One hundred tech startups and scaleups across the UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand have been announced as innovation finalists in the annual Super Connect for Good Competition. Entries were open to startups and scaleups from across the UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Applicants were able to enter across ten innovation verticals including AI for Good, EdTech, HealthTech, MedTech, FinTech for Good, and Climate Tech. This year's competition included new categories such as FoodTech and a dedicated pre-seed challenge returning. The global competition, now in its third year and powered by Empact Ventures and Hays, has showcased many innovative tech startups and scaleups across the UK and Europe.
For context, last year’s overall champion was London-based MediSieve, a London-based biotech company developing “Magnetic Blood Filtration”, a combination of a device and a therapeutic platform for treating blood-borne diseases by removing pathogens, toxins, or other targets directly from a patient’s bloodstream.
This year, the competition has been extended across Australia and New Zealand and will feature a new category called ‘The Impact Challenge’.The challenge encouraged finalists to outline how their innovations can be adapted to support the crisis in Ukraine with a £5,000 cash prize on offer from PACE in London and expertise from Presidium Network in Bristol.
The competition is backed by 10 innovation partners and judges who selected the Top 100 finalists including EIT Food, NatWest, OVHcloud Startup Program, Leeds Teaching Council, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the NIHR Surgical MedTech Co-operative, Greenbackers Investment Capital, Albion Business School, Serica, Exponential Positive Social Impact, PACE and Presidium Network. The winners will be announced at an event on 24th November 2022.
James Milligan, Global Head of Technology at Hays, commented: “We’re really pleased to be supporting the Super Connect for Good competition for the third year running. The competition has a significant part to play in identifying and showcasing tech companies that are tackling real-world problems and we recognise the importance of supporting innovative solutions and products that are truly making a difference in people’s lives across the globe. The calibre of entries for this year’s competition was very high, which is a testament to the quality of the startups and scaleups that entered.”
