Bristol’s tech talent has swept the board at The SPARKies, the awards that champion the best of the West of England’s tech and digital community.
Firms and individuals from the city triumphed in 14 of the 17 categories up for grabs at the awards ceremony staged in Bath’s Parade Gardens last week.
Among the Bristol winners were firms using tech to solve the problem of microplastics in the world’s oceans, tackle the gender gap in the sector and ease the plight of people with Motor Neurone Disease.
Individual winners included Mel Rodriges, founder and CEO of Gritty Talent, the trailblazing company bridging TV, talent and technology, and Aimee Skinner, who runs UWE Bristol’s Future Space innovation hub.
The annual awards are staged by TechSPARK, the information hub for all things tech in Bristol, Bath and the West of England.
Since their launch in 2012, The SPARKies have grown to become to best-respected tech accolades in the region, attracting hundreds of entries from across the region’s vibrant tech sector.
The winners this year were:
The ‘Totally Killing It’ Award
Winner: Cajigo, a mentoring and recruitment app designed to help bridge the gender gap in the tech sector, which was launched by Bristol-based entrepreneur Rav Bumbra.
The Hardware Award
Winner: Matter, for its product Gulp. The Bristol-based firm was founded in 2017 by former Dyson engineer and keen scuba diver Adam Root, who was shocked to discover the size of the microplastics problem – 5.25trillion particles of plastic are currently in the world’s oceans – and set about using his skills and experience to engineer a solution to stop them reaching the ocean in the first place, then recycling them. Gulp is an innovative method of capturing, harvesting and recycling microplastics before they can pollute the world’s oceans.
The ‘Good’ Award
Winner: Bristol Braille Technology CIC, which has dedicated the past 12 years to creating better Braille technology and breaking down the barriers blind people face.
Most Innovative Use of Tech
Winner: EarSwitch. As a medical student 30 years ago, founder and CEO Dr Nick Gompertz witnessed people with Motor Neurone Disease lose their ability to communicate. The concept of a communication device that uses the tensor tympani, one of the smallest muscles in the body, was born. Based at UWE’s Future Space innovation hub, EarSwitch is augmenting human-to-environment interaction in medical and interactive tech.
FutureSPARK
Winner: Georgia Howlett, senior cloud generation manager and VP of pWr UK. Bristol-based Georgia is empowering a world-class sales team and technology professionals while also driving female empowerment and collaboration with the ambition to uplift careers for women in Pax8.
Founder of the Year
Winner: Mel Rodriges, founder and CEO of Bristol-based Gritty Talent, which connects the best under-represented talent with decision-makers in the TV industry.
Data Data Data
Winner: Good With. Bude, Cornwall-based Good With takes a scientific and psychology-based approach to money. Its app has been proven to alleviate financial stresses and aims to create life-changing money habits that support mental health.
Community Award
Winner: GEL Studios, a branding, graphic design and website design agency based in Swindon.
Best Use of Immersive Tech
Winner: Bristol-based Zubr.co, which specialises in augmented and virtual reality innovation.
Best Startup
Winner: Based in Bristol, Stornaway is an interactive video story maker designed for non-coders with a browser-based editor lets users map out their story visually and play it instantly.
Best Scaleup
Winner: Loqbox, the Bristol-based FinTech aiming to eradicate financial exclusion.
Best Digital Design
Winner: Rocketmakers, the Bath-based software developer that helps large organisations innovate like start-ups and start-ups build enterprise-quality solutions. Its clients include accountancy giant KPMG, the BBC and Nokia.
Best Place to Work in Tech
Winner: KETS Quantum Security, the Bristol-based data protection and cyber security firm that is pioneering quantum encryption on a chip. It won the Hardware Award last year.
Best Mentor/Advisor
Winner: Aimee skinner, the senior innovation and growth manager at Future Space, the science and tech hub on UWE Bristol’s Frenchay campus.
Best Cyber Company
Winner: Stripe OLT, the Bristol-headquartered leading Microsoft cloud & cyber security specialist.
Awesome Human Award
Winner: Zoe Colosimo, the COO and a founding member of Neighbourly, the Bristol-based award-winning community engagement and investment platform that supports more than 20,000 community causes across the UK and Ireland, connecting them to resources from leading businesses.
