Beam announced as Super Connect for Good national winners

by Startacus Admin

Beam, the training platform for homeless people is announced as the best emerging tech startup to bring positive social change through technology...

Fantastic news for Beam, a training platform for homeless people as it has been announced as the national winner of the Super Connect for Good competition run by Hays, the recruiting experts, and global super connectors Empact Ventures.

The competition recognises Beam as the best emerging tech startup in the UK that brings positive social change and enhances people’s lives through technology.

Beam is a startup that we’ve featured previously and is the world’s first platform to crowdfund employment training for homeless people and support them into skilled, long-term work. It provides members of the homeless community with a vital support network and the resources needed to secure a stable career, paving their way toward true independence.

The platform has crowdfunded more than £1 million in donations from members of the public, 100% of which goes towards the end cause. This has enabled 121 people to start work.

Beam was crowned the winner at a virtual final on 17th November 2020, coinciding with Global Entrepreneurship Week. As the national winner, Beam was awarded a selection of prizes worth over £90,000. Coming second place was TapSOS and CanSense Ltd came third. Other industry winners announced at the live final included NeateBox (HealthTech - General), MySense (HealthTech – Health Ageing), Bold Health (MedTech), Beam (GovTech) Tootoot (EdTech), Civic Dollars (SmartCities) and Intelligent Growth Solutions (AI).

Alex Stephany, CEO of Beam, spoke of the achievement: “We’re delighted to be recognised among some of the most innovative and impactful Tech for Good startups in the UK. At Beam, we believe that technology, when used effectively and collaboratively, has the potential to change millions of lives. It’s inspiring to see the great work that other social impact businesses in the UK are doing to empower the most disadvantaged within society. We as a social enterprise are very proud to have been selected as the national Super Connect for Good winners for 2020, and are looking forward to next year, when we will begin to expand our services beyond London and into other UK cities.”

James Hallahan, Director of Hays IT and Head Judge of the competition, commented: “Our goal was to discover the best emerging and disruptive tech startups and scaleups in the UK & Ireland, enhancing people’s lives through technology. A huge congratulations to Beam on being announced the national winners of Superconnect for Good. Their product stood out to myself and the other judges based on its huge social impact, scalable model, proven funding model and its vision to give everyone the chance to be amazing, in its purpose of tackling homelessness, sadly a chronic and growing problem in the UK”.

Kosta Mavroulakis, Founder & CEO of Empact Ventures and National Director for England for Global Entrepreneurship Network UK (GEN UK), commented: "Congratulations to our National Winner Beam, our 7 Industry Winners and 8 Regional Winners who are truly making an aggregate social impact through technology in society such as supporting the homeless, improving education, healthcare, public services and more”. 

 

 

 

 

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Published on: 18th November 2020