Announcing the Best in British Tech nominees 2021!

Every year, the GBx community nominates and votes for startups that are exemplifying the Best in British technology, who are innovating in their market, scaling fast to make a global impact all whilst contributing to their community. 

The following startups have been nominated this year. The voting begins today – only GBx members can vote – and the winners will be announced at the GBx Gala on September 23.

UPSTART (UK/US-headquartered <$5m raised, expanding in/to the US)

Gener8
Gener8 is a web browser that lets people keep their browsing data private or earn from it themselves. Founded in London, Gener8 is growing fast with over 400k downloads and an engaged user base who rack up over 120yrs in time spent on Gener8 every month. After a modest fundraise in May they have grown the team from 4 > 15. The founder, Sam Jones, has been shortlisted by the Great British Entrepreneur Awards for ‘Disruptor of the year’.

FilmChain
FilmChain is the fintech platform that delivers transparent, real-time royalty payments for film and TV indies and media enterprises. Startup of the Year at London Business Awards 2020 and SXSW 2020 Pitch finalist, FilmChain leverages blockchain technology to save professionals millions of pounds in mismanaged funds, human errors, and lack of data. Backed by Hearst Media, with £1.3M in investment, it is used end-to-end by HBO, Council of Europe Eurimages, Screen Australia, and global clients.

Frontier
Frontier is a hiring marketplace that connects job seekers and employers faster than ever using virtual interviews. Since launching in April 2021, it signed employers like Burger King and Concentrix and has helped thousands of job seekers get back into the workforce post-COVID. The company raised $2.8M pre-seed led by NFX in 2020.

Mote
Mote is the “Loom for audio” – async voice messaging within any app or workflow. Founded by Brits Alex Nunes (CTO) and Will Jackson (CEO), who met in SF working at Vevo, Mote is a remote company with a global customer base – today largely within K12 EDU. Mote’s unique proposition is its integration within apps and workflows, which enables users to easily talk instead of type. Since launching in March 2020, 25m ‘motes’ have been shared by 400k creators, and the company has grown to $700k ARR.

my2be
Founded in 2018 by school friends Adam Mitcheson, CEO and Damien Shiells, CTO, my2be uses intelligent software to reinvent mentoring and development programs across organisations, helping employees reach their full potential. Over the last 12 months, bootstrapped and while working remotely, my2be has secured a multi-year enterprise contract with Silicon Valley collaboration giant Box to develop under-represented talent through mentoring and has begun working with Pokemon Go makers Niantic.

R3-IoT
Space technology start-up, R3-IoT is on a mission to digitise the planet – providing value extending beyond connectivity. Its full-stack platform combines satellite communications and cellular technology, providing data-driven intelligence from anywhere in the world, 24/7. Enterprises, government bodies, public and response services can easily digitise operations across multiple sites and locations – regardless of existing infrastructure. Founded in 2018, by space tech experts Allan Cannon and Kevin Quillien, the company recently raised $4.3m in a seed round led by US-based VC Space Capital to accelerate its international growth ambitions.

BRITISH LEADER (UK-headquartered >$5m raised, expanding to the US)

Attest
Founded in 2015, Attest is a fast-scaling, 130 person SaaS business based in London and New York, backed with >$35m in funding from investors including NEA. Attest helps B2C companies inform every intuition and dissolve any doubt, by making it simple and fast to uncover opportunity with consumer data. The Attest platform enables you to engage directly with >110 million consumers across >45 countries, starting in 90 seconds. Clients include enterprises such as Oracle, Microsoft, Discovery, as well as Wise, Fabletics and Klarna.

Flock
Founded in 2016, Flock is building a global, fully digital insurance company for connected and autonomous vehicles. The London-based insurtech’s data-driven approach allows it to price connected insurance for fleets of cars, vans, and drones on a per-second basis, whilst giving fleet owners insights to improve safety. Flock now insure thousands of companies across Europe like Netflix, The BBC, and Jaguar Land Rover’s The Out. It has raised $22m from some of the world’s leading venture capital funds including Social Capital, Dig Ventures and Anthemis.

Kheiron Medical Technologies
Kheiron’s initial focus is improving breast cancer detection so women can have better outcomes. Mia®, their breakthrough mammography AI platform, won the prestigious UK AI in Health & Social Care Award and is being deployed throughout the NHS and US. Kheiron has just launched RSViP™ to tackle the Covid screening backlog by prioritizing screening for women at highest risk. The team comprises clinicians, industry experts, and machine learning engineers. Kheiron raised a $23m series A in 2019.

Limitless
Limitless is a GigCX platform which utilises AI technology to route customer enquiries to the most appropriate brand Experts. Experts engage with customers and receive rewards for their efforts via the Limitless app, the platform empowers people to earn money for providing brilliant customer service for brands they love. This on-demand cloud platform enables companies to scale support quickly, improve customer service and reduce costs by transforming passionate customers into trusted brand Experts. The platform operates in over 20 countries and clients include Microsoft, L’Oreal and eBay.

Multiverse
Multiverse is on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. They offer professional apprenticeships to a diverse pool of young adults and those looking to reskill. Multiverse works with 300+ businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and grow diverse talent. Their 5,000 apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social and leadership opportunities.

VividQ
VividQ is powering the display revolution with Computer-Generated Holography. VividQ’s products enable manufacturers in the US, China and Japan to integrate true holographic display into augmented reality wearables, automotive head-up displays and consumer electronics. Holography is no longer science fiction but a viable commercial display solution. VividQ was born out of the University of Cambridge, raised $23M to date, and has a team of 40. The winner of “UK’s Best Tech Pioneer” from KPMG.

SILICON VALLEY TRAILBLAZER (US-based, >$5m raised)

Agora
Agora is an industry-leading materials procurement platform for commercial trade contractors that reduces materials costs, saves valuable time, and minimizes waste. The platform connects field foremen on the jobsite, purchasing teams, and vendors onto one platform, giving them the tools they need to seamlessly collaborate across the supply chain. To date, Agora has raised $45m from investors including Tiger Global, 8VC, and Tishman Speyer.

Chargifi
Over the last 18 months, Chargifi has pivoted from deploying wireless charging networks in company offices to building the tools that enable companies to flourish in the coming era of hybrid working. From 0 customers in February 2021, to 100+ (and counting!) in September 2021- Chargifi is now helping organizations like Collibra, Shipt, Softchoice, and the NHS transform the way they work post-pandemic. Chargifi successfully secured investment to fund this pivot and is now regularly generating six figures $ in new bookings each month.

Databook
Founded in 2017 in Palo Alto, Databook was founded by Anand Shah (US) and Alex Barrett (UK). Databook bootstrapped for three years before raising $22m in the last 18 months. They work with the largest and fastest growing software companies (representing ~50% of Enterprise Sellers) to accelerate the time to value. Their real-time insights support Enterprise GTM teams position the right solutions with the right buyers at the right time. Databook is on track for a fourth year of 3x growth.

DoNotPay
DoNotPay makes the law free for consumers through artificial intelligence. The company is backed by an investment from Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners. It has saved an estimated $15 million in parking fines and now works in hundreds of legal areas. The company has been featured in every major media outlet internationally, including the Wall Street Journal, BBC News, Guardian, CBC, Telegraph, Business Insider, ITV, TechCrunch, Daily Mail, NPR, Bloomberg, NBC, ABC, CBS ‘This Morning’, Telemundo and others. The BBC nicknames it, “the Robin Hood of the Internet.”

Enable
Andrew Butt and his co-founder, Denys C. Shortt OBE launched Enable in 2016, to digitize the deal economy and disrupt a $1 trillion market. Enable, is a modern, cloud-based B2B software solution for rebate management that is used by companies across 50+ sectors to analyze, negotiate and execute complex trading agreements to drive profitable growth. The company is backed by $62 million in funding from notable investors, Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Sierra Ventures. With offices in San Francisco, Toronto and the UK, Enable are expanding globally to put their product in the hands of more customers.

Hive
Founded in 2016 in New York by John Furneaux and Eric Typaldos, Hive is the world’s first democratic software platform, where all product decisions are made democratically by users. Its project management and collaboration platform is used by teams at Anthem, Comcast, Electronic Arts and Toyota. The company has raised $28 millions in funding from leading venture capital firms Rembrandt Venture Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners, Angelpad, Comcast Ventures, Vocap Investment Partners, as well as Zoom.