Showcasing the Best of Welsh Business

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The Five Top Early-Stage Tech Companies in Wales

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Tech Nation has announced the five regional winners based in Wales of its Rising Stars 3.0 competition.

In its third year, Rising Stars 3.0 is the UK's only national competition for innovative, early-stage tech companies, designed to showcase the best in the country and to help companies on their growth journey.

The five regional winners for each region and nation across the UK have been selected by a panel of industry experts, and are regarded as tech leaders within their respective regions. These companies will now compete nationally for the chance to be named as one of Tech Nation’s 10 Rising Stars 3.0. The  Rising Stars UK Winners will be revealed in February 2021.

Tech Nation’s Rising Stars are on track to become the world leading tech companies of tomorrow, using technology to tackle the world’s greatest challenges. The competition provides the opportunity for the best of the nation’s early-stage scaleups to meet leading investors, influencers and corporates.

Last year, one of the 10 Rising Stars Winners was based in Wales: We Build Bots raised £210k on Seedrs in July – surpassing its £125k target in five days – to handle increased demand for its public sector chatbot solutions. Founder and CEO Paul Shepherd has made no secret of We Build Bots’ global ambitions, and the company is now targeting European growth. The startup has made two big moves to help it achieve that: hiring former Microsoft Sharepoint consultant Patrick Hosch as Chief Commercial Officer to expand its partner network, and joining ACTE (Association Civic Tech Europe) to represent Civic Tech on a European level. The chatbotters also achieved ISO 27001 certification, a year-long effort that Paul hailed as, “proof that our information security, people, processes and tech are best in class.”

The Five Regional Winners from Wales:

Immersity (Cardiff, Gaming/Immersive) Founder: Hugh Sullivan

Immersity creates realistic V-learning and V-experiences scenarios, to engage, train and interact with people faster, more effectively and at a lower cost. ImmersityVR can be used to mitigate risk to individuals through self-assessment of awareness and tasks, and their impact on the working environment, or to give consumers a completely new immersive V-commerce experience. The possibilities are immense.

iungo Solutions (Cardiff, Edtech) Founders: Jessica Leigh Jones, Tom de Vall          

Working at the intersection of business, education and government to democratise excellent careers for everyone, iungo – meaning “to connect” – aims to create the connective tissue between employers, training providers and policy makers. Uniquely positioned to be independent within the careers ecosystem, they work with all stakeholders to create shared and sustained value for the UK economy.

Nightingale HQ (Cardiff, Ecommerce & Marketplace) Founders: Steph Locke, Ruth Kearney

Nightingale HQ is building a marketplace of data & AI services for manufacturers. Manufacturers can quickly and easily access a network of vetted data experts, helping them to improve critical areas like supply chain, ops management, inventory, and downtime.

Tendertec (Cardiff, Healthtech, Biotech & Life Sciences) Founders: Afroditi Konidari and Rui Zhang 

Building the next generation of personalised safety & care technologies for the post COVID-19 era,Tendertec provides solutions for social care and the workplace. Its products, CareBox and SafePass, are opening the door to safer communities, helping businesses manage the impact of COVID-19 on their service continuity, and safeguarding frontline workers and vulnerable people.

Yoello (Cardiff, Fintech) Founder: Sina Yamani   

Yoello is an app-less hospitality payment platform that allows customers to simply scan, order and pay. Utilising new open banking legislation to cut out the middleman and bring merchants and customers closer together, they connect to banks directly to initiate funds between consumer and merchants, saving businesses 75% on transaction fees. They’re supporting thousands of UK businesses, enabling them to reopen and operate in the new age of post-lockdown technology-led service.

The benefits of taking part in Rising Stars:

  • Pitch training and coaching by Pitching for Success
  • Meet potential investors through a series of VC office hours and AMAs
  • Opportunity to showcase your business to a curated audience of investors, accelerators, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders
  • Tech Nation content campaigns and profile raising
  • Induction into the Rising Stars and wider Tech Nation alumni network

Esme Caulfield, Competitions Lead, Tech Nation comments:

“Everyone knows that 2020 is a challenging year. We're honoured that so many companies took the time to apply for Rising Stars 3.0, and are truly excited about the calibre of our Regional Winners. It's great to see companies from every imaginable sector in the competition, and from every corner of the UK – from Aberdeen to Falmouth and everywhere in between.

“The 55 Rising Stars Regional Winners are companies that are proving their resilience and adaptability, building products that will support businesses and customers both now, and into the future. They are all deserving of recognition – and here at Tech Nation, we're thrilled to celebrate and showcase them.”

Gino Brancazio, Entrepreneur Engagement Manager – Wales, Tech Nation comments:

“Rising Stars is a wonderful competition that highlights and showcases the most exciting early stage tech scaleups in the UK. I am absolutely thrilled to include these exciting and innovative five Welsh companies this year from AI, EdTech, HealthTech FinTech and EdTech! I’m incredibly proud of what Wales has to offer and I’m certain these companies will certainly make their mark on the competition. Congratulations to the Welsh companies through to the next round, I can’t wait to see how they progress!”

Business News Wales