The winners of the BristolLive Business Awards 2022 have been revealed at a special ceremony in the city. After a hiatus last year due to the pandemic, the event returned to Ashton Gate Stadium on Thursday night (November 24).
Senior leaders from Bristol’s diverse business community gathered to celebrate the achievements of companies across the city region in sectors including tech, manufacturing, engineering, finance and education. The winners were from organisations that have shown resilience and success in 2022 despite being faced with incredibly challenging economic conditions.
Finance and banking platform MoneyHub scooped three accolades including the overall Business of the Year Award. The company works with major blue-chip organisations including Aon, Nationwide and Vodaphone to provide digital payment solutions. The business, which is based on Victoria Street in the city, recently raised an initial £40m in its latest funding round.
The awards also recognised individual talent, with social entrepreneur Poku Pipim Osei being named Business Person of the Year. Mr Osei is the founder and chief executive of Babbasa, which supports disadvantaged young people into work, education and business.
A special Outstanding Contribution to Bristol Award was handed to entrepreneur and author Kalpna Woolf, who sits on a number of West of England boards and is the founder and chief executive of BeOnBoard - a company that supports businesses to improve diversity on their governing bodies. She is also the founder of 91 Ways to Build a Global City, a charity she set up in 2015 which works to build greater understanding and common ground between Bristol’s 91 language communities.
The black-tie ceremony, which included a three-course dinner, saw Channel 4 Hunted and Celebrity Hunted star Ben Owen - a risk and cyber security expert - take to the stage. Mr Owen previously served in the Royal Air Force, joining the Armed Forces when he was just 17. He has also worked for the government’s security and intelligence services.
Pete Gavan, editor of BristolLive, said: "It was great to welcome everyone to the awards last night and to celebrate all that is good in business in and around Bristol. Companies across Bristol showed real determination and an ability to innovate - overcoming the challenges in front of them to produce some really incredible work over the past year and it was a great evening with some worthy winners."
All the winners of the BristolLive Business Awards 2022
Diversity and Inclusion Award - Sponsored by Bristol City Centre BID & Redcliffe & Temple BID
Babbasa
Start-Up Business of the Year - Sponsored by Foot Anstey
Hybr
SME Business of the Year - Sponsored by Parmenion Capital Partners LLP
Changing Social
Large Business of the Year - Sponsored by Evelyn Partners
Graphic Packaging International
IAMBOB Special Award - Sponsored by Bristol Waste
EDP Training
Best Tech Award - Sponsored by XLedger UK
Moneyhub
Innovation Award - Sponsored by Renishaw
PEEQUAL
Best Place To Work - Sponsored by The Bristol Hotel
Moneyhub
Environmental Contribution Award - Sponsored by Future Leap
RWA (Royal West of England Academy)
Manufacturer of the Year - Sponsored by Kingston Barnes
Graphic Packaging International
High Growth and Ambition Award - Sponsored by Etex Group
Little Adventures Nursery Group
Your Local Business Hero - Sponsored by Firstpoint Logistics
Jake Hitchcock, Unitary Engineering Services
Business Person of the Year, sponsored by SpiderGroup
Poku Pipim Osei, founder of Babbasa
Outstanding Contribution to Bristol, sponsored by Unitary Engineering Services
Kalpna Woolf, founder of BeOnBoard
Business of the Year, sponsored by Business West
Moneyhub
