Oxford-based Charisma named One to Watch at Digital Catapult Awards

Published by

Peter Davison

Rianna Dearden picks up the Digital Catapult award sq

Oxford-based tech company Charisma has been named as One to Watch at Digital Catapult Awards.

Charisma uses artificial intelligence to create believable characters that people will want to interact with – both in games and in the metaverse.

The company is made up of Emmy and BAFTA-recognised technologists, creative writers, game designers and AI-specialists.

It was one of six tech startups identified at the Digital Catapult Awards by Digital Catapult – the UK authority on advanced digital technology – as Ones to Watch.

Digital Catapult has worked with over 540 businesses this year, from which 60 were chosen for the Awards longlist.

A panel of judges from across the manufacturing and creative industries whittled this list down to the 15 finalists, with six winners selected on the night.

The Digital Catapult Awards celebrate world-class technology startups who have achieved the most market traction, secured the most investment and have produced the best new product or service ideas set to accelerate the digital future.

The winners’ innovations range from AI-powered technology to optimise recycling processes, to fully immersive, workplace collaboration tools.

189 companies have raised over £369.5 million in investment after being part of Digital Catapult accelerator programmes and innovation activities, highlighting just how successful small businesses and entrepreneurs have been as a result of Digital Catpault’s interventions and support - from major programmes such as Machine Intelligence Garage, Augmentor, CreativeXR and 5G Testbed Accelerator Programme, to industry-leading projects like WeatherLedger, Made Smarter Technology Accelerator and 5PRING.

Unveiled at the Awards was Digital Catapult’s new acceleration framework for supporting UK startups and scaleups - FutureScope.

Designed to support companies with specific expertise at different stages of their lifecycle, FutureScope will help early stage startups just entering the market, to those who are focused on pushing the limits of their tech capability, right the way up to later stage companies looking at Series A+ investment and beyond.

Jeremy Silver, CEO, Digital Catapult, said: “We’re thrilled to unveil this group of six ambitious early stage companies that are having a positive, ethical and sustainable impact on the economy and wider society, as our ones to watch in 2022.

“We are very proud to have been a part of the growth journey of these exceptional companies - they show how rich and talented the UK tech ecosystem is and we’re proud to recognise their achievements."

Guy Gadney, co-founder and CEO of Charisma, which was named Responsible & Ethical Tech Pioneer, said: “We’re so pleased with this recognition from Digital Catapult this evening. Walking shoulder to shoulder with them into larger-scale opportunities is of significant value to us.

“We’re going from strength to strength - now working with companies like Warner Brothers and creating our own mind blowing, immersive experiences across TV and gaming - and can’t wait to continue on this journey.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.