Earlier this week, the London Business Awards 2020 celebrated the startups from the London business ecosystem. Beautifully organised by London & Partners (who promote diversity and knowledge and help founders through at every step of their entrepreneurial journeys), the ceremony took place at East Wintergarden in the heart of Canary Wharf.
During the event the 400 attendees had the chance to network with leading startups, scaleups, investors and corporates, as well as being able to experience some of London’s latest AR and VR tech.
"London is open for talents and fantastic businesses like yours"
That was the timely kickoff video message from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan diffused to the assembly at the beginning of the evening. The Mayor rightly positions London as the best place for entrepreneurs in the world, a city for the optimistic that will always welcome talent and business. Deputy Mayor of London Rajesh Agrawal, who was in attendance, completed this message by emphasising that London is very much open for business despite the uncertain political and geopolitical climate.
"London is the most entrepreneurial city in the world. Brexit will NOT change that. London is proud of its history and has great diversity. As an entrepreneur myself, I understand the challenges of startup founders. The Business Growth Program helps companies from financing to product launch and gives entrepreneurs access to many key markets." - Deputy Mayor of London, Rajesh Agrawal
Founded in 2011 and led by the charismatic Laura Citron, London & Partners honours diversity, creativity, knowledge and works closely with entrepreneurs across the different stages of their startup adventures.
The awards are an opportunity to shine a light on the successes of London businesses and showcase the work of both international companies operating in London as well as homegrown companies who have experienced growth via the Business Growth Programme and the Mayor's International Business Programme.
This year, the London Business Awards categories and their winners are...
- One to watch: Spyras
- Paying it forward: Anne-Marie Imafidon, Stemettes
- Best London newcomer: Sitetracker
- Disruptor of the year: Mitt Wearables
- Impact award for education: VotesForSchools
- Impact award for the environment: Ocean Bottle and OLIO
- Impact award for health: MedShr
- Startup of the year: FilmChain
- Scaleup of the year: checkout.com
About the 10 award winners
Spyras is developing innovative technologies to analyse breathing and provide game-changing analytics in respiratory health. Its signature technology is an innovative paper-based sensor that can monitor breathing patterns, volumes and gases. Spyras intends to deploy its technology and expertise in a wide range of markets ranging from sports to medicine.
Anne-Marie Imafidon is a keynote speaker, presenter and co-founder of the award-winning Stemettes inspiring the next generation of female entrepreneurs to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
Sitetracker powers the successful development of critical infrastructure. Market leaders in telecommunications, utility, smart cities, and energy with clients such as Verizon, Ericsson, Fortis, Alphabet, British Telecom, and Vodafone, Sitetracker manages millions of sites and projects with a portfolio of $19B holdings globally.
Mitt Wearables show that is a need for comfortable, easy-to-fit, user-friendly prosthetic limbs that can be made at an affordable price. Mitt wants to connect people to the world by creating a community of users who can do anything.
VotesForSchools provides weekly current affairs classes across primary, secondary and further education. Students learn about and then vote on issues, their voices are then shared with the wider world giving an insight into what the future leaders are thinking.
Ocean Bottle makes reusable bottles that are helping to save our oceans. By collecting plastic that would otherwise end up in the ocean people can exchange the waste for money or credit to spend on tuition, tech goods, healthcare or access to micro-finance.
OLIO is an app tackling the problem of food waste in the home and local community. It does this by connecting people who have food they don't want or need to neighbours living nearby who would like it. More than 1.5M people have joined OLIO and more than 3 million portions of food have been successfully shared.
MedShr enables doctors to share and discuss clinical cases in a private professional network. MedShr now has more than 1M members in 180 countries and discuss cases in every medical area. The MedShr app and web platform provide doctors with a unique system for peer-to-peer learning and medical education that allows them to share knowledge and skills to improve patient care and, ultimately, save lives.
FilmChain manages end-to-end financial transactions in media, powered by blockchain. The automated platform collects and allocates revenues in real-time, from viewers to filmmakers. It tracks rights, offering performance predictions and analytics. Enterprises, film funds and Oscar-nominated producers are using the platform that paves the way to a more equitable and transparent industry.
checkout.com helps companies accept more payments around the world through one simple integration. The company works with global businesses to optimise their payments with real-time data. Checkout.com's unified payment processing platform features in-country acquiring, relevant payment methods, fraud filters and reporting. It has 10 offices globally and employs more than 500 people.
