November is the season for the fireworks display of talent that is The Spectator’s Economic Innovator of the Year Awards gala dinner, in partnership with Rathbones. This year, at the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel in London’s Russell Square, the energy generated among the assembled founders, judges and sponsors beats any Guy Fawkes pyrotechnics.
We’ve attracted more entries each year since we launched these Awards in 2018. This year, our judges chose 50 regional finalists from 267 ventures representing every corner of the UK and every sector, from beans and ketchup in the food industry to the frontiers of bioscience and engineering.
A theme of this year’s entries was a growing number of mentions of AI. At our regional lunches, many entrants talked about the challenge of raising sufficient capital to realise their businesses’ full potential. Our opening speakers at the gala, Spectator editor Michael Gove and Rathbones CEO Paul Stockton, steered clear of politics – but the snake in the chandelier was the recent Budget, with its disincentives for small-company investors.
Do such obstacles deter our innovators? Emphatically not. Optimism and resilience are their most common traits. These Awards are, of course, about picking winners – but they’re also a celebration of the contribution of entrepreneurship to prosperity and wellbeing, whatever the circumstances.
We divided entries into ‘Breakthrough’ (annual revenues of less than £3 million) and ‘Scale Up’ (£3 million or more), giving awards in each category for six regions – London and South-East, Midlands, North-East, North-West and North Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and South-West and South Wales – to make a total of 12 regional winners whose names are here.
Our special award for Excellence in Sustainability went to Polymateria, a London-based pioneer in biodegradable plastic technology which aims to reduce microplastic waste. A new category for 2024 was Innovator to Watch: the winner, Nellie Technologies from Aberystwyth, is developing new paths in carbon capture and removal. Our overall Economic Innovator of the Year was Domin from Bristol, which manufactures a new generation of super-efficient hydraulic pumps.
Outstanding finalists and winners all. We look forward to even more spectacular Innovator fireworks in 2025.
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