The new UK venture's main purpose is to promote Purple DS, Sprylab's digital publishing platform.

It was officially opened in June in Old Street, London, following Rahim's appointment in May.

“The big focus for Sprylab from 2007 was on the German market but it found last year that it was getting requests from other European countries," Rahim said.

“It had hit a bit of a saturation point within the publishing sector in Germany and the most obvious move was to the UK market, which is fairly buoyant compared to some other European countries.”

Rahim is currently working in the UK office along with two freelancers, but he will be hiring two or three more staff with client services or marketing backgrounds towards the end of this year.

“The focus of the UK venture is to solidify Purple DS as a major player within the digital publishing space and also to be an alternative to existing players. This year we have seen the demise of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS), very few publishers can afford it. Adobe are now more focused on the high-end corporate market,” added Rahim.

The UK venture hopes to pick up more projects such as one it carried out in April 2016 with the British Red Cross, which was shortlisted for a Digital Impact Award.

Purple DS allows users to create native iOS and Android mobile apps using any workflow from a variety of unstructured pre-media platforms, including InDesign, Photoshop and PDF.

It is mainly meant for companies within the digital publishing sector, with previous Purple DS users including Bauer Media, Axel Springer and Mercedes Benz.

Rahim said the 60-staff company is looking at potentially opening up other regional European offices, possibly in Austria and Switzerland, depending on the success of the London office.

Rahim was appointed to the newly-created role of head of digital at Rhapsody three years ago, and earlier this year was invited to spend some time with Sprylab in Berlin, after which he was offered the new role.

“I had been aware of Sprylab for a couple of years. Last year they started to move into new markets and market themselves quite aggressively as an alternative to Adobe DPS, which I liked,” added Rahim.

“I will be helping them manage their UK client base, bringing insider knowledge of the UK marketplace and helping them in their sales and marketing endeavours.”