An ex-banker left his City job and teamed up with a computer programmer in an attempt to “reinvent” local news and recruit potentially hundreds of journalists.

Karl Hancock spent 25 years working for banks in London, including Goldman Sachs and Berenberg, before computer programmer Dean Waghorn came to him with a business idea.

He pitched a low-cost technology platform that could “put your town in your pocket”. “I absolutely loved it,” said Hancock, who took the idea to City investors to sound it out.