Tech Nation announces the five regional winners based in the North West 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. The five regional winners from the North West illustrate how Covid-19 is changing the economy. The companies joining the competition from the North West are all working in key parts of the economy that have been affected by Covid-19. For instance, AeroCloud Systems provides IT solutions to the aviation sector, while CGHero, Jobseekrs, SupplyWell and Your Flock all represent the future of how companies will hire talent and collaborate in an increasingly digitised world.
Last year, one of the 10 Rising Stars Winners was based in the North West: Tootoot a mental health app that gives young people the ability to confidentially talk about anything from mental health concerns to bullying, and was officially recommended to schools, colleges and universities by the UK Government’s Department for Education during lockdown. Having raised £600,000 from GC Angels and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority before Christmas, tootoot launched a business version of its app called Stribe, which makes it easier for business leaders to support the wellbeing of employees.
The Five Regional Winners from the North West:
AeroCloud Systems (Macclesfield, Leisure, Travel & Tourism) Founders: Ian Forde-Smith and George Richardson
AeroCloud Systems provides innovative IT solutions for the aviation sector, including the first fully SaaS-based product for the airport market. Its products dramatically improve an airport’s operational situational awareness and performance, and enhance passenger experience and engagement.
CGHero (Manchester, Digital Entertainment / Creative Tech) Founders: Jonathan Lloyd and Chris Lawrence
CGHero is a collaborative marketplace for 3D & CGI content creation, bringing together the world’s top talent to work on feature productions across gaming, architecture, TV & film, automotive and retail. The platform has been used by the likes of Valvoline, Sega, B&Q, Unilever, and NHS.
Jobseekrs (Manchester, HRtech) Founders: Jamaal Brathwaite
Jobseekrs is a careers platform that mitigates unconscious bias at the sourcing and screening stage of recruitment to increase diversity and inclusion and to decrease churn. The Jobseekrs algorithm matches a candidate to a potential employer based on skill set and culture alignment, producing an overall percentage fit score which is presented to the employer anonymously. The employer then purchases credits to reveal and engage with candidates.
SupplyWell (Liverpool, Edtech) Founders: Michael Heverin, Raina Heverin and Dan Price
SupplyWell is a digital recruitment solution putting control in the hands of teachers and schools. It connects teachers and schools together directly removing the need for slow and costly traditional agencies, which allows teachers to earn more while schools pay less and ensure that wellbeing comes as standard.
Your FLOCK (Manchester, HRtech) Founders: Michal Wisniewski, Dan Sodergren and Sandy Lindsay MBE
Your FLOCK is a SaaS platform that uses the data and science behind motivations at work to enable teams to be more productive and engaged. Your FLOCK is a machine learning-driven software that helps managers to coach their teams by providing users with activities tailored to their motivations and designed to help them be more ‘in sync’ and work more effectively as a team.
Mo Aldalou, Entrepreneur Engagement Manager – North West, Tech Nation, comments: “I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome these five incredible North West companies as regional winners for Rising Stars 3.0. The quality and quantity of applications we received from the region was truly unprecedented and the judges had to make some difficult decisions.
“Our Rising Stars competition is an excellent opportunity to celebrate and showcase the best early-stage tech scaleups from across the UK. I’m confident that these founders will excel at the semi-finals and beyond.”
Michal Wisniewski, CEO of Your FLOCK, comments: “It’s a great honour for Your FLOCK to be in the Top 5 startups in the North West. It shows how Covid is changing the future of work and remote working. Our technology to help remote working teams develop has just been backed by Innovate UK and we are raising our Seed round with a series of investors, so the timing couldn’t be better.”
