Technology

Posted on November 17, 2017 by staff

Tech North’s Northern Stars winners announced

Technology

The winners of Tech North’s Northern Stars were selected at a live pitching event in Manchester on Thursday.

After beating more than 200 applicants, the grand final saw 20 finalists pitch to a panel of judges including James Foster of ADV, Suzanne Ashman of LocalGlobe, Keith Wallington of Oxx VC and Sarah Turner of Angel Academe.

The 10 winners of a comprehensive prize package were: BigChange, Membr, Nivo, Relative Insight, Ruler Analytics, Sport:80, Synap, Technically Compatible, Tutora and VYPR.

The companies are based across the north in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Sunderland, Sheffield and Lancaster.Their businesses cover a range of sectors including SaaS & cloud, education technology, enterprise, cyber security and communications.

Each prize package contains:

  • A stand on the Tech North pavilion at TechCrunch Disrupt (Berlin, Dec 2017) with subsidised travel
  • Presentation slots at investor pitch events in London
  • Entrance to the Northern Tech Awards with a dedicated Northern Stars category
  • An exclusive Amazon Web Services package worth over $15,000
  • Pitch training by Sunderland Software City (provided before the Grand Final)
  • Media training by Citypress
  • A ministerial roundtable with key members of government
  • Access to the Northern Stars alumni, and a series of dinners with previous winners.

They and the other 10 finalists – Assenty, Bunting, Chatta, Energi Mine, Helpthemove, Modyst, Regit, SkillsForge, SteamaCo and White Label Crowdfunding – each gave a three-minute pitch then answered questions from the judges in front of more than 300 people at Stoller Hall.

Esme Caulfield from Tech North said: “Initiatives like Northern Stars help us to showcase the wealth of digital talent we have across the region.

“This is the third year we have run the competition and each time I am overwhelmed with the caliber of applicants.

“This year’s winners are true innovators in their sectors and I look forward to working with our Northern Stars to help them to develop their businesses and reach their full potential.”

Synap, Ruler Analytics and SkillsForge made the final after winning regional heat events while the others were selected by a panel consisting of Rose Lewis (Collider), Kara Shurmantine (Mass Challenge), Tom Wilson (Seedcamp), Chris Adelsbach (TechStars), Francisco Gutierrez (Startupbootcamp), Harry Rhys Davies (Wayra).