With a record number of nominations in, we need your help to narrow down the choices to a shortlist of four! You can read all about the 16 nominees and the reasons they were nominated below the voting form.
The final winner will be decided by the audience on the night of the SPARKies itself on Thursday 29 June.
The nominees
Blue Sparrow Apps
Description: Blue Sparrow Apps write apps for phones and tablets, including the award-winning Tiny Tours.
From nomination: “James and Laura at Blue Sparrow Apps developed the free app Tiny Tours. Tiny Tours is brilliant, it helps parents and carers to explore Bristol with children, detailing family friendly events happening nearby, plus lists of places to visit and what you can expect to find there. It saves parents time and energy. It’s great for sourcing ideas on rainy days and it encourages local tourism.”
DoodleMaths
Description: DoodleMaths is the award-winning homework solution guaranteed to improve maths ability and confidence.
From nomination: “Both of my daughters (7 & 4) use DoodleMaths and it has been a huge help. My eldest, who is starting SATs was struggling a bit with maths but Doodlemaths has really helped her to get up to speed in a way that has not frightened her off the subject. She is always asking to use the app as she loves answering the questions in the fun and engaging way DoodleMaths presents them. Lots of her friends are using it and her little sister is using the early years version and she loves it too! The adaptive learning aspect of the app is really what sets it apart from the other tools that my eldest has used over the last year or so.”
Everything IT
Description: IT Support, PC & Laptop Repair in Bath
From nomination: “Mark is kind, resourceful, full of positive infectious energy, he and his team are great at what they do best.” For more information about Everything IT and why they may deserve to win the People’s Choice awards you can check out their news blog here: http://www.everythingit.co/news
Gapsquare
Description: Get instant analysis of your gender gap calculations with rich visual representations of the pay gap and workforce composition.
From nomination: “Gapsquare is an amazing cloud-based data analysis company that works to help companies close the gender pay gap. The CEO, Zara, works relentlessly to keep up a positive narrative to understanding how women and men are developed in work, the opportunities they get, their treatment when they have families and the amount they are paid over all. She has helped over 70 companies, mainly in the South West, to understand and close their gender pay gap. She even works with a large proportion of companies for free.
Gapsquare has the potential to streamline our understanding of the pay gap, and I hope, it will help make the future brighter for young women AND young men in work.”
Helpfulpeeps
Description: Helpfulpeeps is a community where people share their time, skills and knowledge to help each other for free.
From nomination: “Helpfulpeeps is on a mission to bring back community spirit in an increasingly disconnected world. Their platform allows people to ask for and offer help to others in their community. Founders Simon and Saf set up Helpfulpeeps in 2015 as a social experiment, receiving 6,500 sign ups within a year, prompting them to quit their corporate jobs and go full time on the idea. With Helpfulpeeps, Simon and Saf are on a mission to create a better society where people help each other out freely, rather than relying so heavily on money. Helpfulpeeps currently has members in in over 40 countries around the world, with over 15,000 members in Bristol alone, and are steadily becoming the most helpful social network around!”
IdeaSquares
Description: IdeaSquares is a platform to validate and develop early-stage business ideas. The site’s aim is to improve the quality and preparation of business propositions, thus increasing their chance of success.
From nomination: “IdeaSquares supports startups to crowdfunding success. To date, they have helped 18 companies raise over £3m through crowdfunding campaigns. By helping local startups raise money, IdeaSquares has been instrumental in boosting the South-West’s tech startup profile and creating employment. IdeaSquares founder, Kirsty Ranger, has fast become a respected expert on crowdfunding and shares her knowledge with local startups to boost the South-West’s tech startup economy.”
Keymailer
Description: Keymailer connects over 300,000 YouTube & Twitch channels to games publishers – the safest, friendliest way to request & distribute game keys in the world.
From nomination: “Keymailer is the overlap between gaming and YouTube, and is the next big thing coming out of the South West. Globally, gaming revenue is bigger than music and film put together, and more YouTube video is now watched than TV. Keymailer defined the gaming video market segment, is the biggest platform globally and is fastest growing. All the team and founders are from Bristol and Bath, and there couldn’t be a better advert for the cool South West.”
Mayden
Description: Bath-based software house with an academy aimed at people aspiring to learn a new digital skill.
From nomination: “Bath-based software firm Mayden has gone out of its way to plug the coding skills gap in Bath by creating its own coding academy (see https://maydenacademy.co.uk/). The students who have completed the course are full of praise of how the academy has got them to the right place ready for a career as a developer. They are also good at encouraging diversity too: https://mayden.co.uk/2017/03/women-in-tech-at-mayden/
It’s this kind of forward thinking that the Bristol and Bath region needs to ensure we have the relevant skills and people to keep it at the forefront of tech.”
MoveGB
Description: MoveGB allows you to exercise how, when, and where you want. One membership, 100s gyms, studios & classes nationwide.
From nomination: “It got me off my bum and got me moving! Seriously though, it offers a huge variety of fitness classes in my local area supporting local trainers and local venues at an amazing subscription price.”
Ordoo
Description: A mobile ordering app to save time collecting coffee & lunch. Order ahead at the best venues to beat the queue & earn loyalty rewards.
From nomination: “Ordoo is changing the way we interact with cafes, restaurants, bars and festivals with their innovative pre-ordering and paying system. As well as saving people huge amounts of queuing time, Ordoo has recently implemented a model that will allow coffee shops, cafes and bars innovate like tech startups, by helping them understand the metrics that matter, and use this data to make smarter decisions. Earlier this year, Tom was named one of SETsquared’s top 50 entrepreneurs from the last 15 years. Ordoo currently has 3 full time members of staff, and thanks to their most recent funding round, will continue to create more amazing jobs in the South-West.”
Reach Robotics
Description: Creator of MekaMon, a multi-functional, connected battlebot with augmented reality capabilities.
From nomination: “Killer robots FTW!” For more about Reach Robotics MekaMon project you can see the article here: https://techspark.co/reach-robotics-presents-mekamon-premium-fighting-machine/
Also, you can read more about Reach Robotics founder, Silas Adekunle in this interview: https://techspark.co/interview-building-for-the-future-silas-adekunle-founder-of-reach-robotics/
Rocketmakers
Description: Rocketmakers is a Bath-based startup incubator and software development team.
From nomination: “Bath-based Rocketmakers is a great example of a firm willing to give something back to the tech community. They go out of their way to make time to talk to startups about their ideas, and I know that people have said that spending an hour with Richard and the team pulling their ideas apart has been incredibly valuable for them. The company also invests time, effort (and money!) into startups to see them succeed.
This is on top of all the great work the team do with clients big and small, many of whom have nothing but praise for Richard and the team. I have no idea how they find the time!”
Simpleweb
Description: Web development agency that builds software and develops startups. They make SaaS and mobile applications that combine strategy, engineering, and art.
From nomination: “Bristol-based Simpleweb is a really great addition to the South West Tech cluster. They go out of their way to help startups, even providing a regular newsletter of startup news to subscribers. They also hold great hackathons where you get to play with some of the latest tech – and eat fantastic chilli! On the work side, they have developed the framework behind some great apps such as food-sharing app Olio and Deborah Wilder’s Health apps.”
Ultrahaptics
Description: Ultrahaptics creates tactile sensations using ultrasound to create virtual buttons, switches and 3D shapes that can be felt in mid-air.
From nomination: “Ultrahaptics is a great Bristol success story. In just two years the company has gone from founders Tom Carter and Ben Long developing the idea in a University of Bristol lab to becoming the global leader in mid-air touchless haptic technology. Their vision is becoming infectious among almost every conceivable application from automotive, where the company has developed concept vehicles with both BOSCH and HARMAN, to industrial controls, medical interfaces, and AR and VR environments.
Their meteoric rise now sees them with over 70 employees and a new Silicon Valley office. The company has raised nearly $40 million to date, which includes a recent $24million Series B funding round from existing shareholders, IP Group plc and Woodford Investment Management, as well as new global investors Cornes and Dolby Family Ventures.
Wriggle
Description: Helping you discover and save money at the best independent eateries and watering holes in Bristol.
From nomination: “I basically love the Wriggle app, for helping me discover all the best independent restaurants/cafes/bars in Bristol, which have now become my favourite places. The app is very easy to use and interactive, the descriptions about the restaurants are well written and almost always true, the articles are engaging and fun, and the videos are real top quality.”
Yellowdog
Description: Their innovative platform harnesses and monetises under-utilised computer power for fast CGI and animation rendering services.
From nomination: “This could be a truly impactful innovation, it’s perfect for the data intensive phase we’re entering and I believe the company could become a beacon for the SW tech scene.”
With this amount of amazing companies to choose from, we know it will be hard for you to make a decision, but at least we’ve made it super easy to vote. Use our SurveyMonkey form above to simply select. Don’t forget to get your tickets so you can see your vote through to fruition.
- You may like: The SPARKies tech awards 2017 tickets are now on sale!
