Apexia Group Limited designs, builds and deploys bespoke software, AI automation, e-commerce systems, event networks, AV and connected technology from its Cheshire base for UK businesses and live events. Joshua Stanley and Chris Smith have worked on technology together since 2012; the legal company was incorporated on 11 July 2024.
Where it started
We first met in our early teens while playing video games online as part of the same community. We regularly competed and did not always see eye to eye, but that competition gradually became a friendship when we realised our very different skills worked surprisingly well together.
Rather than accept how things were being run, we decided to host the servers ourselves and see if we could do it better. What began as late-night problem solving grew into years of hands-on learning. Every server, system and setback expanded our knowledge across software, infrastructure and networking—and gave us the confidence to take on bigger challenges.
2012 is the start of our working history, not the legal founding date. Apexia Group Limited was incorporated on 11 July 2024 as company number 15832514.
“ Could we do it better? We have been asking the same question ever since.
How it unfolded
The jobs became bigger, the stakes became real and the technology moved far beyond a screen. The way we worked together never really changed.
Before long, we stopped building for somebody else’s community and started our own. One project led to another, followed by countless late-night experiments. Even then, we talked about sharing an office and making a company of it one day.
After losing touch for a few years, Josh called Chris with a project: build a dependable playout system for a national shopping channel, on a tight budget and an even tighter deadline. It was the first time we had met in person.
We built scheduling, media playback, black-screen detection, automatic fallback and redundancy into a system that had to stay on air. One long night later, we had proved something important: our very different brains worked exceptionally well together.
That first system led to shop technology, CCTV, connectivity, data-centre work and years of live broadcast delivery. We worked at Stamford Bridge, Wembley and Soccer Aid, building galleries, connecting cameras, moving live feeds and creating bespoke systems behind the production.
Sometimes a job designed for a large crew landed with just a handful of us. The deadline did not move because the night was difficult. In broadcast, you go live—and we always found a way to get there.
Leaving good people and established careers was not easy. But the idea we had talked about as teenagers had never gone away. We moved the partnership to Cheshire, combined our experience properly and incorporated Apexia Group Limited on 11 July 2024.
Today, Apexia works with UK businesses and live events across software platforms, AI automation, e-commerce, connected products, cloud infrastructure, event networks, AV and physical installations. A lesson from an early experiment can solve a broadcast problem. An abandoned remote-control car can teach us how to build weather-resistant lighting. Nothing useful is wasted.
In build rooms, stadiums, server racks and unfinished spaces—usually with a deadline getting closer and a team depending on the result.
The combination is the point
Same problem. Two completely different ways of seeing it.
Systems · Infrastructure · Delivery
Co-founder
Joshua sees how the pieces fit together. With almost 15 years across data centres, networking, frontline support and international broadcast delivery, he is happiest taking a problem apart, finding what matters and getting the solution working in the real world.
Software · Products · Automation
Co-founder
Chris has been building software since he was young. He turns untidy real-world problems into clear, dependable platforms and works just as comfortably alongside the hardware, infrastructure and people those systems support.
What the hard jobs taught us
We plan carefully, adapt quickly and take responsibility when the pressure arrives. The job is not finished until it works where it needs to work.
Software, hardware and infrastructure are not separate worlds. The strongest solutions come from understanding how they meet.
A small project can provide the missing idea for a much bigger one. Curiosity is not a distraction from the work—it is part of how we do it.
Great technology matters, but so do the people beside you at 2am. We value straight conversations, shared effort and teams that care about the outcome.
The short version
Working together since 2012 · Incorporated 2024
