approach into wider neighbourhood support, including Brum Chat.
Visit the project 02INTERNATIONAL RECRUITS · SETTLING IN · AI
Personalised support for international recruits building a life in the UK — helping people navigate work, wellbeing, housing and their local community across more than 30 regions.
Visit the project 03FOUNDERS · COACHING · AI
The practical AI business support platform I wished I had while growing Bridgit — built to turn questions and challenges into clear next steps.
Visit the projectA DIFFERENT MIND’S EYE
I don’t form pictures in my mind. I think in ideas, connections, words and forward motion instead.
In many ways it helps keep me focused on what is in front of me. It also means faces do not always stick — so if I walk past without recognising you, please don’t take it personally. Say hello.
05 / AWAY FROM WORK
I’m a husband and dad to two brilliant kids. They are the home team, the honest feedback panel and some of my favourite adventure partners.
Above sea level: wild camping, hills, long walks and the reset that comes from carrying everything you need.
Below sea level: scuba diving — a completely different world, and one of the few places where being fully present is non-negotiable.
Closer to home: family time, live music and the occasional challenge that ends with a medal.
06 / IN THE PUBLIC RECORD
A selection of independent profiles, case studies, awards and speaking appearances. Useful if you want the evidence rather than the edited biography.
Health Innovation Network
Innovate UK Business Connect
Social Care Institute for Excellence
Carers Trust
Department for Work and Pensions
My UK Life
Healthcare UK · Department for International Trade
AGE-WELL · UK/Canada trade mission
07 / WATCH & LISTEN
Longer-form conversations about care, AI and turning possibility into something practical.
34 min
A deeper conversation about protecting the human heart of care while technology changes around it.
17 min
An overview of the AI work and ideas shaping the next chapter of my journey.
20 min
A closer look at the Any Guru coaching idea and the thinking behind the product.
08 / SAY HELLO
If you’re working on a human problem, exploring responsible AI or looking for a speaker who has built through the messy middle, I’d love to hear from you.