The best start-up firms in the Midlands have been revealed.
The inaugural awards, part of the StartUp Awards National Series, recognise excellence in nascent entrepreneurship across nine UK nations and regions of the UK - sponsored by BT, EY Breakthrough Incentives, Clearco, Dell Technologies & Intel, Moblox, Fearless Adventures and with regional support from Moja Group.
The Midlands final was held at the Secret Space in Digbeth, Birmingham and saw 20 different awards given out to new businesses in categories such as Innovative StartUp of the Year, Social Enterprise StartUp of the Year and Green StartUp of the Year.
The awards were judged by a panel of prominent judges, including successful entrepreneurs such as Stefania Pellegrino of Purely, Tom Walker of Holy Moly Dips and serial entrepreneur Piers Linney.
The overall StartUp of the Year for the Midlands was won by Live Tech Games, a market leading game studio for live, casual tournament-based mobile games that is pioneering changing digital customer engagement strategies for businesses across the globe.
The new business, which was established at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, transforms familiar games like rock, paper, scissors into effortless and competitive live games experiences, aimed at bringing people together, regardless of where or who they are.
Originally formed as the Wales StartUp Awards in 2016, the awards series has joined forces with the Great British Entrepreneur Awards to take the celebration of newly formed businesses nationwide.
Creator of the awards Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said the inaugural event not only celebrated the best new firms in the Midlands, but recognised the amazing entrepreneurial talent across the nation: “We’re so proud of the amazing reception the first year of the StartUp Awards National Series has had across the country.
“There are some exceptional stories of dedication and passion from founders of new firms across the Midlands and it was an honour to showcase these local entrepreneurial heroes in Birmingham last night. As this year’s competition has shown, there are some incredible businesses across all parts of the Midlands and, with the right support, there is huge potential for entrepreneurs to be the real engine of the regional economy over the next few years.
“A huge congratulations to everyone who won last night and especially to Samuel and Nathan at Live Tech Games who were named StartUp of the Year. Given that they started their business in the same month that the economy was shutting down due to COVID-19, this is an incredible achievement that they should be very proud of.
"They and many of the businesses showcased last night are going to have a significant impact on their sector and I hope that many other entrepreneurs in the Midlands will follow in their footsteps over the next few years.”
Full list of winners
Midlands StartUp of the Year
Birmingham StartUp of the Year
Business-to-Business Services StartUp of the Year
Construction and Building Services StartUp of the Year
Consumer Services StartUp of the Year
Creative StartUp of the Year
Digital StartUp of the Year
Fintech StartUp of the Year
Food and Drink StartUp of the Year
Global StartUp of the Year
Graduate StartUp of the Year
Green StartUp of the Year
Innovative StartUp of the Year
Manufacturing and Engineering StartUp of the Year
Marketing, Advertising and PR StartUp of the Year
Online Retail StartUp of the Year
Professional Services StartUp of the Year
Social Enterprise StartUp of the Year
Tourism and Leisure StartUp of the Year
Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Rising Stars
