Three Bristol early-stage tech companies have been named among the country’s latest ‘Rising Stars’ of the sector.
All About The Cooks, itsettled, and Lumio feature on the list complied by Tech Nation, which recognises the UK’s early-stage tech scaleups with the highest potential. 
Lumio allows customers to instantly track all their investments, bills, and savings in one place, while itsettled uses its bank-grade automated cash flow management & credit control platform to identify payment risks and automatically collects overdue invoices.
All About The Cooks aims to revolutionise the way we eat at home by bringing together a community of home-cooks.
The three are among 55 fast-growing tech companies from across the UK that have been named as regional winners – five in each UK region.
Lumio CEO Charlie Richardson said: “Open finance is still in its nascent stage but this recognition from Tech Nation as a regional winner of Rising Stars underlines that we are now at a tipping point for the industry – with Lumio at the forefront of delivering a real positive impact on people’s finances.
“Our core focus here as we move forward is going to be 100% built around how we can be the most efficient company in the industry at using data to move customers’ money into the right accounts, at the right time.
“And our mission is to become Europe’s most personalised finance app for people to grow their money.”
All About The Cooks’ marketplace website allows talented home-cooks to sell their food to people nearby via their postcode and filters on the site – a kind of AirBnB for food.
Founder Claire Ladkin said: “At All About The Cooks we believe that, one day, it will be possible to buy home cooked food, from local people, wherever you are in the world.
“We are already doing this in Bristol and have ambitious plans to scale in 2022. To be recognised as a Rising Star regional winner will give us an extra boost as we seek to grow our team, attract investors and tell our stories, well beyond our own region in 2022.
“The biggest beneficiaries though will be the communities we serve, because All About The Cooks creates a massive social impact, moving money around within communities through the sharing of good food.”
Itsettled director and chief commercial officer David Beer said: “SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK economy.
“Some 3.5m trade on credit and Covid has negatively impacted over 1.5m of these. The late payment epidemic means they are owed in excess of £65bn.
“We are honoured that itsettled has been chosen as a Tech Nation Rising Star to help solve this economic challenge.
“With their support and reach, our cash flow and credit management platform will help create a sustainable market recovery and stop UK SMEs from failing.”
Tech Nation competitions lead Esme Caulfield said the regional winners represented the brightest and the best of UK tech and talent.
“With Tech Nation’s Rising Stars competition, now in its fourth year, it’s amazing to see so many inspiring companies innovating to change our world for the better.
“This year, we reached the milestone of 1,000 applications to Rising Stars – and surpassed it. We had a record number of applications this year – nearly 400.
“From revolutionising modern healthcare and disrupting the finance sector to transforming education and tackling climate change, each of these fast-growing regional early-stage tech companies is helping us improve our economy, society and quality of life. This year’s and I’m excited to see what they do next.”
