On Thursday night, UKTN brought together some of the country’s most exciting tech startups to celebrate the Elevator Pitch Awards 2017.
Following the 14 superb live pitches delivered on the morning of Tuesday 26th September, a panel of experts ranked each business on variables such as originality of idea, the quality of the three-minute pitch and the long-term potential of the company.
The judges scoring the startups were: Suzanne Ashman, partner at LocalGlobe; Diana Krantz, VC investor at Draper Esprit; Eyal Malinger, investment director at Beringea; and Tom Wilson, investment manager at Seedcamp.
The points given to each entrepreneur were tallied, the results verified and the winning startups were ready to be announced.
Here are your Elevator Pitch Awards 2017 winners…
AdTech / MarTech, sponsored by Kreeston Reeves – Vidsy
In the first award of the night, Vidsy walked away with the title in the AdTech / MarTech category.
The startup allows brands to link up with creators to produce mobile video ads.
Vidsy was commended for its simple objective to make mobile video easy for any brand or business, with the clarity of the pitch from Vidsy’s head of marketing Pedro Carvalho helping it to the top spot.
Runners up: Monterosa and Sceenic
HealthTech, sponsored by Digital Radish – Thriva
Pitched by its CEO and co-founder Hamish Grierson, Thriva is building the world’s first preventative healthcare service.
Grierson won over the panel by explaining how his company is striving to create a HealthTech solution that is fit for the 21st century, enabling remote access to everyone and using data intelligently to predict and prevent problems before they occur.
PropTech, sponsored by Stirling Ackroyd – Acasa
Despite a minor blip involving some mysteriously disappearing slides, the strength of the pitch given by Acasa CEO and co-founder Nick Katz was still enough to see the company emerge victorious in the PropTech category.
Acasa is developing foundational technology that runs the home, “so the world can live better, together”.
FinTech, sponsored by EY – SeedLegals
In a very, very close two-horse race, it was SeedLegals that bagged the prize in the FinTech category.
The company allows founders and investors to create all the legal documents they need to build their company and close their funding round, online, in minutes from any connected device – the concept was an instant hit with the panel, while the pitch from founder and CEO Anthony Rose was praised for being impassioned yet concise.
Runner up: Flux
Cybersecurity, sponsored by Cisco – Anon AI
The final tech category to be announced was Cybersecurity – the winning startup: Anon AI. The company’s CEO Harry Keen gave a persuasive pitch for how the startup is overcoming the challenge of automatic data anonymisation using AI, with the panel buying into the relevance of the business’ proposition and the clarity of Keen’s presentation.
Runners up: Citizen and Fortitude
Best Pitch – Flux
Having been pipped by the narrowest of margins in the FinTech category, Flux was not to walk away empty handed from the night.
The company achieved the highest score out of any startup for the quality of the pitch delivered by its CEO and founder, Matty Cusden-Ross.
Flux is a data platform that gets rid of paper loyalty cards and receipts by linking exactly what you buy to what you already have in your pocket – your bank card.
Abandoning the rostrum and standing centre stage with no frills or gimmicks, Cusden-Ross was a deserving winner of the Best Pitch award for having provided a powerful 180-second presentation that gripped the interests and attention of the entire room.
Standout Success – Vidsy
Having already secured the first prize of the night for the best startup in the AdTech / MarTech category, Vidsy rounded off affairs by walking away with the evening’s blue ribbon award.
Given to the pitch that secured the highest combined score of all startups at the preceding live pitch event, Vidsy’s head of marketing Pedro Carvalho wowed the panel with a slick presentation and compelling business proposition.
The keynote
With all the awards handed out and the bar re-stocked ready for more mingling, there was still one more treat for the attendees; Emma Sinclair MBE – a serial entrepreneur and the youngest person in the UK to take a company public – delivered a superb, inspiring keynote presentation.
On a night created to celebrate the art of concise public speaking, Sinclair’s short speech on the importance of perspective within the context of running a business was a powerful and fitting note to end proceedings on.
Thank you
UKTN would like to congratulate all the winners from the Elevator Pitch Awards 2017, while huge praise must also go to the other finalists who were shortlisted to just 14 from more than a hundred companies who applied this year. The event once again underlined the huge depth of talent that exists across the UK’s tech industry, rightfully championing the country’s innovators, disruptors and business leaders.
Our thanks go to the panel of judges for their time, and of course to the five sponsors who made the event possible.
The seventh Elevator Pitch Awards was another fantastic success and we look forward to beginning the hunt for yet more startup stars next year!
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