Bath’s tech talent has shone brightly at The SPARKies, the awards that champion the best of the West of England’s tech and digital community.
The 17 awards, which celebrate the best start-ups, designs, hardware, people and more, were handed out at a lively ceremony at Bristol event space Propyard last week.
The awards, which were launched in 2012, have grown to become to best-respected tech accolades in the region, attracting hundreds of entries from across the region’s vibrant tech sector.
A record number of nominations of the highest quality this year gave the judges a tough time deciding on the final shortlists – testament, say organisers TechSPARK, the information hub for all things tech in Bristol, Bath and the West of England, that the sector continues to build back better from the impact of the pandemic.
The Bath winners were software development company Storm, the creator of the city’s Digital Festival, which won the Most Innovative Use of Tech title, while the Community Award went to The Studio, Bath, the creative hub providing a space for local micro-businesses, Bath Spa University students, academics, and graduates to work on projects and ideas which focus on creativity and technology.
Seccl, the Bath-based fintech that is part of venture capital trusts and investments group Octopus, scooped the Best Scale-up award, while Rocketmakers, the software developer and long-term SPARKies supporter, pictured above, headed the Best Use of VR/MR category.
Two Bath-based individuals also landed awards on the night, with Rayna Bozhkova, a software developer trainer at iO Academy, winning the Best Mentor/Advisor accolade, and Paul Hetherington, CEO of Bath-based machine learning innovator Mystic, walking away with the FutureSPARK title.
Other winners included Dr Zara Nanu, CEO and co-founder of Bristol-based Gapsquare, who landed the Awesome Human Award. Zara launched Gapsquare in 2016 to harness data and AI technology to help organisations put a stop to biases and practices preventing equality.
Last August it was acquired by Surrey-based HR consultancy XpertHR, part of the US data giant LexisNexis.
The headline sponsor for The SPARKies was Huboo, the Bath-founded eCommerce fulfilment company Huboo – which is now based in Bristol and recently opened a major distribution hub in Chippenham.
Other sponsors included accountants Bishop Fleming, Rocketmakers, Bath-based workspace design firm Interaction and tech marketing agency Estrella Ventures.
