The best startup firms in Wales have been revealed at the Wales Start-Up Awards 2023, which were held at Depot in Cardiff and saw 35 different awards given out to new businesses in categories such as Graduate StartUp of the Year, High Street StartUp of the Year and Innovative StartUp of the Year.
The Wales Startup of the Year was won by Haia Communications. Haia is an online and hybrid events platform which won’t leave anyone out, with accessibility at the forefront of what it does. At each step, from organising to attending an event, Haia is intuitively designed, so that new users can focus on engaging with the content without worrying about the tech.
The Wales awards were sponsored by regional sponsors, FlyForm, Evabuild, M-SParc, Cognis Capital, Food Innovation Wales, Universities Wales, Development Bank Wales, BIC Innovation, Newport County Council, Ambition North Wales, Rebel Lion, Business in Focus, WCVA and the Welsh Government. The StartUp Awards are also supported by national sponsors including Starling Bank, Blackfinch Group, British Business Bank, BT, Creative Ideaz, Dream Factory, Tiny Rebel, Jeeves, Join Talent, Mountside Ventures, OVH Cloud, the Purposeful Project and ScoreApp.
The StartUp Awards were established in 2022 to highlight the success of start-ups across ten UK nations and regions and to celebrate the achievements of entrepreneurs in all sectors of the economy. Originally formed as the Wales StartUp Awards, the Awards Series has joined forces with the Great British Entrepreneur Awards to take the celebration of newly formed businesses nationwide.
Helen Bierton, Chief Banking Officer at Starling Bank says:
“Congratulations to all our StartUp awards winners and finalists in Wales – what an inspiration they are! We’re celebrating the successes of family run businesses as well as individual entrepreneurs and partnerships. Together they are a welcome boost to the Welsh economy creating job opportunities and developing skills to drive growth. We’ve seen everything from the biggest supercar community in Wales, to a creative contemporary gallery exhibiting local Welsh artists, a board game cafe, and a food labelling software business and mobile signal mapping company achieve so much in a short space of time.”
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE, creator of the awards, said the events have celebrated the best new firms in the UK and recognised the amazing entrepreneurial talent across the nation.
He said:
“In the eighth year of the Wales Startup Awards, we have seen yet again the incredible contribution of new businesses to job creation, innovation, and prosperity across the whole of this entrepreneurial nation. It’s been an honour and a pleasure to read the stories of those individuals from across Wales who have spotted the opportunity and taken the risk to launch their own venture, especially at a time when the economy is still fragile after the Covid pandemic.
I am delighted that Haia Communications has won the Wales Startup of the Year award for 2023. A new business that was born during Covid to address a market need at the time, it has evolved its offering over the last couple of years to offer considerable benefits to users. As a result, it has ambitions to be a global player in the field of online and hybrid events and, according to the judges, its innovative use of AI to host events in multiple languages makes it stand out from the crowd”
Full list of winners:
Haia Communications – Overall Winner of the Wales StartUp Awards 2023
Comet Security Group – Business to Business Services StartUp of the Year
Focus MEP – Cardiff StartUp of the Year
Wool Insulation Wales – Construction and Building Services StartUp of the Year
EverKnock – Consumer Services StartUp of the Year
Familiarisation Videos – Creative StartUp
Haia Communications – Digital StartUp of the Year
The Grown-Up School – Education and Training StartUp of the Year
ORTIR Apothecari – Fashion and Beauty StartUp of the Year
Driverly – Fintech StartUp of the Year
Monarchs Crisps – Food and Drink StartUp of the Year
See No Bounds – Global StartUp of the Year
Lunia 3D – Graduate StartUp of the Year
Alga (Seaweed) – Green StartUp of the Year
Helping Kids Shine – Health and Wellbeing StartUp of the Year
Xscape Rooms – High Street StartUp of the Year
Venyu – Hospitality & Events StartUp of the Year
iTrackPPE – Innovative StartUp of the Year
Rebel Lion Advertising – Marketing, Advertising & PR StartUp of the Year
Ceridwen Oncology – Medtech & Healthtech StartUp of the Year
Carnedd – Mobile & Emerging Technologies StartUp of the Year
Sero Zero Waste – Newport StartUp of the Year
PlantSea – North Wales StartUp of the Year
ArcticFox Adaptive – Online Retail StartUp of the Year
Tree Law – Professional Services StartUp of the Year
AMPED PCR – Rebel StartUp of the Year
Suppleo Recruitment – Recruitment StartUp of the Year
BEMAN Candles – Rising Star Award
Musicality – Rising Star Award
Explorage – Rising Star Award
Cardigan Bay Properties – Rural StartUp of the Year
Qualia Law C.I.C – Social Enterprise StartUp of the Year
Dill – Swansea Bay StartUp of the Year
Streetwave – Technology Services StartUp of the Year
Brook Cottage Shepherd Huts – Tourism and Leisure StartUp of the Year
Rock Quantity Surveyors – Valleys StartUp of the Year
Alex-loan Coldea, Dill – Young Entrepreneur of the Year
