A Manchester robot specialist and a Salford children's entertainment creator have been named as Britain鈥檚 top Black entrepreneurs.

KPMG has announced the four winners of its annual Black Entrepreneurs鈥 Awards, which have been held every year since 2018 and aim to identify the country鈥檚 most exciting business leaders. The winners were chosen from more than 150 entrants in areas from AI to retail and from recruitment to education.

Each winner will receive 拢25,000 to invest in their business or to donate to the charity or community project of their choice, while all finalists can join a KPMG acceleration programme 鈥渄esigned to support Black heritage entrepreneurs and their businesses to grow鈥.

The award for most promising large business was won by Ayaan Mohamed, founder of Manchester鈥檚 Digitech Oasis. Her business develops autonomous mobile robots and AI systems to help retailers and warehouse operators work more efficiently.

She said: 鈥淚t feels amazing to win, it means a lot to the company, a company that has come so far in the last four years. In terms of accelerating growth, hardware is very capital intensive so we need support. I think it will propel us to do greater things.鈥

The award for most promising medium-sized business went to Anita Frost, founder of Green Bean Studios in Salford. The eco-conscious children鈥檚 entertainment brand aims to 鈥渆mpowers children globally to play, learn and go on fun adventures鈥.

Anita said: 鈥淚鈥檓 so excited to have won this KPMG award, it鈥檚 going to propel Green Bean, the team and the brand into new spaces. I鈥檓 particularly really excited about the partnership with KPMG for 12 months so that we can improve our infrastructure and being ready to level up.鈥

The most promising small business title was won by Yasmin Greenaway, founder at deep tech company Dermie.AI. Her London business specialises in building computer vision models and software for the detection and management of dermatological disease.

Yasmin said: 鈥淚 really appreciate winning because it鈥檚 so important that corporates ensure that we focus on diversity in AI because we鈥檝e seen a lot of models coming out that aren鈥檛 working for everyone.鈥

The most promising not-for-profit-business title went to Ben Lindsay OBE, founder at award-winning charity Power The Fight. The charity works to tackle violence affecting young people, working to connect policy-makers with communities and to create long-term solutions.

Ben said: 鈥淚鈥檓 so excited that we鈥檝e had this opportunity, it鈥檚 going to mean so much to us as a small charity to be associated with KPMG, but also the money makes such a difference to our digital offer which is going to impact young people and our training up and down the country.鈥

The awards were founded by Olu Odubajo, a product manager at KPMG 海角视频, in 2018. They have so far supported 48 Black heritage founders 鈥 with one winner going on to grow a global business valued at 拢12m with a presence in 27 countries.

The 12 finalists at this year鈥檚 awards were invited to a pitch in front of live audience and a judging panel that included Margaret Sheyindemi, start up growth manager at BT, Ezechi Britton, MBE, CEO of the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology, and Zuleika Philips, head of channels at Intuit.

Euan West, head of private enterprise for KPMG in the 海角视频, said: 鈥淩esearch has shown that Black entrepreneurs in the 海角视频 receive a disproportionately low amount of venture capital investment, which often hinders business and economic growth.

鈥淪upporting the development and scaling of Black businesses in the 海角视频 is incredibly important, which is why we鈥檙e committed to helping more Black Heritage entrepreneurs to gain access to the resources they need to make their businesses a success.

鈥淲e have been running the KPMG Black Entrepreneurs鈥 Awards for five years now. Every year we get to see some truly incredible and innovative businesses and this year has been no exception. Our four winners really stood out, not only for their entrepreneurship but the impact and reach their businesses could have. In fact, all the finalists showed great innovation in their businesses and should be proud of what they have achieved. We are looking forward to supporting all of them through our 12-month acceleration programme, helping them to grow their businesses.鈥

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