The 10 Winners of Tech Nation's 'Rising Stars' competition are revealed
by Startacus Admin
Female founders take the lead as Tech Nation announces the most diverse winners of its national ‘Rising Stars’ competition to date
Tech Nation has announced the 10 winners of its fourth Rising Stars competition, which recognises the brightest and best early-stage tech scaleups from every area of the UK. Previous years’ Rising Stars Winners have included Selazar (from Northern Ireland), Circa5000 (from the North West) and SeedLegals (from London), who have received a combined £33.79mn in investment to date, demonstrating the ability of the Rising Stars to scale quickly, and their potential to become the UK’s tech ‘unicorns’ (companies with valuations of $1bn+) of the future.
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This year’s winners were selected by a panel of 7 judges (industry experts with extensive experience in starting and scaling tech businesses), including Emma Jones (Founder of Enterprise Nation), Nahu Ghrebremichael (Partner at Singular Ventures) and Jess Jackson (Head of Investment at GC Angels), based on their value proposition, competitive advantage, market traction, team experience and potential to scale. Tech Nation has been delighted to partner with multinational law firm Pinsent Masons to deliver Rising Stars 4.0.
The winners of this year’s competition are HR DataHub, Kuberno, Kythera AI, MYNDUP, Naurt, Renude, Settld, RDvault, xigxag and Zoa Rental. These companies are working to transform a range of different industries, ranging from fintech, healthtech and deathtech to gaming and retail.
Together, these Rising Stars have a combined average raise of £678,000 and a total combined raise of £6,780,000. They have an average number of 8 employees, and 8 out of the 10 winners are revenue-generating.
Esme Caulfield, Competitions Lead at Tech Nation, said: “This year’s Tech Nation Rising Stars 4.0 Winners demonstrate the very best of UK tech innovation. It’s been so exciting to see this year’s Rising Stars winners disrupting a wide variety of tech sectors. like fintech, lawtech and so many others, including - for the first time - deathtech. Perhaps even more excitingly, this is one of our most diverse cohorts yet, with the majority of winning companies having female founders or co-founders, and nearly three quarters hailing from outside of London.”
This year has also seen the most regionally and gender diverse set of winners in Rising Stars history, which showcase the pockets of innovation and entrepreneurship right across the UK. 7 out of the 10 businesses hail from outside of London and the South East, with 2 of the winners from the East of England and 2 in the North East, and the South West, Scotland, North West each being home to one winner. Notably, this is the first time Rising Stars winners have come from the North East.
6 out of the 10 companies have a female founder or co-founder, and this representation mirrors the strength of female-founded businesses overall, which have already attracted more investment in 2022 so far than the whole of 2021 and 2020.
9 out of 10 of this year’s winners also stated they have taken steps to make their businesses more diverse and inclusive over the last year, citing strategies including using inclusive language in job descriptions, providing D&I training to their teams, and having transparent pay structures.
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The Rising Stars are also contributing to the UK’s net zero goals. 70% of this year’s 10 winners stated they have taken measures to reduce their business’ impact on climate change in the past year, citing strategies such as eliminating the use of paper, embracing remote working, switching to more sustainable delivery providers, using energy efficient services and assessing the environmental impact of business decisions.
Going forward, the 10 Rising Stars winners will continue to be supported by the UK tech ecosystem as they are inducted into the Tech Nation alumni network. Recognising and empowering all of the winners of the Rising Stars competition is at the core of Tech Nation’s mission to fuel the growth of tech scaleups who are helping us create a stronger UK economy, society and future.
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Published on: 30th March 2022
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