techSPARK hosted the Bath Digital Festival last week (July 10-14), celebrating the tech industry across the South West.
Events throughout the week were hosted by a range of people and organisations including local experts, the local universities and colleges, and market leaders including Tesla, Google, IBM, NatWest, Dyson and JustEat covering themes from creativity, transport, information design, AI, robotics, web development, security and gender diversity.
Prior to the week techSPARK published its inaugural chair's report, outlining the existing conditions in Bristol and Bath's tech space.
The company, which has bases in Bath, Bristol, Swindon and Wiltshire and Wales, analysed the recent achievements of those within the cluster, featuring over 1200 businesses across fintech, greentech, digital, cyber and deeptech, to name a few.
As part of the week long festival techSPARK hosted the SPARKies awards at Parade Gardens in the city showcasing the best startups, designs, hardware, people and more.
Winners across the 17 categories included GEL studios, Rocketmakers, and Neighbourly's chief operating officer Zoe Colosimo who won the Awesome Human Award.
Winners of The SPARKies 2023
The ‘Totally Killing It’ Award – Cajigo, Bristol
The Hardware Award – Matter. (for the product Gulp), Bristol
The ‘Good’ Award – Bristol Braille Technology CIC, Bristol
Most Innovative Use of Tech – EarSwitch®️, Bristol
FutureSPARK – Georgia Howlett, vice president of pWr - Pax8 Women's Resources
Founder of the Year – Mel Rodrigues, founder and chief executive at Gritty Talent
Data Data Data – Good With, Cornwall
Community Award – GEL Studios, Swindon
Best Use of Immersive Tech – Zubr.co, Bristol
Best Startup – Stornaway.io, Bristol
Best Scaleup – Loqbox, Bristol
Best Startup – Stornaway.io, Bristol
Best Place to Work in Tech – KETS Quantum Security, Bristol
Best Mentor/Advisor – Aimee Skinner, senior business innovation and growth manager at University of the West of England
Best Digital Design – Rocketmakers, Bath
Best Cyber Company – Stripe OLT, Bristol
Awesome Human Award – Zoe Colosimo, chief operating officer of Neighbourly
techSPARK has praised Bristol and Bath for its "thriving ecosystem". The cities are home to nearly 5,000 of the 17,500 tech companies in the South West.
Technology data service Beauhurst reported in January 2023 that Bristol tech companies account for 36% of the city’s high-growth businesses. These 208 startups and scaleups achieved a combined turnover of £4.69bn in their latest financials and employ over 13,000 people. Following this, in 2022 Bristol was named the 2nd best city in the Ƶ for tech recruitment.
Altogether in 2022, the South West raised just over £918m in equity investment. techSPARK is committed to showcasing the best of these businesses and has announced plans for techSPARK Bristol in October.
Like this story? Why not sign up to get the latest South West business news straight to your inbox.
