Tech Nation reveals the five top early-stage tech companies in East of England

Today, Tech Nation announces the five regional winners based in the East of England of its Rising Stars 3.0 competition. Three of these are based in Cambridge.

In its third year, Rising Stars 3.0 is the UK's only national competition for innovative, early-stage tech companies, designed to showcase the best in the country and to help companies on their growth journey. 

The five regional winners for each region and nation across the UK have been selected by a panel of industry experts, and are regarded as tech leaders within their respective regions. These companies will now compete nationally for the chance to be named as one of Tech Nation’s 10 Rising Stars 3.0. The  Rising Stars UK Winners will be revealed in February 2021.

Tech Nation’s Rising Stars are on track to become the world leading tech companies of tomorrow, using technology to tackle the world’s greatest challenges. The competition provides the opportunity for the best of the nation’s early-stage scaleups to meet leading investors, influencers and corporates.

Last year, one of the 10 Rising Stars Winners was based in the East of England: since winning the competition, Foundries.io continued its journey with Tech Nation by being accepted onto the Cyber 2.0 programme. The Cambridge-based company delivers a cloud software platform that aims to reinvent IoT, enabling companies to develop, deploy and maintain IoT and Edge (entry points into larger networks) devices for lifetime customer success. After winning the Rising Stars Grand Final, the company revealed that its FoundriesFactory product had been adopted by a range of clients ranging from emerging startups to large global enterprises.

The Five Regional Winners from the East of England:

Rnwl (Cambridge, Insurtech)  Founder: Goncalo de Vasconcelos

Handling your insurance renewal, Rnwl uses AI to auto-switch customers at renewal, automatically searching for the best deals across price comparison websites, direct-only insurers and even the latest, most innovative insurtechs. Rnwl also allows its customers to easily and seamlessly submit claims and make changes to policies (such as adding items to contents insurance or adding or removing drivers from the car insurance). 

Plastometrex (Cambridge)  Founders: James Dean, Bill Clyne and Jimmy Campbell

Plastometrex develops next-generation mechanical materials testing tools and software platforms to support the digital manufacturing revolution. Plastometrex's first product - the Indentation Plastometer - enables manufacturers to extract stress/strain curves from metal parts with unprecedented ease, reducing testing turnaround times from hours (or days!) to real-time measurement.

Tricerion (Cambridge, Cybersecurity) Founders: Tony Groom, Nick Forde and Malcolm Hathaway

Tricerion provides frictionless secure customer authentication via neurographic passwords. The software enables simple, easy visual authentication for low cost access to web applications – especially helpful for the digitally reluctant (the elderly), the young and those that suffer digital inequalities. It’s patent protected, has been deployed successfully and has been proven to stop spoof phishing

e-Surgery (Norwich, Healthtech, Biotech & Life Sciences) Founders: Thuria Wenbar and Oskar Wendowski   

e-Surgery is the UK’s leading prescribing service and sustainable online pharmacy. Patients simply need to go to their website, choose the treatment they need, fill in a simple health questionnaire and wait for next day delivery in discreet recyclable and biodegradable packaging. They're a private healthcare provider radically proving the idea that private healthcare can be affordable and that these efficiencies can be made available for the masses.

Upside Money (Norwich, Fintech) Founders: Andries Smit, Kathryn Wright and Paul Russell

With the aim to make savings effortless, Upside Money are helping a nation of spenders to start saving. They do this by finding money on everyday spending, and automatically moving it to their Upside Savings account. Their first service, 'autocashback', earns cashback automatically when you shop. No coupons, cookie tracking, browser extensions or receipt scanning is required - just watch your savings account fill up.      

The benefits of taking part in Rising Stars:

  • Pitch training and coaching by Pitching for Success
  • Meet potential investors through a series of VC office hours and AMAs
  • Opportunity to showcase your business to a curated audience of investors, accelerators, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders
  • Tech Nation content campaigns and profile raising
  • Induction into the Rising Stars and wider Tech Nation alumni network

Esme Caulfield, Competitions Lead, Tech Nation comments: “Everyone knows that 2020 is a challenging year. We're honoured that so many companies took the time to apply for Rising Stars 3.0, and are truly excited about the calibre of our Regional Winners. It's great to see companies from every imaginable sector in the competition, and from every corner of the UK - from Aberdeen to Falmouth and everywhere in between.

“The 55 Rising Stars Regional Winners are companies that are proving their resilience and adaptability, building products that will support businesses and customers both now, and into the future. They are all deserving of recognition - and here at Tech Nation, we're thrilled to celebrate and showcase them.”

Goncalo de Vasconcelos, Founder & CEO of Rnwl, comments: “Tech Nation's Rising Stars programme is legendary amongst entrepreneurs. It's inspiring and a huge honour to be one of the selected few to be recognised with such accolade.”

James Dean, CEO of Plastometrex, comments: “Rising Stars is a fantastic competition for early stage companies like Plastometrex. Getting through the regional heats is a great achievement, and a significant endorsement of the work that we are doing to transform the mechanical testing industry. Following hot on the heels of our recent Seed investment round, we're now looking forward to using this tremendous platform to promote our activities, and to drive further interest in our products.”

Schehrezade Davidson, CEO of Tricerion, comments: “We are honoured to have been chosen as a Rising Stars East of England Winner. This will highlight our simple, easy, visual authentication solution, via Neurographic passwords, to potential customers and investors. Exciting times!”

Thuria Wenbar, CEO of e-Surgery, comments: “We are thrilled to be selected as a Tech Nation Rising Star and humbled to be chosen with other innovative and inventive tech-businesses. This year has unquestionably proven the necessity of forward thinking, patient focused, tech-driven healthcare. Being at the forefront of digital health has been both an honour and a challenge. We have our fantastic team to thank for making this possible! We are excited for 2021 and keen to make massive waves in the area of online pharmacy. We are proud to represent our region as a leader in future-focused, sustainable, and intelligent technology.” 

Andries Smit, CEO of Upside, comments: “We're humbled to be a Rising Star Winner for East Anglia. It is a great testimony to the Upside team's results in helping consumers get frictionless cashback. We are looking forward to helping even more customers get more in 2021!” 

 



Looking for something specific?