Smart personal assistant Kairo won Best Elevator Pitch award at the 2017 Tech-Xpo event in Bristol.
The start-up was up against ten other SETsquared ventures in the event held at PwC’s offices at Glass Wharf and won following a digital vote by the audience.
Kairo is the first chat-based assistant for work and home. It takes on all the juggling that goes on in modern families so you can spend more time enjoying life and less time organising it.
Lisa Matthews, CEO at HellyHolly, which developed Kairo, said: “I am thrilled with this win especially in the company of so many fantastic ventures – it was a great competition!
“The SETsquared community and the wider Bristol startup ecosystem is a constant source of motivation and inspiration for us, and Tech-Xpo is a great demonstration of the thriving and supportive scene we’ve got here in Bristol.
“We’re excited for Kairo’s future as part of it.”
Fifteen businesses from the city’s incubator exhibited at the event including AutonoMe, Limber, Nano Simbox and Zoetrope Labs.
Eleven ventures were selected to pitch and be filmed in a fast-paced session with only 60 seconds to entice interested delegates and win the ‘Best Elevator Pitch’ accolade.
Monika Radclyffe, SETsquared Bristol director, said: “To win the people’s choice award at the Tech-Xpo is no small feat.
“It is surprisingly hard to explain what you do in exactly a minute, and all our ventures worked hard on mastering their pitch.
“Lisa, Kairo’s CEO, has won the audience using humour and real life parenting disaster scenarios which can be prevented with her technology.”
Tech-Xpo is being supported by VWV, Oracle and Barclays who provide support to tech start-ups across the city and recognise the importance of incubators such as SETsquared Bristol in developing the UK’s high-tech industry.
Oracle has recently launched its UK Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator programme in collaboration with the incubator whilst Barclays provides the ‘Banker-in-Residence’ service to SETsquared Bristol members.
Law firm VWV, who was sponsoring the annual showcase event for the 7th consecutive year, has provided a weekly, three hour, “Lawyer-in-Residence” service to SETsquared Bristol ventures since 2009.
Other companies participating at Tech-Xpo include AutonoMe, Bioinduction, Cerberus Security Labs, CLWB, Duel, FutuHR, Gapsquare, Limber, Lemonpeel Controls, LuJam Security, Music Memory Box by Studio Meineck, Nano Simbox, Test and Verification Solutions, TISCreport, TrustWeave, YellowDog and ZConnect.