Thames Valley Tech & Innovation Awards 2024 winners announced

The sixth annual Thames Valley Tech & Innovation Awards showcased the outstanding achievements of a diverse range of leading businesses from across the region.

Finalists were drawn from software developers, telecoms providers, hardware suppliers and manufacturers, cloud solutions companies, science-based businesses, people working in artificial intelligence, and others working in space technology.

Comedian Simon Evans hosted the Awards with his trademark acerbic wit.

The Awards took place at Reading’s Select Car Leasing Stadium. Richard Thompson, Chief Executive at The Business Magazine, said: “We had many, many excellent entries, and I’d like to thank the judges – who interviewed a number of the shortlisted companies and diligently assessed the strengths and potential of the contenders.

The independent judges were Sue Elliott from British Business Bank and Jurek Sikorski from Henley Business School.

This year’s Awards sponsors were Panasonic Europe, BDO UK, Boyes Turner, Freeths, Crowe UK, ESP Global Services, R3vamp, James Cowper Kreston, NatWest, Blake Morgan, Culturehood and Penningtons Manches Cooper. 

During the evening, guests made generous donations to SpecialEffect. The charity helps transform the lives of physically disabled people through the innovative use of technology.

And the winners are…

Cyber Security Company of the Year – sponsored by Penningtons Manches Cooper

Winner: CyberCrowd

“It's been a year of growth for us. We have brought on apprentices, graduates and senior individuals. We have tried to develop as a company both bottom-up and top-down. We opened a security operations centre that means we can bring a lot of remote staff into the office, so we feel a lot more like one company. An example of our direct support for clients was providing a range of cybersecurity services at golf's Ryder Cup that demonstrated protection at the network level and the end-point.” Kris Reddin, Sales Team Lead, CyberCrowd

Finalists:

• 1- Fix

• Bridewell

• ElysianIT

High Growth Tech Company of the Year sponsored by Crowe UK

Winner: Redstor

“It's been a fantastic year for us regarding introducing new technology, particularly our anti-malware products, which have been really well received. We have seen good growth from our existing partnerships and also added some new flagship partnerships. We only sell through partnerships, so they contribute massively to our success. Also, we are expanding globally with our partnerships, in Asia-Pacific, the US and Central Europe – all from our Reading HQ.” James Griffin, CEO, Redstor

Finalists:

• Aurum Solutions

• Bridewell

• FullCircl

• Techex

• Workbooks CRM

Innovative Tech Company of the Year – sponsored by Blake Morgan

Winner: Techex

“It's been a phenomenal year for us. We won the Innovation of the Year award at the broadcast industry's major award event. What's amazing is that a small company based in Bracknell is behind all of the major live sports events on the planet. We are helping the big broadcasters and brands that people know and love to transition from 'old world' TV to the new world of the cloud and internet - safely and securely. Looking ahead, we will continue to expand internationally.” Mark Sutherland, Chairman, Scott Kelley, CEO, Techex

Finalists:

• Brainomix

• Content Guru

• CyberCrowd

• ESP Global Services

• Lifestyle Software

Diversity in Tech Impact Award – sponsored by Panasonic Europe

Winner: Amberjack

“As a recruitment company, our focus is on supporting our clients to identify the potential in people. That comes from looking at diversity rather than always recruiting the same types of people. Our own Equality, Diversity & Inclusion policy means we embrace the differences in people, whatever their backgrounds. I think there is a lot of diversity in the tech industry in general, except for gender diversity, although it is getting better.” Cassie Sissons, COO, Amberjack

Finalists:

• Bridewell

• FullCircl

• IRIS Software Group

• Redstor

International Tech Company of the Year – sponsored by Boyes Turner

Winner: Content Guru

“As a local organisation with a global reach, I am proud that Content Guru was recognised with this award. Our enterprise customers utilise our global availability in over 150 countries worldwide, supported by industry-leading reliability, security and AI capabilities on the storm cloud communications platform. Over the past year, we have worked hard to achieve global headcount growth across our offices from California to Tokyo, despite a volatile economic climate, with significant progress in Europe and the Americas. Driven by our innovation in AI, 2024 will be our most successful year ever – and 2025 is set to improve on our success.” Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO, Content Guru

Finalists:

• Amberjack

• ESP Global Services

• MCS Rental Software

• Techex

• Workbooks CRM

Rising Star in Tech Award – sponsored by NatWest

Winner: Tiago Veiga – CEO, Aurum Solutions

“When I joined the company, we were working out of a living room. We’ve now just moved into offices in Reading’s Thames Tower. As CEO, I see my role as about making sure everybody around me feels comfortable to deliver the best they can every day. I try to ensure everyone feels empowered to do this. Being a relatively young CEO has its challenges. But I think that in the UK, there is respect for people who have accountability and who get things done. The next 12 months for us are super-exciting. We’ve opened a European office that will help take us to the next level and we are about to launch a new product.” Tiago Veiga, CEO, Aurum Solutions

Finalists:

• Adele Quinn, Redstor

• Bella Raphael, CyberCrowd

• Joe Dennis, First Technology UK

• Rachel Baggs, Brainomix

• Tegan Finch, CyberCrowd

Life Sciences & Health Tech Company of the Year – sponsored by Freeths

Winner: Barinthus Biotherapeutics

"Our work is based around what we can do for patients and guiding them to a cure for diseases, in particular hepatitis B and coeliac disease. We are also working in partnership with global institutions such as CEPI in pandemic preparedness for MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome). Any biotech company will tell you the huge challenge is to balance doing good for patients with meeting your business development objectives. For us, it’s about trying to focus on where we can do the most good with the resources that we have.” Jonathan Blackbourn, Investor Relations and Public Relations Manager, Barinthus Biotherapeutics

Finalists:

• Brainomix

• Neuro-Bio

• Occuity

• OMass Therapeutics

• Oxehealth

• Oxford BioTherapeutics

• RSSL

Sustainable Tech Company of the Year – sponsored by ESP Global Services

Winner: measurable.energy

“Our AI-plug sockets that help to reduce energy consumption are in demand in the construction and commercial real estate sectors. We are also moving into stadiums and pubs – anywhere with a need to save energy. A highlight this year has been going from start-up to scale-up and doubling in size by headcount. Rapid expansion comes with teething problems and we have to look carefully at how to grow in the most suitable way. Our product team is constantly working on new innovations – the next development is hopefully going to be an extension lead product.” Mashal Sadiq, Head of Customer Success, measurable.energy

Finalists:

• LA Micro Group

• MCS Rental Software

• SolarBotanic Trees

• Techex

Tech Employer of the Year – sponsored by R3VAMP

Winner: IRIS Software Group

“We focus on making IRIS a great place to work by ensuring our employees have training and progression opportunities to reach their full potential, creating a diverse and inclusive culture that welcomes and celebrates everyone regardless of their background, as well as recognising and rewarding employees who live our values through a range of awards and initiatives. We also promote ESG through staff volunteering days and affinity groups, enabling inspirational leaders and managers to support their teams, and truly listening to our employees so they can help us be the best we can be. One of our employees summarised it best, saying IRIS has ‘a culture that nurtures and grows talent, allowing everyone the ability to shine’.” Lizzy Barry, HR Director, IRIS Software

Finalists:

• 1 – Fix

• CV-Library

• Lifecycle Software

• Moa Technology

• Techex

FinTech Company of the Year sponsored by Penningtons Manches Cooper

Winner: Aurum Solutions

“We are establishing a broad bridgehead in a couple of key marketing sectors – gaming and payments. On the back of that we are moving across a number of other industry verticals that see value in our software, which is being recognised because of the importance of having good governance, audit and control capabilities. We are now in Portugal, which is a first big step in where our talent comes from, traditionally it has been in Reading. We have just moved into Thames Tower in Reading – aspirational premises for an aspirational business, and a great place to work.” Dave Anfield, COO, Aurum Solutions

Finalists:

• Dynamic Planner

• FullCircl

• Jenesys AI

• Kabayan Remit

Tech Leader of the Year – sponsored by Culturehood

Winner: James Griffin – Redstor

“One of the important things for me is taking a collaborative approach. The way I like to run the business is with transparency and honesty. I give people enough space to make their own decisions. My job is just to guide them. I’m also a strong supporter of women in tech. A company has to represent society and I don’t think opportunities have existed for women to move into tech. At Redstor, we have changed our maternity policy, introduced mentoring and set up a women’s network. Another priority for me is giving back to the community. One of the biggest impacts we have had is with the Redstor Academy, where we have put over 400 kids in South Africa through technical training that would otherwise not been able to get.” James Griffin, CEO, Redstor

Finalists:

• Bill Enright - Barinthus Biotherapeutics

• Andy Jenner - ESP Global Services

• Mark Sutherland - Techex

• Tiago Veiga - Aurum Solutions

• Anthony Young – Bridewell

Tech SME of the Year – sponsored by James Cowper Kreston

Winner: Oxford BioTherapeutics

“We develop innovative therapies to treat cancer that would otherwise not be able to be treated. This year, our clinical asset has been doing really well and it is currently in Phase 1 of development while two other assets developed in partnerships are also doing well. A new iteration of our discovery database is a significant technology advancement that enables the selection of targets to suit particular modality that increases the chances of success in treatments.” Lindsey Hudson, Senior Director of Business Development

Finalists:

• 1 – Fix

• Dynamic Planner

• FISCAL Technologies

• Measurable.energy

• Workbooks CRM

Thames Valley Tech Company of the Year – sponsored by BDO

Winner: Bridewell

“A lot has happened this year. The integration of Arculus Cyber Security has been great. They have a very similar business strategy as us, so there’s great synergy and good prospects for what we can deliver. We’re continuing to build our US presence in Houston and New York and are looking at future expansion in other territories as well. On the AI front, we are building our platform to deliver increased machine learning and AI so we can bring more cybersecurity expertise to clients through a better understanding of their data and incident management.” Craig Moores, Principal Lead, Bridewell

Finalists:

• Brainomix

• Content Guru

• ESP Global Services

• IRIS Software Group