BEST STARTUP – TECH OR DIGITAL INNOVATION
The European Finals event takes place in just 2 days, and so the countdown is almost over! Today, we are going to be focusing on our fourth category – ‘Best Startup – Tech or Digital Innovation’. Here we’ll take a sneak peek at each of the companies that have been successfully shortlisted for the award, to be given out on Thursday 7th December at the Museum of London.
On Thursday we will be welcoming three very different, yet innovative, game-changing start-ups who will be competing for the award, as well as the prize of a once in a lifetime, all expenses paid trip to Silicon Valley to tour some of the most influential tech companies in the world and meet Apple Co-founder, Steve Wozniak, for a private lunch.
So, let’s take a closer look at each of our finalists for the ‘Best Start-up – Tech or Digital Innovation’ category…
- Drum Roll HQ (Erase All Kittens)
Drum Roll HQ are creating ‘Erase All Kittens’ – the world’s first game designed to inspire girls to code and teach them professional coding languages. Solely through word-of-mouth, the pilot version of E.A.K. has 120,000 players in over 100 countries and 55% are girls (compared with an average of less than 18% for other coding tools/clubs). Our mission is to inspire and teach at least 500,000 girls aged 8-13 to code and create on the web, by 2019.
Dee Saigal, Founder of Drum Roll HQ, said “We applied to the Talent Unleashed Awards to raise awareness for our game and our mission – helping to close the gender gap in tech through changing the way that girls learn digital skills. We also wanted to expand our network, and meet like-minded entrepreneurs who are doing incredible things to make the world a better place.
“We are thrilled to be selected as a finalist, and winning the award for this category would mean a great deal to us. Our idea has been three years in the making, and since this is our first business, we would hugely benefit from meeting successful entrepreneurs and potential mentors.”
- Trouva
Trouva is the destination for shopping at the best independent shops and boutiques, enabling customers to discover distinctive home & fashion you cannot find anywhere else. They have built the world’s first offline to online platform for independent retail, giving small bricks and mortar shops the ability to sell online effectively, whilst offering an even better customer experience than Amazon or the chains. They enable everything from live inventory to logistics, including click & collect, 1 hour delivery and worldwide shipping.
Co-founder, Mandeep Singh, explained their motivation for entering the awards, as well as what it would mean to win: “I think it’s great that Talent Unleashed Awards recognises disruptors and innovators – all the people who have worked to fundamentally change their industry for the better. This feels very in line with our mission at Trouva, where we take the best bricks and mortar boutiques and enable customers to engage with them in ways that they would never have been able to before.
“To be given the ‘Best Start-up – Tech or Digital Innovation’ award by such a prestigious panel would be a huge badge of honour for both the Trouva business, team and our boutiques. The judges are industry experts with a wealth of experience, so for them to judge Trouva a worthy winner would be very exciting.”
- HotelChamp
Hotelchamp was established to disrupt the global hotel industry. This award-winning company is successfully providing the leading marketing and sales platform for hotels. The smart technology convinces hotel website visitors to book directly and engage with guests on a personal level. Already trusted by over 1.000 hotels in more than 45 countries and integrated with more than 50 booking engines worldwide, it’s their ambition to restore a fair balance between direct channels and third parties.
When asked what made them come forward and apply to the awards, they said: “We’re exceptionally proud of what our team have achieved in just 2 years. And being a startup, the enormity of what we’re trying to achieve with such a small crew can sometimes seem daunting. As much as we thank our team and tell them how proud we are, the reason we entered Talent Unleashed was to show that it’s not just us that think their work is making a real difference. They know that they’re contributing to something that we and our clients think is awesome, but we wanted to show our team that people like Richard Branson and Steve Wozniak think it’s worth recognising too.
“We come from quite a specific industry – I bet many people would struggle to name another hospitality SaaS company. To have our hard work recognised and be placed alongside such a range of amazing companies from all corners of the business world is such a validation of the work we’re doing – to win would be an absolutely unbelievable honour on top of that.”
For more information about the awards and for a full list of the EMEA finalists, visit www.talentunleashedawards.co.uk