tech deal of the year award

sponsored by Rothschild & Co

The 2023 shortlist:

Arm 

Cambridge-based Arm’s foundational technology is defining the future of computing. The group’s energy-efficient processor designs and software platforms have enabled advanced computing in more than 250bn chips. Together with its technology partners, Arm is enabling artificial intelligence to work everywhere, and is delivering the foundation for trust in the digital world – from chip to cloud.

ARM began trading on NASDAQ in September this year. The pricing of the group’s blockbuster IPO was $51 per share, giving the group a market cap of over $54bn, and making it the largest IPO of the year by far. After listing, Arm’s stock jumped 25% to $63.59, lifting the group’s  market cap to almost $68bn. Arm’s deal was at the top of end of its expected price and its hugely successful IPO generated significant positivity in the tech industry. The company is not receiving any proceeds from the offering, since all shares were sold by SoftBank. Arm had more than $2 billion in cash and short-term investments to fund its activities as of the end of June.

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Bango plc

Based in Cambridge, Bango provides the technology and partnerships online merchants need to acquire more paying users. Thousands of merchants and developers benefit from the Bango technology and ecosystem, from startups to the world’s largest online businesses, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

In August last year, Bango completed the transformational acquisition of Docomo Digital. The deal almost doubled the size of the business, adding $16m of annual revenue, $3.5bn of end user spend and 100 new customers. The acquisition gained attention from financial analysts due to the compelling financials and growth acceleration it brings to Bango. Once completed, it is hoped the transaction will deliver $10m of EBITDA and enable Bango to achieve $21m of cost synergies, solidifying the group’s leadership position and further accelerating its growth trajectory.

Kooth plc

London-based Kooth is the UK’s leading digital mental health platform. The group’s online platform is clinically robust and accredited to provide a range of therapeutic support and interventions.

In July 2023, Kooth announced it had been awarded a $188m contract with the state of California. Kooth was selected from more than 450 competing providers and will be the primary vendor partner for digital mental health services to the state’s six million 13 to 25-year-olds. The same day as it announced its Californian contract, Kooth also raised £10m in a significantly oversubscribed share placing to help the group’s expansion across the US. Kooth’s Californian contract follows on from a $3m pilot contract signed with the state of Pennsylvania in November 2022 to offer digital mental health support to 150,000 school children.

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Oxa

Oxa, formerly known as Oxbotica, is a global leader in autonomous vehicle software. The group is based in Oxford and was founded eight years ago on the vision of Universal Autonomy™ - providing safe and sustainable autonomy that is independent of workplace and vehicle type.

In January this year, the group announced it had raised $140m in Series C investment to deploy its operating system for Universal Autonomy™ in multiple commercial and industrial domains around the world. The investment round included current shareholders, in addition to new investors such as Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co and ENEOS Innovation Partners. The fundraise was validation of Oxa’s strategy to apply self-driving technology where there is persistent and urgent demand and helps drive the group’s geographical expansion in North America, EMEA and APAC.

Raspberry Pi Ltd

Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi is used in tens of thousands of commercial applications in a variety of industries across the world. The group was initially created as a charity to give young people access to programmable hardware at a low price, and to equip a new generation with the coding skills that are so vital in today’s economy. Raspberry Pi has sold more than 40m units and created a market worth $1bn.

In April this year, Raspberry Pi secured a strategic investment from Sony’s semiconductor unit, in a deal aimed at advancing its efforts in artificial intelligence. The value of the investment was undisclosed, however Raspberry Pi’s co-founder and CEO said that the firm raised the cash at the same $500m valuation it was worth in a 2021 funding round, when it brought in $45m. The transaction allows Raspberry Pi users to build exciting new machine-learning applications at the edge.

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Reward Gateway

London-based Reward Gateway is a leading employee engagement platform provider that helps companies engage, motivate and retain people. The group partners with over 4,000 companies in 23 countries to empower over 8 million users to connect, appreciate and support one another to make the world a better place to work.

In May this year, Reward Gateway announced it had been acquired by the worldwide leader in employee benefits, Edenred, for £1.15 bn. The deal brings many benefits to both companies, including accelerated delivery of a comprehensive range of solutions and an extended reach of Reward Gateway‘s platform into new regions and countries. The combined group’s increase in product innovation and advanced technology provides a truly market-beating solution.

tech commentator of the year award

sponsored by Gracechurch Group

The 2023 shortlist:

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Callum Burroughs/Business Insider

Callum is an insightful business journalist, with a passion for the intersection of business and technology. He has worked at a number of prestigious outlets including Squawka and The Sunday Times. Joining the team at Business Insider in 2018 as Markets and Finance Reporter, Callum has since served as Fintech and Startups reporter and Senior Reporter for the publication since 2020. Callum began as the Startups correspondent in 2022, embracing his passion for disruptive technology.

Callum is one of the UK tech scene’s most effective scoopsters, keeping founders, venture capitalists, and other business readers up to speed on the most important startup deals and trends. Callum has regularly beaten national publications and more experienced journalists to breaking news on big deals and movements in the sector, such as Monzo's IPO discussions and a number of AI investments. Callum is highly knowledgeable and deeply sourced in the private startup market, which comes across in well-informed, timely pieces about what's happening in tech.

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James Harding/Tortoise Media

James is the Co-Founder and Editor of Tortoise Media, a leading news publication rooted in a desire to get past breaking news headlines and provide insightful reporting on the leading issues, including those within the technology space. James is a household name in the journalism industry, having started his career at the FT on the European Desk. Most recently, James served as the Director of News and Current Affairs at the BBC.

James has received plaudits for his work on the intersection of Technology and Democracy, in particular on how journalism needs to evolve in order to effectively cover technology’s impact on society, describing it as “one of the essential tasks of journalism in the 21st century”. Today, James provides regular insights in his Editor’s Letter, as well as in podcasts, and conversations with leading influential figures.

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Richard Holway MBE and Anthony Miller/TechMarketView

TechMarketView was founded by Richard Holway MBE and Anthony Miller, now both recently retired, in 2008. TechMarketView is the most influential boutique analyst and advisory firm in the UK and is trusted by tech suppliers and tech users as they navigate change within the sector.

Richard embarked on his journey in computing as a programmer back in 1966 and swiftly evolved into an influential figure by establishing Richard Holway Limited in 1986. His background in computing provided him with a unique perspective on the sector and allowed his company to become the leading authority on assessing the financial performance of the UK’s software and IT services sector. Renowned for his candour and straightforwardness, Richard’s unwavering dedication to authentic opinions set him apart as a “Trusted Influencer” in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

Anthony Miller, the self-styled ‘antidote to tech vendor hype’, is known as an influential analyst and commentator on the tech scene, with over 45 years’ experience in the IT industry. He began his career at IBM and later joined Richard Holway Limited to help build the business, leading to its sale to Ovum in 2000. Known for his excellent and often funny analysis, during his career, Anthony was devoted to providing pithy and informative commentary on the sector to all.

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Amy Lewin/Sifted

Amy Lewin is an experienced journalist with a passion for startups that has defined her career. Amy has been integral to the growth of Sifted, the FT-backed media brand for the European startup community, having joined as Senior Reporter at its inception in 2018 and grown alongside the publication to her current role as editor.

Amy has a keen interest in the ‘human side’ of companies and is passionate about making the tech and financial sectors more enticing and accessible to all. Amy has reported on issues such as female representation in venture capital, and the role of startups in addressing societal issues such as climate change and food security, reflecting her dedication to providing a fresh voice to the global tech debate and highlighting the considerations that matter to European startups and innovators. In addition to providing her insight on sector news, Amy hosts regular podcasts, and conversations with leading industry spokespeople to drive the debate.

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Andrew Orlowski

Andrew is a freelance journalist who writes a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph. With over two decades of experience in journalism, Andrew has utilised his deep knowledge and passion for technology to explore the relationship between man and machine. Having held the role of executive editor at global enterprise technology news publication, The Register, from 2000 to 2019, Andrew went on to found Think of X – a research network providing new thinking for decision-makers about the long-term political and economic consequences of technology.

Andrew was the first journalist to report on, and warn of, the social and economic power of today’s platforms, before Google had even floated in 2004. He was also the first writer to describe the “Balkanisation” of the internet into hermetically sealed silos of opinion, something now called the filter bubble.  Today, Andew’s recent articles have ranged from cataloguing the weaknesses of Big Tech, to the economic impact of net zero targets, to the utilisation of technology by governments. Recently, Andrew documented Russia’s demonisation of the internet in its conflict with Ukraine and subsequent exodus of IT talent, further evidencing his commitment to examining and educating upon tech’s societal impact, both positive and negative.

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Ian Spence/Megabuyte

Ian is the CEO of Megabuyte, a highly respected research provider, providing truly independent insights and high-level analysis on UK technology businesses. Ian began his career at Investors’ Chronicle, before moving into the city to pursue a career in Investment Banking as a technology analyst. Ian later founded Megabuyte in 2007, which started out as a software blog, but quickly grew into a leading advisory business.

Ian is well known as an ambassador for the UK tech sector. Alongside his work as founder and chairman of Megabuyte, Ian is also a trusted advisor to the Boards of both public and private technology companies on their corporate strategy. He also frequently speaks at conferences on the latest themes and trends in the tech sector. In recognition, Ian was named by Debretts and the Sunday Times as one of the 20 most influential people in the UK Technology Sector.

scale up award

The 2023 shortlist:

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Beamery Ltd

London-based Beamery is an AI-powered talent platform trusted by some of the largest, most innovative, global organisations - spanning industries such as technology, financial services, consulting, life sciences and healthcare. The group helps companies hire candidates faster, develop the skills of their workforce, and increase employee retention.

Beamery is one of the fastest growing SaaS businesses globally. The business was founded in 2013 by brothers Abakar and Sultan Saidov who recognised the career ladder was fraught with bias, privilege, and inefficiency, therefore they wanted to provide equal employment opportunities for all through innovative technology. Beamery became one of the UK’s latest unicorns in December 2022 by raising $50m in a Series-D funding round led by Teachers’ Ventures Growth, taking the group’s valuation to over $1bn. The fundraise was completed during a challenging environment and represented a 25% valuation uplift over Beamery’s previous funding.

Garrison Technology Ltd

Garrison Technology is a deep tech cyber security business based in London. The group applies security patterns developed by the National Security sector to develop enterprise solutions for the commercial world, laying the foundations for truly secure, flexible and scalable IT.

Garrison is rapidly expanding in both the UK and the US and is strongly supported by its investors. The group has raised over $50m to date. Garrison has taken a huge step towards investing in tomorrow's ultra-secure and increasingly mobile IT infrastructure by developing the world's first hardsec cloud. Hardsec can deliver rock hard security while maintaining the flexibility to address real-world cybersecurity problems in a cost-effective manner. The group is predicted to continue its strong growth in coming years in both government and commercial markets around the world given the ever more critical need to protect against web-borne threats such as phishing and ransomware.

Infogrid Ltd

London-based Infogrid is changing the world through building intelligence. The group’s AI-powered platform gathers and analyses data from the smartest IoT technology to drive its mission of making every building healthy, efficient and sustainable.

Infogrid’s platform helps property managers and owners optimise the performance of their buildings. Via IoT sensors manufactured by an ecosystem of hardware partners, Infogrid can measure domains such as the number of people, air quality and cleaning needs throughout a building, in addition to tracking energy usage and CO₂ levels in relation to the number of people in a building, enabling customers to make adjustments impacting sustainability scores and operating costs. In November last year the company acquired Aquicore, an ESG data and analytics company, while in April 2023  Infogrid raised $90m in a Series B round led by Northzone, which will be used to further drive its impressive growth.

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Matillion Ltd

Manchester-based Matillion is data transformation for cloud data warehouses. The group’s software empowers customers to extract data from a wide number of data sources, load data into their chosen cloud data warehouses, and then transform that data from its siloed source state into useful, analytics-ready data that helps businesses unlock the hidden value in their business.

Matillion is one of the most prominent UK Tech start-ups. The ever-increasing growth of the cloud means businesses are deploying more mission-critical SaaS applications than ever before, resulting in a more complex cloud-data ecosystem. Mattilion provides a unified cloud data experience to help organisations improve on efficiency and productivity. At the start of this year, Matillion announced major company growth and product evolution, in addition to a significant expansion of its customer base. Matillion has raised over £290m to date and its latest Series E round valued the group at a reported $1.5bn. Core investors include Lightspeed Ventures, General Atlantic, Battery plus strategics, Snowflake and Databricks.

Orbus Software

London-based Orbus Software is a global B2B SaaS provider for managing enterprise transformation, helping companies to architect their digital future. The group’s cloud software platform, OrbusInfinity, enables organisations to create a ‘digital blueprint’ of their enterprise, guiding and accelerating transformation initiatives. Orbus Software has been described as an  ‘internal Google Maps for large, complex organisations’.

Orbus’ growth strategy is built on product innovation to win the trust of new customers in key verticals, growing existing customer business through customer success, and extending its strategic partner ecosystem. The group has doubled its ARR in the last two years and its headcount has increased 135% since 2019. In addition, Orbus has received significant funding from major investors, which has taken the business from founder-led to a global market leader in just three years.

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Quantexa Ltd

London-based Quantexa has created a Decision Intelligence Platform that gives customers the ability to understand data by connecting siloed systems and visualising complex relationships. The group helps customers establish a culture of confident decision making at strategic, operational and tactical levels to mitigate risk and seize opportunities on their path to building efficient and resilient organisations.

Quantexa’s products are used by hundreds of customers in around 70 countries, including BNY Mellon, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Danske Bank and Vodafone. In March this year, Quantexa announced it had secured backing from a syndicate of investors, including a Singapore sovereign wealth fund, which valued the group at around $1.5bn. The series E funding round of $129m was completed during a time when many tech companies were struggling to secure new financial backing, thereby validating Quantexa’s platform. In the last eighteen months, Quantexa has doubled its revenues, users and number of industries its targets.

tech for good award

sponsored by Heidrick & Struggles

The 2023 shortlist:

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60 Decibels Inc.

60 Decibels is a global, tech-enabled impact measurement company that provides actionable, benchmarked social performance data. The group’s registered office is in the US, however a significant part of its management team and its ownership company are based in the UK.

60 Decibels has built a sector-leading infrastructure to undertake rapid, quality social impact measurement remotely. The group enables its clients to listen to the people who matter most, their beneficiaries – be they customers, suppliers, workers, or users – anywhere in the world. This is then turned into quality, benchmarked performance data and accompanying insights to help clients demonstrate and manage their social performance. 60 Decibels has worked with over 300 of the world’s leading impact investors, corporations, foundations, social enterprises, NGOs, and public sector organisations, and its expertise spans Agriculture, Off-Grid Energy, Financial Inclusion, Education, Gender and Inequality and Health and Disability.

Blancco Technology Group plc

Based in Hertfordshire, Blancco Technology is a leading global provider of mobile lifecycle solutions and secure data erasure solutions. The group’s solutions ensure that data is permanently erased from computer equipment, enabling it to be recycled, reused or resold without risk of data being compromised.

Blancco has pioneered the way for tech companies to support the circular economy by way of its data-erasure services, which have enabled 54m assets worldwide to be securely erased with its market-leading software. As a result of this, 68.2m kg of e-waste has been prevented from going to landfill, therefore enabling devices to be securely redeployed, sold or donated. In addition, Blancco has partnered with several organisations to tackle the “disadvantaged digital divide”, including creating the “Laptop for Kids” initiative, which provides underprivileged children with computers/laptops and training them on the e-sanitisation processes.

C2-Ai

Cambridge-based C2-Ai provides globally unique AI-backed systems to help hospitals save up to 10m bed days, saving lives, reducing complications, saving up to £2.4bn and clearing the elective waiting list faster for the NHS.

C2-Ai addresses the huge patient waiting list issue, prioritising patients on clinical urgency and thereby saving lives, reducing patient harm/mortality and accelerating how quickly the list is tackled. C2-Ai’s AI-backed waiting list prioritisation system, built on experience from 425m patient records assessed, helps put the right patient, in the right place, at the right time.

Diaceutics plc

AIM listed, and based in Belfast, Diaceutics provides the world's leading pharmaceutical and life science companies with solutions and technology for the commercialisation of precision medicines, enabled by its DXRX platform. It is the company’s belief that every patient should get the opportunity to receive the right test and the right therapy to positively impact their disease outcome.

DXRX is the world's first diagnostic commercialisation platform for precision medicine, utilising a global network of affiliate laboratories to deliver multiple pipelines of real-world healthcare data insights, advisory services and innovative platform enabled solutions. The platform, using AI, can analyse millions of data points to identify where patients are not receiving the optimal treatment and then provide pharma and biotech organisations with the solutions to help address these opportunities. Ultimately, this will result in precision medicines achieving their patient treatment goals faster, and more patients receiving the right treatment at the right time.

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Euan's Guide

Based in Edinburgh, EuansGuide.com is a disabled access review website. The charity was founded in 2013 by Euan MacDonald MBE, a powerchair user, and his sister Kiki, after Euan was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease and they discovered how the lack of disabled access information made everyday experiences stressful.

In the ten years since launch, EuansGuide.com has revolutionised the way disabled people navigate the world. The group’s USP is the emphasis on user-generated content. Euan’s Guide encourages individuals to share their firsthand experiences and reviews, fostering a supportive community and a rich database of trusted disabled access information. In addition, by championing accessibility, Euan’s Guide raises awareness among businesses and venues about the importance of creating accessible and inclusive welcomes for disabled visitors.

Flo Health UK Ltd

Based in London, Flo Health supports women and people that menstruate during their entire reproductive lives and provides curated cycle and ovulation tracking, personalised health insights, expert tips, and a fully closed community for users to share questions and concerns.

Flo aims to empower women across the globe to better understand their bodies and advocate for their unique health needs. The group frequently partners with external organisations and universities as part of its mission to build a better future for female health, in addition to bridging the gender research gap. In October 2022, Flo launched a multiyear prosocial initiative aimed at improving menstrual and reproductive health literacy across the globe. With this effort, Flo will grant free access to its subscription membership, Flo Premium, to millions of women in 58 countries that need it the most.

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Streeva

Cornwall-based Streeva is an ISO accredited award-winning fintech dedicated to revolutionising the tax automation landscape for individuals, organisations, and governments. The group collaborates with HMRC and other prominent organisations to deliver tax automation services across numerous industries.

Streeva's flagship product, Swiftaid, co-funded by InnovateUK, in collaboration with The University of Surrey, simplifies charitable tax relief, making it universally accessible for the first time. Due to the complexities linked to processing Gift Aid, over half a billion pounds go unclaimed every year and over 60% of charities don’t benefit. Swiftaid is the first solution recognised by HMRC to automate Gift Aid on contactless donations and has gained over 6.8m registered users. This year, Swiftaid launched its first annual campaign, The Great Gift Aid Hunt 2023, which successfully uncovered over £1.3m in unclaimed Gift Aid for the tax year 2022-23.

Zero Gravity

London-based Zero Gravity is a pioneering social mobility tech start-up. The group’s mission is to revolutionise opportunities for students from low-opportunity backgrounds, empowering them to access top UK universities and kickstart their careers. The group was founded by Joe Seddon, who started the company from his childhood bedroom with the last £200 of his student loan. Coming from a low-income, single-parent household in West Yorkshire, Joe defied the odds and secured a place at the University of Oxford.

Zero Gravity has leveraged technology to instigate a seismic shift in social mobility. The group’s platform has powered over 5,000 students from low-income backgrounds into Russell Group universities, and 1 in 4 of the students from low-opportunity backgrounds at Oxbridge now comes through the Zero Gravity platform. In addition, Zero Gravity has partnered with top graduate employers like HSBC, KPMG and Morgan Stanley to reshape traditional recruitment processes and help organisations recognise the value of diverse talent.

tech investor award

sponsored by Panmure Gordon

The 2023 shortlist:

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Augmentum Fintech

Augmentum is the UK's only publicly listed fintech investment company. The group’s objective is to generate capital growth over the long term through investment in a focused portfolio of fast growing and/or high potential private fintech businesses based predominantly in the UK and wider Europe.

The Augmentum team have a reputation for remaining open and transparent about their conditions for investing. Earlier this year, Augmentum exited pensions company, Cushon (sold to NatWest), representing an IRR of 61.7%, generating proceeds of £22.8m. This followed interactive investor’s acquisition by abrdn, which completed in May 2022, resulting in proceeds of £42.8m for Augmentum, delivering an 84.8% IRR. In total, the group has completed five exits from the portfolio since inception, making it well placed to take advantage of new opportunities and to reinforce appeal as a supportive investor.

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ECI Partners

ECI is a leading private equity investor, focussed on offering collaborative support to management teams. The firm has been delivering exceptional results for over 45 years. This is the third year running the group has been shortlisted in this category.

In September this year, ECI announced the final closing of its twelfth buyout fund, ECI 12. The fund reached its hard cap of £1bn, beating its target of £900m, marking a 40%+ increase on its predecessor fund. The fund was oversubscribed at final close, despite the widely reported challenging fundraising environment. In addition, ECI 12 attracted around £300m of new capital, with high quality investors from across the globe, including North American pension plans, European foundations as well as capital from Asia. This result reflects the strength of ECI’s track record, with two of its three most recent funds marked as the top performers in Europe in their respective vintages.

Hg

Over the last 30 years Hg has built up its scale, focus and capabilities to become a leading investor in European and transatlantic software and services businesses. Hg has been winner of the tech investor award consecutively for the past three years.

Hg manages over $65bn in funds, comprising $25bn of new investible capital, which puts the group in the top three software-focused buyout firms globally. Historically the group has made over 200 investments in the sector, with a current portfolio of over 45 software and technology businesses. Within this, its large-cap strategy, Saturn, is invested in the top three biggest software buyouts in Europe: Access Group; IFS; and Visma, all with enterprise values over £10bn. Hg’s portfolio shows continued resilience, with c.30% LTM sales, 27% LTM EBITDA1 and 18% employment growth across the portfolio, which is valued at over $120bn, allowing Hg to return significant capital to its investors.

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Index Ventures

Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London. The group invests in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI and security. Index Ventures has backed companies such as Figma, Revolut and Deliveroo.

In November last year, Index Ventures launched its second seed-focused fund, of $300m. The group confirmed the funds will be used to invest in the best early-stage founders across Europe, US and Israel, which it believes is an important ecosystem with significant opportunity in fintech and cybersecurity. Prior to this, in 2021, the group  closed a trio of new funds consisting of a $900m early-stage fund, a $2bn growth-stage fund and a previously announced $200m seed-stage fund. This provided the group with $3.1bn to support the next wave of founders, across all stages and geographical locations.

Octopus Ventures

Octopus Ventures, part of Octopus Investments, is one of the largest and most active venture capital investors in Europe. The group has sector expertise across seven areas: B2B Software, Bio, Climate, Consumer, Deep Tech, Fintech and Health.

Octopus Ventures is a well-regarded team investing into emerging technologies. In June this year, the group closed its first-ever pre-seed fund of £10m, which it will use to invest in fresh startups across Europe in the B2B software, fintech and health sectors. To date, Octopus Ventures has invested in 10 pre-seed startups through the fund pre-launch, including wealthtech Bloom Money, fertility startup Béa Fertility and B2B SaaS platform Volunteero. There is currently a lack of diversity in European tech, which Octopus hope to address with its new pre-seed fund. So far, 40% of its first investments have a female founder, and 30% have at least one ethnic minority founder, which is a benchmark the group is aiming for throughout its fund’s lifecycle. 

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Parkwalk Advisors

Parkwalk is a leading investor in ‘hard science’ companies. The group commercialises the scientific discoveries made at the UK’s globally-ranked research universities. Parkwalk is one of the UK’s most active investors in the university spin-out sector, and currently has over £450m of assets under management.

Parkwalk Advisors has invested in over 160 companies across its managed funds, including funds managed in conjunction with the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and Bristol. Some of its recent notable investments include its £8m funding of Diffblue, a University of Oxford spin-out that uses AI to write unit tests that help software teams and organisations efficiently improve their code coverage and quality, and a Series A funding of Crypto Quantique, an IoT security company, which the group co-lead alongside BGF.

best use of tech in the digital economy award

sponsored by BDB Pitmans

The 2023 shortlist:

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1Spatial plc

Cambridge-based 1Spatial provides Location Master Data Management (LMDM) software to over 1,000 customers in the Government, Utilities and Transport sectors. In an era of fast and evolving change, 1Spatial's offering sits well in the space of the IoT, Smart Cities and Renewable Energy, where big data is a key component. The LMDM market is expected to hit $26.4bn by 2025.

1Spatial's relevance in a digital economy is evidenced by the group leading the UK Geospatial Commission National Underground Asset Programme (NUAR). Construction and infrastructure projects need to source information on buried assets when preparing ground investigation or excavation work. Multiple different organisations must be contacted with their data delivered in varied formats, scales, quality, and on different timelines. NUAR aims to provide efficiency and cost savings in existing data exchange, planning and on-site activities, supporting the Government’s efforts to build back better and ‘level up’ by speeding up the delivery of housing and infrastructure projects from design to build.

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Chainalysis

London-based Chainalysis is a blockchain data platform used by government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 70 countries. The group’s data platform powers investigation, compliance, and risk management tools that have been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile cyber-criminal cases.

A common misconception regarding cryptocurrency is that it is totally anonymous and untraceable, when in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Cryptocurrencies operate on public immutable blockchain ledgers, meaning anyone can look up the entire history of transactions using a public block explorer. Chainalysis helps to map these random numbers and letters - cryptocurrency addresses – to their real-world services. With blockchain analysis tools and Know Your Customer (KYC) information, law enforcement can gain transparency into blockchain activity in ways that just aren’t possible in traditional finance.

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Diaceutics plc

Quoted on AIM and based in Belfast, Diaceutics provides the world's leading pharmaceutical and life science companies with solutions and technology for the commercialisation of precision medicines, enabled by its DXRX platform. It is the company’s belief that every patient should get the opportunity to receive the right test and the right therapy to positively impact their disease outcome.

DXRX is the world's first diagnostic commercialisation platform for precision medicine, utilising a global network of affiliate laboratories to deliver multiple pipelines of real-world healthcare data insights, advisory services and innovative platform enabled solutions. The platform, using AI, can analyse millions of data points to identify where patients are not receiving the optimal treatment and then provide pharma and biotech organisations with the solutions to help address these opportunities. Ultimately, this will result in precision medicines achieving their patient treatment goals faster, and more patients receiving the right treatment at the right time.

Finboot

Cardiff-based Finboot uses blockchain technology to enable its customers in the traditional sectors (energy, chemicals, mining and construction) to track and trace their increasingly complex and interconnected supply chains. The group’s solutions bring operational efficiency and cost savings by automating and streamlining processes, whilst also driving sustainability and ESG.

Finboot partners with companies in order to help them transition to a circular economy. This can be a daunting task as it involves various supply chain stakeholders, however the result drastically decreases climate change. Food waste is seen as a huge contributor to the rise in climate change, depletion of natural resources and pollution, which is where Finboot’s technology plays a key role. The group’s ecosystem harnesses blockchain technology to ensure waste is not created in the first place. Companies can then transition to a circular economy by tracking and tracing renewable feedstocks to guarantee authenticity, achieve transparency, provide integrity and reduce waste to protect the environmental impact of the products at the end of the chain.

HURR

Based in London, HURR is an innovative fashion rental and resale platform harnessing digital technologies to transform retail. Through its own marketplace and white-labelled services for brands, the group provides customers curated access to rental and pre-loved clothing via simple yet compelling mobile apps and websites.

At the core of HURR’s disruptive model is a proprietary order management system built to handle the complexities of rental and resale. The system uses AI to accurately match available inventory to customer preferences in order to recommend personalised options and makes use of IoT to closely monitor the status and location of inventory as it moves through the system. By cutting out the middlemen and keeping logistics in-house, HURR can achieve fast delivery times for rentals. The group’s business model gives shoppers a sustainable way to access the latest fashion and provides fashion brands with the opportunity to drive new revenue streams, attract younger customers and boost brand loyalty.

Synthace Ltd

London-based Synthace is a digital experimental platform designed for high-performance life science research and development teams to assist in the running of their projects. The software allows scientists to design their experiments, run their labs and automatically builds structured data.

Synthace digitizes the entire process of running experiments, from end to end. With minimal training, scientists can design and plan experiments, computationally simulate them, schedule them to run on automation equipment and aggregate experimental data in a single place. This allows for faster innovation in life sciences by automating traceable and reproducible experiments, automatically aggregating context-rich data, and metadata. By enabling more powerful experiments, Synthace helps broaden the scope of what can be solved, which is critical due to the vital need to mitigate new viruses, address food instability, and tackle global warming.

tech growth business of the year award

sponsored by ECI 

The 2023 shortlist:

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Agilio Software Topco Ltd

Sheffield-based Agilio Software is a health tech business. The group has created, and now leads, a new market category – frontline healthcare operations software, which has been achieved in only four years. Agilo’s cloud-based products free up time for patient care in an overburdened healthcare system by digitising key operational functions, such as compliance and people management.

Agilio has grown rapidly since launch in 2019, reaching £20m turnover, completing eight
acquisitions and achieving around 20% organic growth. The group has invested significantly to fuel its scalability, creating a “mother ship” to enable it to acquire and integrate businesses faster. Agilo is now a multi-sector business and the UK market leader in primary care (70% share of England’s GP market) and dental (8 out of 10 of the biggest dental service organisations use its software). Agilo completed its first international acquisition in 2022 in the Netherlands and is now planning further international growth, alongside expansion into allied healthcare sectors.

Agilo’s turnover CAGR for the last three years is 37.2%.

BCN Group Ltd

Manchester-based BCN is one of the UK’s leading Managed Service Providers and fastest growing Microsoft Solutions Partners. As a single source of partnership and provision, the group creates, develops and supports solutions for IT & Cloud Infrastructure, Cyber Security and Business Applications and has been at the forefront of digital transformation for over a decade.

BCN has organically invested in its portfolio, in addition to driving capability through strategic M&A. The group has completed eight acquisitions to date, with each transaction fulfilling a carefully cultivated strategy to increase scale, geographic reach and capability. BCN’s acquisitions have enabled the group to deepen its technical expertise and successfully gain accreditations in all six Microsoft Solutions Partner designations, placing it in a highly enviable and incredibly rare position for any UK provider. BCN’s Microsoft capability is now a defining accelerator to promote even further ambitious growth.

BCN’s turnover CAGR for the last three years is 357%. 

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Causeway Technologies Ltd

Based in Buckinghamshire, Causeway is the only global software provider that powers the design, build, operation, and maintenance of the built environment. Unlike other software companies, the group’s products provide in-depth functionality at each stage of the process, helping customers increase delivery, profitability, and environmental performance.

Since inception in 2011, Causeway has brought digital transformation to the roadworks industry across the UK. In August this year, the group acquired digital road management platform, one.network, which underpins traffic operations and communications across both the UK and the US. The acquisition, which is Causeway’s fourth acquisition since Five Arrows made a significant investment in 2021, transforms the group from being the UK market leader to becoming a truly global business, in addition to tripling its revenue.

Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc

Eagle Eye solutions is based in Surrey and quoted on AIM. The group’s API-first, omnichannel marketing solution supports businesses in creating digital connections that enable real-time personalised performance marketing through loyalty programmes, personalised promotions, apps, subscriptions and gift services. Its clients include Asda, Tesco, Pret a Manger, Morrisons, Waitrose and John Lewis.

Eagle Eye remains at the forefront of the digital transformation taking place across the world in  retail marketing, through the proven capabilities of its AIR platform and the drive and commitment of its team. In January 2023, Eagle Eye completed its first acquisition of a French AI-powered personalised promotions business, providing a blue-chip client roster in France, in addition to new opportunities in the US and APAC. At its half year results in March this year, Eagle Eye reported strong revenue growth of 32% to £20m, in addition to a 38% increase in ARR to £26.2m.

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Kaizen Reporting Ltd

London-based Kaizen is a regulatory and data specialist. The group is on a mission to revolutionise the way people work with compliance and regulation and to make it easier for firms to comply with the ever-changing and complex regulatory landscape.

Kaizen has developed an automated assurance testing service called ReportShield to quality assure regulatory reports for a wide range of regimes. The service has been the driving force behind Kaizen’s tremendous growth, turning the group from a small start-up in 2015, to a global RegTech company with over 160 clients. The success of ReportShield has allowed Kaizen to expand its service offering into other areas of compliance and enabled the group to acquire three companies since 2020, turning Kaizen from a niche company solely focused on regulatory reporting assurance into a wider compliance offering.

Tripledot Studios Ltd

Tripledot is a hyper-growth mobile games studio based in London, Barcelona, Warsaw and Jakarta. The group was forged by seasoned industry veterans from King, Facebook and Product Madness and is supported by high quality investors, including 20VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Eldridge.

Tripledot has been profitable since inception, scaling to over 30m monthly active users. In February last year, the group’s most recent series B round raised $116m, which valued the business at $1.4bn. Tripledot has continued to innovate its products over the last six years, creating around 1000 games. The FT recently placed Tripledot as the fastest growing company in Europe as part of its FT 1000 awards and the group additionally topped the Deloitte 2022 UK Technology Fast 50 awards, with the third largest average growth rate in the 25-year history of the awards.

tech businesswoman of the year award

sponsored by PwC

The 2023 shortlist:

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Heba Bevan/UtterBerry Ltd

Heba is CEO and founder of tech start-up, UtterBerry. The group is a leading force within the field of AI and ML (machine learning), and its patented AI sensor tech has been employed by Crossrail, Thames Tideway and London Underground. Heba has over 15 patents to her name, granted and pending, in a wide range of fields from manufacturing and engineering to health and sensing technology.

Heba founded UtterBerry during her PhD study at the University of Cambridge. Not only is UtterBery’s core technology developed upon the backbone that is Heba's patents and know-how, but, as a leader, she has significantly grown and expanded the group into new sectors and projects. Heba is passionate about technology design and expanding STEM education and hi-tech manufacturing in the UK and was awarded an OBE for her contributions to technology, innovation and STEM education in 2018. Heba is significantly invested in supporting the next generation of talent in the Tech industry, having delivered numerous talks and speaker sessions in schools and as part of WeAreTechWomen.

Professor Clare Grey/Nyobolt Ltd

Professor Clare Grey is co-founder of Nyobolt, a British fast-charging battery startup. The group’s technology builds on over a decade of research to bring end-to-end fast charging solutions to applications ranging from power tools to home appliances to electric vehicles and industrial robotics. In 2018, Clare and her team discovered that niobium tungsten oxide could be used to dramatically enhance the performance and lifetime of batteries, which led to the launch of Nyobolt.
 

Clare is an award-winning Cambridge University chemist who has devoted her career to understanding how to improve the energy density and life cycle of batteries. Clare’s career started at chemical giant, DuPont, where she was responsible for discovering environmentally safe alternatives to the chlorofluorocarbons destroying the Ozone layer. It was here that her interest in the relationship between battery development and environmentalism grew. Clare is a founding member of the new multi-million-pound Faraday Institution, the UK’s flagship battery research programme and, most recently, was appointed Dame Commander of The Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to Science in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Birthday Honours List 2022.

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Janette Martin/Talos360 Ltd

Janette has been CEO of Talos360 since 2021. The group is a multi-award-winning company and one of the fastest-growing tech businesses in the UK, providing over 800 businesses with its cutting-edge technology and HR services. During Janette’s short tenure, she has moved Talos360 away from a founder-based business, initiated a company rebrand, established a diverse leadership team and delivered a compelling growth strategy.

Janette started her career in tech at Sage as a technical support and later worked in various roles across the business, never missing opportunities to learn and develop her career. Janette left Sage as General Manager to undertake a role at Advanced, working for the entrepreneurial Vin Murria and then Vista Equity partners. Janette played a pivotal role in Advanced’s business transformation, which led to the group’s transaction with Vista and BC Partners for £2bn. With this experience, Janette later went on to help IRIS with its business transformation and growth plans with Hg Capital. Janette’s passion for leading successful businesses while inspiring and developing people has had a huge impact at Talos360, resulting in a fundamental transformation towards a people-centric culture.

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Anne Marie Neatham/Ocado Group plc

Anne Marie took on her current role at Ocado Group as the COO of Kindred, the AI robotics firm acquired by the group in 2022. Prior to this, Anne Marie led Ocado Technology’s team, focused on robotics and automation, in her role as Commercial Director. She has been with Ocado since 2001, originally as a software engineer, then as head of Ocado Technology in Poland in 2012. Anne Marie has previously been a software engineer in software and retail firms around the world.

Anne Marie is responsible for leading the development of applications in various areas of Ocado technology and is particularly proud of having led and managed the opening of its first international development centre in Poland. Anne Marie leads the Code for Life initiative, at the heart of which is Rapid Router, a free comprehensive coding teaching resource for primary schools. It forms the first in a series of educational resources being created by Ocado Technology based on real life challenges within its business to inspire young people to take up a career in computer science.

Eimear O'Connor/Form3 Group Ltd

Eimear O’Connor joined Form3 in 2017 as the sole female-founding member of the management team. Now, more than six years later, with over 500 employees globally, 27% of Form3’s business identifies as female. Eimear started her career at Capco, a global technology and management consultancy and also held senior roles at Visa and the Mobile Payments division of Barclays.

Eimear has responsibility for all aspects of business and service operations at Form3, including customer delivery, customer onboarding, service management, risk, people, and talent. Eimear is passionate about finding tech-first solutions that deliver a first-class customer experience aligned to Form3’s vision to power the future of payments. Eimear recently launched the ERG Women Who Form3, which focuses on career development for women, offering networking opportunities and providing members of the community with the opportunity to be involved in decision making for things they care about – including maternity leave and creating a more diverse tech space.

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Sarah Turner/Angel Academe

Sarah is CEO and cofounder of Angel Academe, an investment group focused on technology that is pro-women and pro-diversity. She has spent most of her career in digital technology in the UK, Europe, US and Asia and has held numerous mentoring roles. In 2007, Sarah founded Turner Hopkins to help companies across a range of sectors to benefit from digital, before co-founding Angel Academe in 2014 to encourage more women to become angel investors and invest in female-founded tech startups.

Sarah the inception of Angel Academe, Sarah has helped the group’s members invest in over 45 early-stage businesses in clean tech, health tech, fin tech and enterprise, which have collectively raised over £100m in investments, generated millions in revenue and delivered considerable social impact. Sarah is a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Investment Committee of the Low Carbon Innovation Fund and is on the board of the UK Business Angels Association. She’s one of Computer Weekly’s 2018 50 Most Influential Women in Tech and a member of the 2016 Maserati 100.

tech innovation of the year award

sponsored by Berenberg

The 2023 shortlist:

BP plc

FTSE 100 BP is accelerating its transition from a company focused on producing resources to an integrated energy company, focused on delivering solutions for customers. ​Castrol, which is part of the BP group, is recognised globally for its innovation, high performance and cutting-edge technology.

BP has developed its first initial enterprise-grade sensor platform, Castrol Smart Monitor, which aims to provide near real-time oil analysis. Used oil analysis is critical for industrial, heavy-duty, and global marine customers, but it’s a slow manual process that is easily contaminated. Castrol Smart Monitor combines sensor detecting key oil parameters with IoT cloud technology, to deliver real-time actionable insights for Castrol lubricant customers. The product is already in pilot testing with a variety of customers and the group intends to launch full-scale in the coming months.

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C2-Ai

Cambridge-based C2-Ai provides globally unique AI-backed systems to help hospitals save up to 10m bed days, saving lives, reducing complications, saving up to £2.4bn and clearing the elective waiting list faster for the NHS.

C2-Ai addresses the huge patient waiting list issue, prioritising patients on clinical urgency and thereby saving lives, reducing patient harm/mortality and accelerating how quickly the list is tackled. C2-Ai’s AI-backed waiting list prioritisation system, built on experience from 425m patient records assessed, helps put the right patient, in the right place, at the right time.

Evonetix Ltd

Cambridge-based Evonetix is developing a radically different approach to gene synthesis. The group’s desktop DNA synthesis platform will provide the ability to synthesise DNA at unprecedented accuracy, scale and speed, thereby accelerating scientists’ ability to use biology on a scale not currently possible.

 Evonetix has reimagined the entire DNA synthesis process and placed it all on a single semiconductor chip. The group’s chip has been designed in collaboration with world-leading semi-conductor developer, Analog Devices. Evonetix’s Evaleo platform is the only system designed to synthesize long, accurate DNA and conduct gene assembly while simultaneously correcting ‘errors’ in the DNA synthesis process, the step which is alluding all its competitors. An AI-powered cloud-based feature is also incorporated into the platform to enable collaboration between research teams. The group’s unique industry and technology expertise is supported by a world-class Board and investors with a secure international supply chain and strong IP estate.

Lumai Ltd

Oxford-based Lumai is a deep-tech company creating revolutionary all-optical computing for a quicker, smarter, more sustainable world. The group was spun out from Oxford University in response to the need for a scalable computing solution that can continue to underpin the growth of AI capability and growing pervasiveness across all sectors.

Lumai’s unique optical computing technology represents a paradigm shift in AI computing capabilities. It is redefining the boundaries of what will be possible, with compute speeds up to 1000x greater than today. Just as importantly, its energy consumption is 1/100th of today, a critical need given worldwide energy use by global data centres is already 2% of the world’s energy. Lumai’s focus is on the AI accelerator market in global data centres, where the highest compute speed is needed, as demonstrated by ChatGPT, which is the fastest adopted software on the planet.

Peak AI Ltd

Manchester-based Peak AI is a pure-play AI company. The group’s AI platform means its customers have a range of AI products and services to help them implement and integrate AI into their operations, gradually transforming their business with AI. Its platform is used by global industry leaders including Nike, Molson Coors, PepsiCo and Sika.

Last year Peak AI conducted a survey which found that 89% of companies are already using or working towards using AI. This represents the biggest technological change of a generation, which Peak AI compares to the Internet - those that don’t keep up will be left behind. Peak's AI Platform optimises inventories, pricing, and customer personalisation for businesses of all sizes and is deployed in just weeks. The platform features a library of AI applications that fit a variety of use cases across sectors including consumer goods, retail and manufacturing, allowing users to rapidly apply AI to deliver on commercial objectives.

Quantum Motion Technologies Ltd

London-based Quantum Motion has developed a revolutionary technology platform; not just a qubit, but a scalable array of qubits based on the ubiquitous silicon technology already used to manufacture the chips in smartphones and computers.

The development of a fault tolerant quantum processor will open up possibilities far beyond the reach of today’s small quantum computers and even the emerging noisy intermediate scale quantum processors (NISQs). This technology will power high-impact applications in areas vital for human progress in the 21^st century: in-software discovery of new chemicals, materials and drugs; the reduction of wastage through optimisation of resource usage; and enabling new models for AI and machine learning. Quantum Motion’s goal is to fast-track the development of true fault tolerant quantum computers and reach one million qubits and beyond by leveraging existing knowledge in device fabrication within the trillion-dollar silicon industry.

tech CEO of the year award

sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank

The 2023 shortlist:

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Chris Bayne/Access Technology Group Ltd

Chris founded Armstrong Consultants in 1993, which Access subsequently acquired in 2008, and Chris became CEO of The Access Group in 2011. Chris is a technology visionary and has been instrumental in developing Access Workspace, which revolutionises business software targeting mid-market organisations and gives them the freedom to do more.

Chris has been the driving force behind Access Group’s uninterrupted and profitable revenue growth for over 15 years. He has led each private equity investment round, resulting in Access becoming the largest UK headquartered software company with fast-moving global expansion into Asia Pacific. In addition, Chris is leading a number of global projects to further scale the business, including establishing hubs in both Romania and Malaysia later this year. Chris is passionate about fostering the company's culture of giving back, and has personally been involved in the establishment of the Access Foundation, a charitable organisation which supports projects that address digital poverty.

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John Cotterel/Endava plc

John has over three decades of experience in the tech sector. In the 90's John established and built a Business Process Outsourcing business for Capgemini, which was later sold to Vertex. He then established an IT Consultancy, which was sold at the end of 1999. John has been the CEO of Endava since 2000.

John has established and grown Endava both organically and by acquisition. He was instrumental in the group’s NASDAQ IPO in 2018 and leads its successful M&A strategy. Endava’s exceptional growth has been attributed to John’s management skills, which allow employees to feel empowered to solve problems on their own. John orchestrated two significant acquisitions in 2023, further increasing Endava’s reach in Asia Pacific and providing the group with a powerful edge to capture opportunities in the global gaming industry.

Poppy Gustafsson/Darktrace plc

Poppy co-founded Darktrace at just 30 years old. Driven by her passion for maths, she has been instrumental in driving Darktrace's success and turned the company from a start-up in Cambridge to a FTSE 250 company and one of very few pure tech stocks listed in the UK.

Under Poppy’s leadership, Darktrace has experienced significant growth and global expansion, reaching a $1.65bn valuation in less than five years. She has successfully guided Darktrace through difficult times and was instrumental in helping the group achieve its technology vision of a Cyber AI Loop, the world’s first-ever set of interconnected AI capabilities. Poppy describes herself as an “evangelist for the UK tech sector’ and publicly advocates for the FTSE 250 ‘to be filled with a new generation of technology companies.’ Poppy is a role model for women in tech and recently joined Anne Boden in launching a Government-led Taskforce on ‘Women-Led High-Growth Enterprises’.

Rene Haas/Arm 

Rene was appointed CEO and to the Arm Board 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. In addition to his role as CEO, Rene also sits on the boards of Arm China and SoftBank Group.

Rene leads Arm from offices in California while the company headquarters remain in Cambridge. Since taking on the role of CEO last year, Rene has reformed the group’s leadership team and been instrumental in completing ARM’s listing on NASDAQ in September. The pricing of the group’s blockbuster IPO was $51 per share, giving the group a market cap of over $54bn, and making it the largest IPO of the year by far. The deal generated significant positivity in the tech industry and will power ARM to grow beyond smartphones and expand further into AI applications.

David Meaden/Idox plc

David was appointed CEO of Idox in 2018 after the business had reported revenue recognition issues and high debt levels. David is an industry veteran with 22 years Public Services experience and has a proven track record as a business leader, in addition to significant experience of managing business transformation, software development and integration of acquisitions.

David has led the hugely successful transformation of IDOX, which has resulted in a strong financial performance as one of this year’s better performing listed tech stocks. David’s turnaround of IDOX included implementing a new divisional structure to consolidate business units and building a new management team that is highly inclusive, fostering long-term, collaborative relationships with colleagues, clients and shareholders alike. Alongside this, David led a fruitful M&A program, which has significantly boosted IDOX’s profits, allowing for future growth and expansion.

Elona Mortimer-Zhika/IRIS Software Group

Elona joined IRIS as CFO in 2016, was promoted to COO in 2018 and appointed CEO in 2019. Elona started her career as a chartered accountant and undertook various finance roles from SVP Chief of Staff to CEO at Mavenir. Elona has grown IRIS from humble beginnings to become one of the UK’s largest privately held software companies.

Elona's exceptional leadership abilities have been evident throughout her tenure at IRIS. She has successfully cultivated a commitment culture, fostering a sense of dedication and loyalty among employees. Under her guidance, the company has experienced remarkable growth, with a 61% increase in revenue. Elona's visionary leadership has also led to successful expansion of the business into the Americas market. Elona serves as a role model, demonstrating a humble approach and a genuine appreciation for the strengths of every individual. She is hugely passionate about diversity and is a mentor in the F-Ten ICAEW programme.

tech company of the year award

sponsored by Arma Partners

The 2023 shortlist:

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Access Technology Group Ltd

Based in Loughborough and established in 1991, Access is one of the largest providers of business management software to small and mid-sized organisations in the UK, Ireland, the USA and Asia Pacific.

Access delivers excellence at every level, from the delivery of its commercial goals, driving exceptional growth, to innovation and market penetration. Since 2020, Access has more than doubled in size, driven by double-digit organic growth and strategic M&A and has achieved uninterrupted profitable growth for the last 16 years. In June 2022, Access’ growth ambitions were boosted substantially with the announcement of further investment from its largest shareholders, Hg and TA Associates, giving the group an associated enterprise value of £9.2bn.

For the year to end June 2022, Access reported revenues of £620m and forecasts £850m for FY23.

Arm 

Cambridge-based Arm’s foundational technology is defining the future of computing. The group’s energy-efficient processor designs and software platforms have enabled advanced computing in more than 250bn chips. Together with its technology partners, Arm is enabling artificial intelligence to work everywhere, and is delivering the foundation for trust in the digital world – from chip to cloud.

Arm has gone from strength to strength in the past year, taking advantage of the strong emergence of AI and moving into new areas such as server infrastructure and automotive. The group’s NASDAQ listing in September gave Arm a market cap of around $68bn and inspired positivity in the tech sector. The company is not receiving any proceeds from the offering, since all shares were sold by SoftBank.

Arm had more than $2bn in cash and short-term investments to fund its activities as of the end of June.

Darktrace plc

Cambridge-based Darktrace specialises in using AI and ML to detect and respond to cyber threats in real-time. The group has quickly become a leader in the field of cyber defence, offering innovative solutions to protect organisations from the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.

As a company at the fore of AI innovation, Darktrace has long understood the potential for AI to be one of the most transformative technological opportunities of our time. The group’s most recent innovations have included new risk and compliance models to help its customers address concerns around the risk of IP loss and data leakage that come with the widespread use of generative AI tools in the workplace. These new AI models make it easier for customers to put guardrails in place to monitor, and when necessary, respond, to activity and connections to generative AI and LLM tools such as AutoGPT, ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, Claude, and more.

For the year to end June 2023, the group reported ARR of $626.5m, 29.2% year-on-year growth.

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IRIS Software Group

London-based IRIS is a leading provider of business-critical software solutions and services. The group helps over 100,000 customers across 135 countries manage core business operations and has established itself as a trusted partner for businesses in accountancy, education, and beyond. IRIS won the company of the year award at the UK tech awards 2023.

IRIS made significant strides with its ambitious objectives for FY23 and delivered some exceptional achievements. The group made considerable investments in innovative cloud applications, in addition to growing revenue by 10%, EBITDA by 13% and hitting $100m in revenue in the Americas. IRIS welcomed four acquisitions, including Paycheck Plus, Networx, myPay Solutions and Apex HCM, expanding its footprint in the UK, Ireland and the Americas. The group achieved ‘Green KPIs’ for peak customer support seasons across all divisions, achieved an ESG rating of 9.6/10 and has also been recognised for its exceptional workplace culture.

For the year to end April 2023, IRIS reported revenues of £319m.

Raspberry Pi Ltd

Cambridge-based Rasperry Pi has created a new class of computing device, transforming the way engineers design control systems in industry. Since being launched in 2012, the group has sold more than 40m units, creating a market worth $1bn. The $35 credit-card-sized device is the best-selling computer to come out of the UK.

Since Raspberry Pi was spun out of the Foundation in 2012, it has returned approximately $45m in aggregate to the Foundation to fund its charitable work. In April this year, the group secured a strategic investment from Sony’s semiconductor unit, in order to advance its efforts in AI. Raspberry Pi is focused on the mission of making computer science accessible to everyone, and has produced many resources for younger students and hobbyists who are new to programming, included its ‘Introduction to Python’ project pathway, which aims to teach learners basic coding skills.

For the year to end September 2022, the group reported adjusted revenue growth of 22% to over $112m and EBITDA of $26m.

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Softcat plc

London-based Softcat is a leading provider of technology solutions and services. The group provides asset management, business intelligence & analytics, collaboration, commodity sourcing, datacentre, end user computing & mobility, networking & security, software licensing and IT services.

In 2023, Softcat delivered its 18^th consecutive year of organic profit growth. The group continued to evolve its customer offering in response to the changing technology landscape, keeping pace with emerging customer needs and making significant steps forward with employee engagement and customer engagement. Its efforts to drive inclusion have delivered further results, most significantly in gender diversity, where now 35% of its workforce are female. In addition, Softcat continues to attract new customers, delivering a 1.9% growth in its customer base.

For the six months to end January 2023, the group reported gross profit of £117m, a 17.9% increase.