Three companies from the North West entering Tech Nation’s Rising Stars Grand Final: Culture Shift (Manchester), tootoot (Manchester), UrbanChain (Altrincham).
The Rising Stars competition is the only national early-stage tech scaleup competition in the UK and is designed to showcase the most exciting companies at Seed to pre-Series A funding from all areas of the country.
The final 10 winners will be revealed at the Rising Stars Grand Final in London on Wednesday 12 February which will be the culmination of a nationwide search that saw the 33 regional winners revealed in November, followed by the Semi-Final in Manchester last month where a panel of judges whittled the finalists down to 20 companies.
At the Grand Final, the winners will be required to pitch to a panel of industry-leading judges, and in front of an audience of over 200 of the top venture capitalists, founders and corporates in the UK. The judging panel includes techUK President, Jacqueline de Rojas, PrettyLittleThing co-founder Adam Kamani, and MD of Microsoft for Startups UK Amali de Alwis.
“I’m proud to see three North West companies competing in the Tech Nation Grand Final tomorrow evening. Culture Shift, UrbanChain and tootoot are ambitious companies with tremendously scalable products that showcase the importance of using technology to tackle societal challenges. The quality of our finalists are representative of Manchester’s booming tech sector.”
(Mo Aldalou, Entrepreneur Engagement Manager – North West, Tech Nation)
The Rising Stars Grand Final will take place on Wednesday 12 February in London.
North West finalists:
Culture Shift
Manchester | Tech for Good |
Culture Shift’s tech-for-good product Report + Support is a revolutionary online platform that allows victims and witnesses of any kind of bullying, abuse or harassment to report it, either anonymously or with details. The system also signposts those in need of support and provides organisations with vital information to help them tackle toxic behaviour and cultures.
tootoot
Manchester | SaaS |
tootoot is award-winning software that supports the psychological safety and wellbeing of individuals within education, sport and the workplace. tootoot provides a way for individuals to raise a concern to their organisation with complete confidentiality.
Altrincham | Blockchain/AI & Energy |
UrbanChain develops world-leading products and services by using blockchain and AI technologies to integrate services in utility sectors, such as energy, transportation and health. They aim to transform these markets, democratise their structure, and optimise and integrate processes to reduce the costs for end-users.
