Civil servant 'gave up stake in £170m SwiftKey app for a bicycle'

Chris Hill-Scott left tech firm in 2008, weeks after startup was set up - now Microsoft has bought it for 174m

A civil servant traded in his stake in the keyboard app SwiftKey in 2008 in exchange for a bike, only to see it grow into a 170m success - and to miss out on a payout that could have been worth 25m.

Chris Hill-Scott, a 29-year-old from Buckinghamshire, founded the startup bought by Microsoft on Wednesday with Cambridge-graduate friends Jon Reynolds, 30, and Ben Medlock, 26, in 2008. He was appointed director of SwiftKey's parent company TouchType Ltd on 13 August, according to Companies House, but resigned just months later on 24 October that year.