tech deal of the year award

sponsored by Rothschild & Co

The 2024 shortlist:

Darktrace plc

Cambridge-based Darktrace is a pioneer in AI cybersecurity. The group has revolutionised autonomous cyber defence and has been a stand-out business in the UK tech landscape for more than a decade.

In October this year, leading software investment firm Thoma Bravo announced the completion of an all-cash acquisition of Darktrace, valuing the group at approximately $5.3bn. The offer represented a premium of 20% over Darktrace’s closing share price of 517p, which was the last trading day prior to the announcement. The acquisition enables Darktrace to pursue further scale and innovation for its next stage of growth.

IRIS Software Group

IRIS Software Group provides industry leading business critical software solutions and services to manage core business operations. The group is based in Slough and is a regular on the shortlist at the UK tech awards. 

In December 2023, amidst ongoing challenging market conditions, IRIS signed one of Europe’s largest software transactions The group secured a co-controlling investment from LA-based private equity firm, Leonard Green & Partners, who invested alongside existing long term investors Hg Capital and Intermediate Capital Group. This fund raising round gave Iris  an enterprise value of approximately £3.15bn. The deal more than doubles IRIS’ £1.3bn valuation, cited in 2018, and supports the group’s ambition to expand and scale  its North American operations.

Monzo Bank 

London-based Monzo is a digital bank offering a mobile app for managing money, budgeting, and saving. The group was one of the earliest of a number of new app-based challenger banks in the UK.

In March this year, Monzo announced that it had raised £340m in a funding round to help boost its expansion plans. This was closely followed by a further fundraise in May 2024 of $190m, boosting Monzo’s total funding this year to $610m and raising the value of the business to $5.2bn post-money, making the group one of the most valuable digital banks in Britain. Earlier this month, Monzo also announced it was launching a secondary share sale that is set to increase the group’s value even further.

Raspberry Pi Holdings plc

Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi is a leader in low-cost, high-performance computing used by engineers and enthusiasts across the world. The group created The Raspberry Pi foundation to widen access to computing through the availability of low-cost computers.

Raspberry Pi listed on the LSE Main Market in June this year. The group raised £166m in a significantly oversubscribed IPO, giving the business a market cap of £541.6m, a total that has since increased to over £800m since the start of trading. Demand for the stock has been significant and the group’s shares increased by more than a third on the first day of trading.

Revolut Group Holdings 

Headquartered in London, Revolut is a digital banking app that offers a range of financial services. The group is among the top digital-only financial providers for regular travellers and those sending money overseas. 

In August this year, Revolut secured a $45bn valuation in a share sale by employees, cementing its status as Europe’s most valuable start-up. This valuation is more than a 20% jump on the group’s 2021 valuation of $33bn, achieved when raising cash from investors including Vision Fund and Tiger Global Management.

Wayve Technologies 

London-based Wayve is the leading developer of Embodied AI technology for automated driving. The group’s advanced AI software and foundation models for autonomy enable vehicles to perceive, understand, and navigate any environment, enhancing the usability and safety of autonomous driving systems.

In May this year Wayve announced a $1.05bn Series C investment round led by SoftBank Group, with contributions from new investor NVIDIA and existing investor Microsoft. This is the largest known investment in an AI company in Europe to date, and helps the group accelerate its mission to reimagine autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence.

tech commentator of the year award

sponsored by Gracechurch Group

The 2024 shortlist:

Anisah Osman Britton MBE

Anisah regularly writes for Sifted, reporting on European tech. Anisah covers the practicalities of running a company, in addition to a weekly newsletter titled ‘Startup Life’. Anisah also writes for the Evening Standard, Courier Media and The Guardian.

Anisah is well respected voice in the industry, driven by her steadfast belief that tech can be a force of good if it employs a workforce that represents the diversity of society today. She has been deeply involved in the founding and/or operating of both technology and community driven initiatives. Anisah is currently Director of Operations at WVC:E, an organisation dedicated to promoting the inclusion, integration and empowerment of women in venture capital. 

Amy Lewin/Sifted

Amy is an experienced journalist having worked in the industry for over a decade. Amy leads Sifted’s team of journalists, hosts the monthly podcast, writes Sifted’s weekly VC newsletter Up Round and regularly speaks at tech events across the continent. Amy was shortlisted for the tech commentator of the year award in 2023.

Amy has a particular interest in the ‘human side’ of companies and making the tech and financial sectors more appealing and accessible to all. As such, she reports on issues including female representation in venture capital and the role of startups in addressing societal issues such as climate change. Amy provides a fresh voice to the global tech debate and highlights the considerations that matter to European startups and innovators. 

Hannah Murphy/Financial Times

Hannah is a tech correspondent at the FT, leading the conversation around social media giants such as Meta, X and TikTok, in addition to covering topics including AI, the metaverse, disinformation, cyber and election security. Hannah regularly moderate panels for FT Live and at other conferences and c-suite events. She has also appeared on live slots and documentaries with national broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4.

Hanah is driven by a passion for the intersection of social platforms with other aspects of the tech world, including fintech and cybersecurity. Prior to her time as tech correspondent, Hannah worked as a finance reporter where she worked on issues including online trading, stockbroking and market structure.

Katie Prescott/The Times

Katie is the Technology Business Editor at the Times and is one of the most prominent technology and business journalists in the UK. She covers key developments across the technology, media and telecoms space and their impact on our day to day lives. Katie recently provided some of the most incisive journalism on AI available, from the dangers of deepfakes, to the twists and turns of the journey of Open AI. 

Katie has been a trusted voice to millions of listeners during her time on both Times Radio and presenting business news on Radio 4’s Today Programme where she analysed and explained global issues such as climate change, COVID-19, and the latest developments in cutting edge technologies. In addition, Katie also hosts a number of major events staged by The Times.

Simon Thompson/Investors’ Chronicle

Simon is Associate Editor at the Investors’ Chronicle and is an experienced and influential investment writer with a significant following. He has almost two decades experience at the publication and as part of this role, having begun his career with IC as Companies Editor in 2001.

Simon publishes a daily column on stock-picking, which is widely read and well-respected by potential investors. He is the creator of Investors Chronicle’s ‘Bargain Shares’, a value portfolio that has beaten the market in 18 of the last 22 years. In addition, Simon is a published author with multiple stock picking guides to his name.

James Titcomb/The Telegraph

James is one of the leading technology journalists in the country, with a significant UK following. He is currently the Technology Editor at The Telegraph, having worked with the paper for almost a decade, first as a general business reporter and then heading up the paper’s Silicon Valley Bureau in the US. Prior to his time with the Telegraph, he also worked as a reporter for City AM and the Daily Mail. 

James is an important and influential voice in the tech world, particularly on the intersection of technology and current affairs where he is trusted to provide incisive journalism on issues such as COVID censorship, the perpetuation of conspiracy theories through online bots and a potential looming TikTok ban in the US. 

scale up award

sponsored by J.P. Morgan

The 2024 shortlist:

Beam

In September this year, Rovco and Vaarst merged, creating a new brand, Beam. Based in Bristol, Beam is a leading deep technology company, using AI and autonomy on robotic ships and underwater robots to service offshore wind farms. 

Beam is changing the way its industry operates, moving it from a low margin 20-30% model to a high margin 60-70%+ automated business model with AI at its very heart. The group now holds contracts in over 90% of the USA’s operational windfarms, has operated in over 70% of the UK’s windfarms, and is rapidly growing in Europe. Rovco/Beam has raised $38.5n in total over 9 rounds of fundraising and is backed by Foresight, L&G and Equinor. 

Cera

London-based Cera is Europe’s largest provider of digital-first home healthcare. The group is redefining healthcare by moving more and more services out of hospitals and into people’s own homes.

Cera is one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, having rapidly expanded since it’s launch in 2016. The group’s annualised revenues have grown from £3m to £300m by growing its NHS and local government contracts from just five to 350 in only four years. This growth is reflected in Cera’s workforce, with the group now employing nearly 10,000 carers and nurses, and delivering 2m in-person community visits every month, which is equivalent in capacity to almost 100 hospitals.

ComplyAdvantage 

Headquartered in London, ComplyAdvantage is the financial industry’s leading source of AI-driven financial crime risk data and fraud detection technology. The group’s mission is to neutralise the risk of money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption, and other financial crime. 

In April this year, ComplyAdvantage announced its acquisition of Golden, a San Francisco-based innovator automating the construction of one of the world's largest knowledge graphs. The deal strengthened the group’s foothold in North America by delivering an extensive base of US customers and fuelled ComplyAvantage’s significant growth following its expanded client roster.

Finbourne Technology Group 

London-based Finbourne provides investment management solutions and a cloud-native data management platform. The group’s interconnected investment functionality and data management solutions power financial services professionals to make better, faster decisions.

In September this year, Finbourne successfully raised over £100m in a secondary funding round, building on its £55m Series B earlier this year. The investment, led by CommerzVentures and HSBC Ventures, will accelerate Finbourne’s high-growth go-to-market strategy, in addition to expanding its sales, product and marketing capabilities in the US, UK, Ireland, Singapore and Australia.

Fresha

Headquartered in London, Fresha is the leading marketplace platform for beauty & wellness. The platform allows consumers to discover, book and pay for beauty and wellness appointments with local businesses via its marketplace, while beauty and wellness businesses use an all-in-one platform to manage their entire operations. 

Fresha has quickly established itself as the world's largest beauty and wellness software marketplace. The group has translated its platform in to 14 languages, which has fuelled its global expansion and has delivered 70% revenue growth year-on-year, compared to the average SaaS growth of 20%. Fresha has raised $185m in total in venture capital to help deliver further rapid expansion.

Immersive Labs 

Bristol-based Immersive Labs is a leader in people-centric cyber resilience. The group’s tailored approach to cyber skills development continuously assesses, builds, and proves cyber capabilities, whilst keeping teams ahead of an ever-evolving threat landscape.

Immersive Labs is trusted by the world’s largest organisations and governments, including Citi, Pfizer, Humana, HSBC, USPS, the UK Ministry of Defence, and the UK National Health Service. The group achieved ARR CAGR growth of 50% over a 3 year period, with organic expansion into 13 countries with customers in over 35 countries. Immersive Lab’s organic growth has been fuelled by VC investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Summit Partners, Insight Partners, Citi Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Menlo Ventures. 

Quantexa

Quantexa is an innovative global tech firm, based in London. The group is highly experienced in helping organizations across a variety of industries solve some of their biggest business challenges with data and AI.
 

In April last year, Quantexa completed its Series E funding round. The latest investment round secured the group’s unicorn status with a valuation of £1.5bn and accelerated the execution of its growth strategy within the $500bn Decision Intelligence space. The group also completed its first acquisition last year of an award-winning provider of AI-based risk and market intelligence solutions, which further accelerated Quantexa’s growth plans. 

tech for good award

sponsored by Heidrick & Struggles

The 2024 shortlist:

Arenko Cleantech

London-based Arenko is a market-leading technology provider enabling the clean energy transition. The group’s mission is to build a sustainable future by enabling a zero-carbon grid worldwide.

Arenko has created a complete software solution which connects and optimises the battery’s technical and commercial performance using automation technology, AI, enhanced analytics and deep-learning algorithms. The group digitally connects energy assets with revenue opportunities in real-time through autonomous data driven decision-making and execution. This enables trading desks, utilities and asset owners to maximise revenues and reduce cost to serve. 

Cera

London-based Cera is Europe’s largest provider of digital-first home healthcare. The group is redefining healthcare by moving more and more services out of hospitals and into people’s own homes.

Cera is one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, having rapidly expanded since its launch in 2016. The group’s annualised revenues have grown from £3m to £300m by growing its NHS and local government contracts from just five to 350 in only four years. This growth is reflected in Cera’s workforce, with the group now employing nearly 10,000 carers and nurses, and delivering 2m in-person community visits every month, which is equivalent in capacity to almost 100 hospitals.

eyeWitness to Atrocities

eyeWitness to Atrocities is a London-based charity that combines law with technology to ensure footage of mass atrocity crimes meets evidentiary admissibility standards applicable before international and national courts. 

The group offers the only system – the free eyeWitness to Atrocities app and a secure database – specifically designed by legal professionals for human rights defenders to collect, verify, and safeguard digital evidence of atrocity crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. In addition to the app and database, eyeWitness provides training on photo and video documentation, legal expertise and links to key investigative bodies, streamlining the process from documentation to justice.

KareHero

KareHero’s mission is to radically change the lives of over 10.6 million family caregivers supporting adults through their care journey. With escalating NHS waitlists, KareHero helps employees stay at work by alleviating caregiving pressures and preventing burnout, providing practical support when it’s needed most.

Today, KareHero supports over one million employees and families, helping shorten their stays in hospital while saving the NHS £10k per day for a bed space. They have also helped families access £4.9 million in care funding, enabling them to pay for care while reducing the burden of the ‘cost of living’. Since inception, KareHero has saved over 200k employee hours recovering some £8 million in lost productivity while improving talent retention. 

KareHero has partnered with FTSE companies and national charities, including Phoenix Group, TSB Bank, St. James’s Place, Unicef, British Telecom, and the NHS to bring much needed support to their employees and customers.  

Raspberry Pi Holdings plc

Headquartered in Cambridge, Raspberry Pi is a leader in low-cost, high-performance computing used by engineers and enthusiasts across the world. The group’s aim is to democratise technology by providing access to low-cost computers. 

The group created The Raspberry Pi foundation, which is a registered charity to enable young people to realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies. The foundation launched the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, three years ago, and continues to work closely with businesses, foundations, and governments to ensure that its work reaches as many teachers and young people as possible. 

Unmind

Unmind is an enterprise SaaS mental health platform, based in London. The group is creating a new era of work by combining proactive and reactive mental health solutions with AI and advanced data-led strategies. 

Unmind has partnered with some of the world’s biggest brands such as Uber, Nationwide, Standard Chartered, Mediacom and British Airways, to give over 2.5m people the right support at the right time. The group helps Human Resource Officers shape the future of work through tailored strategies, measuring organisational health, educating leaders to power positive business performance and ensuring all employees have the right care at the right time.

Zoe

London-based Zoe is a healthtech company that specialises in gut microbiome testing. The group has run the world’s largest in-depth nutrition study in order to produce a personalised program to give individuals insights into how their body responds to food.

Zoe’s PREDICT study encompasses a collection of rigorously designed clinical trials that have helped the group understand and predict personalised metabolic responses to foods, in order to  move beyond a “one-size-fits-all” approach to nutrition. The group’s at-home test kit helps people gain a better understanding of their unique metabolism and gut microbiome. People who follow the ZOE program report impressive results, with 85% of it’s members reporting they feel healthier. 

tech investor award

sponsored by Teneo

The 2024 shortlist:

Accel 

Accel is a leading venture capital firm with offices in Palo Alto and California, in addition to operating funds in London, India and China. Since inception, the group has invested in over 300 companies, including Facebook, Slack, and Dropbox and was one of the first Silicon Valley venture firms to set up a European team.

Accel has raised more than $12bn in total capital commitments and has invested in over 700 companies in its history. In May this year, Accel announced it had raised $650m for its eighth early-stage fund to invest in start ups in Europe and Israel. In addition to its investments, Accel is involved in various community and philanthropic initiatives. The firm has launched several programs to support entrepreneurship and innovation in underrepresented communities, including a partnership with the nonprofit organization, All Raise, to increase diversity in the tech industry.

Balderton Capital

London-based Balderton is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage, technology and startups in Europe. The group is considered to be among the four-biggest venture capital firms in the UK.

Since launch, Balderton has invested in over 275 technology companies from across Europe. The group’s current portfolio includes global leaders such as Revolut, GoCardless, Wayve, Writer and PhotoRoom. In addition, many of the group’s previous portfolio companies have successfully exited, including Darktrace, Depop, MySQL and THG. In August this year Balderton announced a $615m Early Stage Fund IX and $685m Growth Fund II, to back Europe’s most ambitious entrepreneurs from seed stage through IPO, marking the first time the group has raised early and growth funds simultaneously.

Dawn Capital

London-based Dawn Capital is one of the few European venture capital firms with deep expertise in SaaS. The group backs European founders to build the next generation of global software leaders. 

Since launch, Dawn Capital has raised over $2bn from global investors and backed more than 80 companies across 16 European countries. The firm’s portfolio includes Mimecast, iZettle, Tink, LeanIX and currently established unicorns Collibra, Dataiku and Quantexa.  In September 2023 Dawn Capital raised capital of $700m; $620m was channelled to its dedicated early-stage B2B software fund, with $80m allotted to a follow-on fund.

Hg

Hg is a leading investor in European and transatlantic software and services businesses. The group was founded in 1990 as Mercury Asset Management and then became part of Merrill Lynch Asset Management in the late 90s. In 2000, the partners spun the business out of MLAM to become Hg, a fully independent leveraged buyout firm. Hg has won the tech investor of the year award, most recently in 2022.

Hg has delivered outstanding performance for its investors and as a result, has achieved strong growth, increasing fund sizes by an aggregate of 88%. In September this year, the group announced the closing of multiple fundraisings include Hg Genesis 9, closing on €4.4bn; Hg Mercury 3 closing on €1.3bn and Hg Saturn 2 which closed on $4.85bn, with all three funds hitting their hard-caps.

Index Ventures 

Index Ventures work with entrepreneurs and their companies at every stage, across every sector. The firm was born in Geneva in 1996, and quickly expanded to London with the goal of bringing Silicon Valley-style investment to Europe.

Index has a long history of identifying, nurturing, and partnering with visionary founders, with an impressive portfolio that includes Figma, Discord, Notion, and Roblox. In July this year, the group announced it was adding $2.3bn in new funds with its 12th venture fund of $800m and its 7th growth fund of $1.5bn, bringing total capital raised since its founding to £11.6bn.

Summit Partners

Summit Partners is a leading growth-focused investment firm with offices in Boston, New York, London and Luxemburg. The group invests across growth sectors of the economy and, since its founding has invested in over 550 companies in technology, healthcare and other growth industries. 

Summit’s global team includes more than 100 investment professionals with deep domain knowledge within key growth sectors. In October this year, Summit raised $9.5bn for its twelfth US Growth Equity Fund.  The new fund, Summit XII, will target majority and minority investments of $75 to $500m primarily in profitable, category-leading growth companies. With this new capital, the group is now managing more than $46bn in assets across its fund complex.

best use of tech in the digital economy award

sponsored by Edison Group

The 2024 shortlist:

1Spatial plc

Cambridge-based 1Spatial is a global leader in Location Master Data Management (LMDM) software and solutions. The group’s software is primarily used by enterprises and government bodies to make better business decisions through improved accuracy and sharing of location data.

In July this year, 1Spatial announced it had secured several new contracts in the US, supporting the digital transformation of transport and emergency services departments. The new contracts delivered, in aggregate, at least $500,000 in annual recurring revenue. Alongside its newly launched SaaS offerings,  1Spatial has a number of growth vectors available to enable the group to deliver on its ambitions.

Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc

London-based Eagle Eye is a leading SaaS company enabling retail, travel, and hospitality brands, such as John Lewis and Pret a Manger, to earn the loyalty of their end customers by powering their real-time, omnichannel, and personalised consumer marketing activities.

The group’s cloud-based platform, Eagle Eye AIR, provides the most flexible and scalable loyalty and promotions capability in the world. The group plans to launch a growing number of EagleAI offerings, including 'Personalised Flyer', an AI powered personalised digital flyer in 2025.

Speechmatics

Cambridge-based Speechmatics specialises in automatic speech recognition (ASR). The group’s advanced ASR solutions leverage neural networks and statistical language modelling to convert spoken language into written text. 

Speechmatics’ technology supports real-time transcription and translation across over 50 languages, making it a leader in the speech-to-text industry. As voice becomes a primary way to interact with technology, inclusive technology will be more important than ever. In October this year, Speechmatics showcased its inclusive technology in a film produced by BBC StoryWorks, which demonstrated a look at the future of voice technology.

Trainline plc

London-based Trainline is Europe’s leading independent rail platform, selling rail and coach tickets to millions of travellers worldwide. The group operates through three business segments: UK Consumer, International Consumer and Trainline Solutions.

Trainline’s technology has transformed the way the public buy their train tickets. In July this year the group created a new booking portal, called platform One, which is home to Trainline’s own retail channels, as well as handling ticket sales for several train operators. The new platform covers more than 270 rail and coach companies across 45 countries, including over 80% of rail routes in Europe.

Windward 

Windward is a leading predictive intelligence company, fusing artificial intelligence and maritime expertise to digitise the global maritime industry, based in London. The group’s customers include leading participants across the maritime industry covering banks, commodity traders, insurers, government agencies, and major energy and shipping companies.

Windward’s AI-powered software solutions provide real time information and insights on major seafaring vessels at sea, enabling stakeholders within the maritime eco-system to make intelligence-driven decisions to manage risk and achieve business and operational insights. In October this year, the group announced a number of key developments, including significant business expansion and new contract wins in the Government sector amounting to $1.9m.

Youth Group

Youth Group is a group of companies that solves challenges for the next generation. Its mission is to help 100 million young people with their work, money and health goals and it is used by some of the world’s leading brands including Pret A Manger, Easyjet, Google, and Mars.

Youth Group provides tailored solutions to help brands connect and engage with the next generation. One of its most recent collaborations is with Easyjet and My Duvet Flip, which is hailed as the UK's Leading Career Show and was created to provide comprehensive guidance and support to viewers. EasyJet was announced as an official brand partner for Season 4, which will feature a conversation with Training Pilot Captain Kate West, who became the world’s youngest female Captain at the age of 26.

tech growth business of the year award

sponsored by ECI 

The 2024 shortlist:

Concurrent Technologies plc

Concurrent Technologies is a designer and manufacturer of leading-edge computer products, systems and mission critical solutions used in high-performance markets by some of the world’s major OEMs. The group is based in Colchester, Essex.

Concurrent technologies has enjoyed significant growth over the last few years. The group secured eight major design wins across US, UK, Europe and Asia Pacific during the period, in addition to winning its largest ever contract to date of $6m with a major US Defence & Aerospace prime contractor, providing validation to its technology.

Epos Now 

Based in Norwich, Epos Now is an AI-driven point-of-sale platform processing over $30bn annually. The group offers seven financial products across EMEA, APAC, and AMER, including full deposit banking, account numbers, and faster payment methods. 

The demand for Epos Now’s financial products has driven very strong growth, resulting in the group reaching $160m in revenue this year and scaling operations across 10 countries, including the UK, USA, Australia, Mexico. Its complex AI and embedded finance products drive growth for merchants, making the group indispensable to its customers and enabling them to succeed in a competitive market.

Exclaimer 

Guildford-based Exclaimer is a leader in email signature management for Microsoft and Google services. The group’s solution simplifies signature management, maintaining brand consistency, promoting campaigns, and gathering customer feedback in real-time. Clients include BBC, Make-A-Wish, Sony, and Bank of America.

Exclaimer has made a significant impact on the industry and in under two years, its ARR has surged from £30m to £54m. The group has introduced a comprehensive global pricing and product revamp, elevating PPU by 35%, enhancing conversion rates by 50%, and expanding Enterprise deals by 18% worldwide. Exclaimer’s channel sales have been instrumental in driving this success.

Featurespace 

Featurespace invented Adaptive Behavioral Analytics, Automated Deep Behavioral Networks and ARIC Risk Hub, the most powerful and open technology to combat fraud and financial crime. The group has headquarters in Cambridge and Atlanta and its customers include HSBC, NatWest, TSYS, and Worldpay.

Featurespace’s proprietary technology builds complex behavioural profiles to identify anomalies in real-time. The group’s technology consistently provides a 75% uplift in Fraud Detection Rates with a 5:1 False Positive Ratio. In September this year, Featurespace announced it had signed a landmark definitive agreement to be acquired by Visa in a deal which should close early in 2025.

Revolut Group Holdings 

Headquartered in London, Revolut is a digital banking app that offers a range of financial services. The group is among the top digital-only financial providers for regular travellers and those sending money overseas. 

In August this year, Revolut secured a $45bn valuation, cementing its status as Europe’s most valuable start-up. The group added 12m new customers globally last year, reaching 45m in June 2024 and its group revenues increased by 95% to $2.2bn. In addition, Revolut reported a record profit before tax of $545m, leaving the group well positioned for strong growth in 2024 and beyond.

Team Internet Group plc

London-based Team Internet Group is a leading global internet solutions company operating in two highly attractive markets. The group’s proven business model is backed by straight-forward KPI, high-quality earnings, scalable technology and an entrepreneurial management team.  

Since Team Internet’s IPO in 2013, the group has achieved a revenue CAGR of 71%, driven by a blend of significant organic growth and strategic acquisitions. The group’s gross revenue increased by approximately 15% in FY2023 and is set to break the $1bn barrier imminently. Team Internet’s recent transformational acquisition of Shinez sees the group poised to take its growth to new levels.

tech businesswoman of the year award

sponsored by PwC

The 2024 shortlist:

Kerry Baldwin/IQ Capital Partners

Kerry co-founded IQ Capital in 2006 and has over 20 years deeptech venture capital experience. Kerry was Chair of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and is an international advisor and speaker on venture capital, deeptech ecosystems, research and innovation. 

Kerry invested in the first wave of UK deeptech companies and has focussed on deeptech early-stage technology over her five funds which invest from seed to £30m. Kerry specialises in GTM, Strategic Marketing, Competitive Intelligence and heads up IQ’s cybersecurity, climate tech, supervisory tech, big data and neuro-tech portfolio. She sits on several boards including Risilience,  FNA and CyberSmart.

Joanna Drake/THG plc

Joanna is CIO at THG, with a rich career spanning over two decades in senior IT leadership. With a relentless focus on driving global transformations, Joanna is a stalwart in the technology sector. Joanna has also held pivotal positions at organisations including Skyscanner, Wood Mackenzie, Betfair and Yahoo.

In her current role at THG, Joanna spearheads the delivery of world-class global operations and technology services across various platforms, ranging from corporate to retail and beyond. She is a people orientated leader who is passionate about leadership, Diversity & Inclusion. In addition, Joanna sits on the advisory boards of the Global CIO Institute, Hottopics, Forrester and the UK IT Leaders group.

Siân John MBE/NCC Group plc

Siân is the CTO at NCC Group and is responsible for intelligence, insight and innovation within the business. Siân has worked in Cybersecurity for 25 years across strategy, business risk, privacy, and technology. 

Since joining NCC Group last year, Siân has defined the future direction of services through close interaction with clients, industry, and academia. As a recognised cyber security thought leader and strategist, Siân held previous roles at Microsoft and is the current Chair of techUK’s Cyber Security Management committee. Siân was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to Cybersecurity.

Martina King/Featurespace

Martina King joined Featurespace in 2012. Formerly the MD of augmented reality company Aurasma, she has an extensive career in media and technology, including MD of Yahoo. 

Under Martina’s leadership, Featurespace has become the world’s leading provider of Enterprise Financial Crime prevention software, risk scoring events and preventing fraud and financial crime in more than 180 countries. The group has raised over £100m in funding, supporting its ongoing expansion and ability to protect more than 30 major global financial institutions, including HSBC, Worldpay, NatWest Group, Danske Bank and Barclays. Since 2018, Martina has been honoured by PaymentsSource as one of its Most Influential Women in Payments in addition to being named in the Top 40 Powerful Women in Tech by Silicon Republic.

Catherine Ramsdale/Pragmatic Semiconductor 

Catherine is SVP Technology at Pragmatic Semiconductor, where she oversees the maturation of its technology platforms, from early process development through to release of its Process Design Kit to external users. Formerly at Plastic Logic (now FlexEnable), Catherine has worked in the flexible electronics sector since completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2002. 

Catherine has played a major role in the development of ultra-thin semiconductor circuitry on flexible substrates, taking early proof-of-technology concepts through to manufacturing readiness. She is named inventor on over 15 patents in the field and co-author on numerous research publications.

Liz Upton/Raspberry Pi Holdings plc

Liz Upton is Executive Director of Communications at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. She was an award-winning journalist before becoming one of the co-founders of Raspberry Pi along with her husband Eben. 

Liz has steadfastly guided the communications at the Foundation and Trading since founding the group. The Raspberry Pi story began in 2006 with the creation of the first prototypes inspired by the BBC Micro of the 1980s. Six years later, the first Raspberry Pi was created and today, following the group’s recent very successful IPO, the business has a market cap of £690m. Liz and Eden received Honorary Fellowships from The National Museum of Computing for their services to technology in 2022.

tech innovation of the year award

sponsored by Berenberg

The 2024 shortlist:

Bramble Energy 

Surrey-based Bramble Energy is an award-winning cleantech business accelerating global decarbonisation and powering the transition to a Net Zero world. The group’s mission is to solve the global challenge of making clean energy technology accessible. 

Focusing on manufacturability, scalability and rapid innovation, Bramble Energy has developed PCB-X™, a versatile hydrogen platform that leverages printed circuit board (PCB) technology to create a series of patent protected clean energy solutions. By making hydrogen fuel cells more affordable and scalable, Bramble is paving the way for a sustainable energy future, positioning itself as a key player in the cleantech industry.

Closed Loop Medicine 

Cambridge-based Closed Loop Medicine is redefining medicine by enabling physicians to treat the individual, not just the disease. The group’s pioneering approach aims to democratise healthcare by enabling real-time, real-world dose optimisation of both next-generation and established medicines, improving outcomes for patients with chronic diseases.

Modern healthcare demands more comprehensive monitoring that accounts for individual variability and tailors treatments effectively. Closed Loop Medicine’s patented technology not only provides personalised disease management, it also offers cost and resource savings for healthcare systems, in addition to providing a protected and differentiated route for pharma. The group’s vision occupies a unique space at the intersection of data, healthcare, and traditional therapeutics.

Diaceutics plc

Belfast-based Diaceutics is a leading technology and solutions provider to the pharma and biotech industry, with 17 of the top 20 global pharma companies as its customers. The group’s DXRX platform, the world’s first diagnostic commercialisation platform for precision medicines, helps patients receive the right therapy to positively impact their disease outcome. 

Diaceutics’ platform uses AI to analyse millions of data points across its network of affiliate laboratories to identify where patients are not receiving the optimal treatment, then provides biotech organisations with the solutions to help address these opportunities. The group is ideally positioned to address the $3bn of lifetime precision medicine revenues lost due to inadequate testing and to bring its therapies to market more effectively.

Featurespace 

Featurespace's world-leading, real-time machine learning product helps prevents fraud and financial crime using its ARIC™ Risk Hub. The group is based in Cambridge and has harnessed generative AI to develop cutting-edge fraud prevention innovations for the financial services industry.

Featurespace pioneered the world’s first ever Large Transaction Model (LTM) named TallierLTM™. TallierLTM is a large-scale, self-supervised, pre-trained model designed to power the next generation of AI applications for the financial services and payments industries. The model is able to predict future consumer transactions because it has been trained with more than 10 billion varied transactions, making it highly accurate and representative of real-world consumer transactions. TallierLTM is an innovation the banking industry desperately needs, amid skyrocketing fraud, and tough, potentially very costly, regulation.

Luminance Technologies 

Founded by AI experts from Cambridge University, Luminance is a pioneer in Legal-Grade™ AI. The group is revolutionising the way organisations draft, negotiate and analyse their documents by bringing next generation AI to every single touchpoint an organisation has with its contracts. 

With a specialist legal Large Language Model (LLM) that has been exposed to 150+ million legally verified documents, Luminance has developed an AI which can produce, analyse and understand legal content; from taking a first-pass assessment of incoming contracts and re-drafting them in a click, to analysing executed documents and aiding criminal investigations.  The group’s proprietary Legal-Grade™ AI is validated by leading lawyers and used by 600+ organisations including BBC Studios.

Pragmatic Semiconductor 

Cambridge-based Pragmatic is a global leader in flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs), with a ground-breaking technology platform that revolutionises semiconductor manufacturing. The group’s uniquely flexible chips deliver low cost, low-carbon intelligence at scale to fuel AI models and power the IoT.

Pragmatic’s FlexIC Foundry® technology delivers rapid, high-volume fabrication with a high level of customisation. Due to the simplified production process, the group’s foundry has an extremely compact footprint, giving rise to the concept of Fab-as-a-Service (FaaS). FaaS gives customers their own compact fab – a ‘Fab-in-a-Box’ – which can be quickly deployed wherever it’s needed, at around a tenth of the cost of a silicon semiconductor fab and significantly faster, providing the most attainable route to semiconductor sovereignty.

tech CEO of the year award

sponsored by Boardwave

The 2024 shortlist:

TS Anil/Monzo Bank

TS joined Monzo in October 2020 and is a highly respected financial services and payments leader with more than 25 years of retail banking experience. As CEO, he brings a wealth of  expertise from his earlier career at Visa, Standard Chartered, Citigroup and Capital One in roles that have spanned the world, including the US, Singapore, Canada, Japan and India. 

TS has enormous experience launching new products, developing innovative payment technologies and taking existing businesses to new growth opportunities. Monzo has become renowned for its customer-centricity, an approach that has been instigated and led by TS, which has had significant results. Earlier this year, Monzo was valued at £4bn after it secured a £340m funding round led by Alphabet’s growth fund CapitalG. 

Poppy Gustafsson/Darktrace plc

Poppy Gustafsson was CEO and co-founder of Darktrace up until last month. She stepped down from the business after overseeing its £4.2bn sale to US private equity business Thoma Bravo. Poppy is a champion of gender diversity in tech and has been honoured with an OBE for her contributions to cybersecurity.

Under Poppy’s leadership, Darktrace experienced momentous growth. Poppy spearheaded the group’s IPO on the Main Market of London Stock Exchange in 2021, which valued the business at £1.7bn, and relentlessly continued to drive the group’s growth, culminating in its £4bn valuation. She successfully guided Darktrace through some challenging moments and was instrumental in helping the group achieve its technology vision of a Cyber AI Loop. Last month, the Government announced Poppy would head up the Office for Investment as a minister in the Treasury and the Department of Business and Trade.

Rene Haas/ARM Holdings plc 

Rene was appointed CEO of ARM in February 2022. Prior to this, Rene was President of ARM’s IP Product Groups (IPG) from January 2017. Under his leadership, Rene transformed IPG to focus on key solutions for vertical markets with a more diversified product portfolio and increased investment in the ARM software ecosystem. 

Rene leads ARM from offices in California, while the company headquarters remain in Cambridge. Since taking on the role of CEO, Rene reformed the group’s leadership team and was instrumental in completing ARM’s blockbuster IPO on NASDAQ in September, which gave the group a market cap of over $54bn. Earlier this year, the group’s shares surged 55%, powered by strong forecasts on demand for its technology. As of last month, ARM now has market cap of £123bn.

Steve Hare/Sage Group plc

Steve joined Sage in 2014, having previously been operating partner and co-head of the Portfolio Support Group at private equity firm Apax Partners, which he joined in 2009. Prior to this Steve built over 10 years’ experience leading the finance function for three listed UK companies, culminating as CFO for FTSE 100 company Invensys.

Steve is passionate about transforming the way people think and work to enable their organisations to thrive. He is a proud supporter and volunteer of CVYP0 (The Cramlington Voluntary Youth Project) and The Sage Foundation, which has raised $3m to support non-profit organisations across the world. Steve has driven Sage to achieve significant scale and growth. In the third quarter, the group’s  total revenue increased by 9 % to £585m, driven by continued growth across the Sage Business Cloud portfolio.

Vishal Marria/Quantexa

Vishal is CEO and Founder of Quantexa. With over 20 years of experience, Vishal is globally recognized for his ground-breaking work helping industry leading organisations operationalise data and AI to improve organisational decision-making. Previously the youngest Executive Director at EY, Vishal led major programs at international banks including global Anti Financial Crime technology strategy, data-driven remediation, and end-to-end reviews of strategy and policy.

Vishal founded Quantexa with one unique goal in mind: to create a technology platform that would materially change the way people make strategic, operational and tactical decisions from a data foundation they could trust. Since founding the group, Vishal steered Quantexa to Unicorn status, accelerated its international expansion, and helped the firm gain recognition as one of the fastest growing companies in the UK, along with being awarded Bloomberg's 25 Top Startups to Watch in 2023.

Richard Petti/IQGeo Group plc

Richard joined IQGeo in 2016, bringing with him 25 years of experience in developing market leading businesses for automotive, financial and industrial customers. Richard was previously CEO of Asset Control, a supplier of data management systems to leading financial institutions, and COO at WEMA, a leading provider of sensors to commercial vehicle manufacturers.

Since joining the group, Richard has successfully re-branded IQGeo, divested the RTLS division, made two significant acquisitions and expanded the group’s global presence, serving more than 100,000 users from 200 clients worldwide. In addition, Richard is an active contributor to the fintech and industry 4.0 sectors, and a published author on topics such as risk management, data aggregation, and stress testing.

Dr Eben Upton/Raspberry Pi Holdings plc

Eben founded the Raspberry Pi Foundation in 2008 with a mission to make computing more accessible to young people. He serves as CEO of  Raspberry Pi plc and has over 25 years' experience in the technology industry. Eben was previously a Distinguished Engineer with fabless semiconductor company Broadcom, and co-founder and CTO of mobile games and middleware vendor Ideaworks 3d.

Eben is responsible for the overall architecture of the Raspberry Pi device that has been sold more than 60 million times since launch, including 7.4 million last year. Eben recently led the company in its successful float on the LSE Main Market, which raised £166m during the IPO, representing a landmark milestone for London and the UK tech industry. Raspberry Pi reported an operating profit for FY23 of $37.5m on sales of $265.8m and its strong financial track record has enabled the group to distribute approximately $50m since inception to support the work of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. 

tech company of the year award

The 2024 shortlist:

Darktrace plc

Cambridge-based Darktrace is a pioneer in AI cybersecurity. The group has revolutionised autonomous cyber defence and has been a stand-out business in the UK tech landscape for more than a decade. The group has been shortlisted for 3 awards at this year’s UK tech awards.

Darktrace reported a strong close to its financial year, with annualised recurring revenue of $782.2m for the year to end June 2024, representing  year-on-year growth of 22.7%. In October this year, the group announced its acquisition by leading US software investment house, Thoma Bravo, valuing the group at approximately $5.3bn. The acquisition will enable Darktrace to pursue further scale and innovation for its next stage of growth.

Featurespace 

Featurespace has become the world’s leading provider of Enterprise Financial Crime prevention software, risk scoring events, and preventing fraud and financial crime in more than 180 countries. The group has been shortlisted for 4 awards as this year’s UK tech awards.

Featurespace has raised over £100m in funding, supporting its ongoing expansion and ability to protect more than 30 major global financial institutions, including HSBC, Worldpay, NatWest Group, Danske Bank and Barclays. In September this year, Featurespace announced it had signed a landmark definitive agreement to be acquired by Visa in a deal which should close early in 2025.

IFS 

IFS is the world’s leading provider of industrial AI and enterprise software for hardcore businesses that make, service, and power our planet. The group was founded by five university friends who pitched a tent outside its first customer's site to ensure they would be available 24/7. Since then, IFS has grown into a global leader with over 7,000 employees in 90+ countries.

Last month IFS delivered the strongest growth quarter to date in Q3 2024, reinforcing its position as the fastest growing industrial software company. The group completed two significant acquisitions, adding significant growth and scale to the business. IFS’ Annual Recurring Revenue increased by 30% year-on-year.

Octopus Energy 

Octopus Energy is a renewable energy company based in London. The group focuses on sustainability and innovation, managing extensive renewable energy projects and leveraging technology to enhance energy efficiency and customer experience. 

In December 2003, Octopus Energy announced its existing shareholders had invested a fresh $800m into the company, bringing its total valuation up to almost $8bn, a 60% increase from its December 2021 valuation. Last month, Octopus Energy paid over £3bn to the UK Government following its acquisition of Bulb, delivering a significant boost to government finances at a time when budget constraints are pressing. Octopus ensured that every Bulb employee was offered a job (an impressive 94% chose to stay) while seamlessly migrating Bulb’s 1.5 million customers onto its systems within six months, minimising disruption to customers.

Raspberry Pi Holdings plc

Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi is a leader in low-cost, high-performance computing used by engineers and enthusiasts across the world. The group created The Raspberry Pi foundation to widen access to computing through the availability of low-cost computers. Raspberry Pi has been shortlisted for a record 5 awards at this year’s UK tech Awards.

Raspberry Pi listed on the LSE Main Market in June this year. The group raised £166m in a significantly oversubscribed IPO, giving the business a market cap of £541.6m, a total that has since increased to over £800m since the start of trading. The group reported its profitability in the first half was stronger than expected, with Gross Profit of $34.2m and Adjusted EBITDA of $20.9m, up 55%. Raspberry Pi was recently awarded the London Stock Exchange's Green Economy Mark based on the energy efficiency benefits of its computers.

Revolut Group Holdings 

Headquartered in London, Revolut is a digital banking app, offering a range of financial services. The group is among the top digital-only financial providers for regular travellers and those sending money overseas and has over 35 million customers globally.

In August this year, Revolut secured a $45bn valuation in a share sale by employees, cementing its status as Europe’s most valuable start-up. Prior to this, Revolut reported a record $545m profit, driven by a 95% revenue increase to $2.2bn. The fintech’s diversified revenue streams and strategic initiatives, including new products and market expansions, have positioned it for further significant growth and success.

Sage Group plc

Sage Group is a UK-based company providing cloud business management solutions for SMBs. The group offers software for accounting, finance, payroll, and human resources and its products help businesses automate processes, improve efficiency, and ensure compliance. 

During the period, Sage continued to introduce new AI-powered products and services that delivered enhanced productivity and insights for the group. In the third quarter, Sage’s total revenue increased by 9% to £585m, driven by continued growth across the Sage Business Cloud portfolio. The group has supported thousands of entrepreneurs in underserved communities with loan funds and grants, in addition to helping develop STEM skills in over 10,000 young people in the UK.

Wireless Logic Group 

Wireless Logic is a global leader in IoT and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) managed services. Founded in 2000, the group offers connectivity, control, and security solutions across mobile and satellite networks. Its services enhance operational efficiency for sectors like energy, healthcare, logistics, and retail.

In April this year, Wireless Logic, secured a milestone global reseller agreement with SpaceX’s Starlink. The agreement integrates Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity into Wireless Logic’s extensive portfolio of managed services, offering greater flexibility and choice for global IoT deployments. Wireless Logic has achieved consistent organic revenue growth and reported expanding EBITDA margins and excellent operating cash conversion.