TechSPARK’s Top 20 innovators in the South West

We are delighted to be announcing TechSPARK’s Top 20 most influential and impactful individuals working in the South West’s tech scene today. 

Thanks to our partnership with Antidote Communications, we’ve been able to celebrate the individuals who have had a rippling impact on our community – not just in economic terms, in the ways they facilitate collaboration and personal growth throughout the region too.

So, here is the completed list of the South West Top Innovators!

James is an entrepreneur and former strategy consultant with a background in Economics. He is CEO and founder of Ndemic Creations, the independent game studio dedicated to making ultra high quality, intelligent and sophisticated strategy

Dick is an arts administrator, consultant, and producer. He is best known as the driving force of the Watershed which he led for a number of years. He has been an advocate and leader of Bristol’s digital scene for decades.

James is CEO at Immersive Labs, the world’s first fully interactive, gamified and on-demand cyber skills platform. The platform enables businesses to rapidly develop and assess cyber talent and identify skill gaps against the MITRE ATT&CK framework. Immersive labs raised a new $75m in June.

“We throw robots into the sea while delivering industry 4.0 solutions to the energy transition space. Solving robotic autonomy, machine intelligence and data provenance issues while working out what your vehicles are doing and where they are – real-time SLAM and AI analysis in the real world, proven with successful multi £m contracts” Through the pandemic Rovco grew by almost 300%.

Joel has grown Open Bionics from 0 to 30+ employees, raising over £7.5m in grant and VC funding and launching products internationally. It has also been recognised with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 for services to International Trade and Engineering Technology

Trauma and orthopedic surgeon by training and Founder/CEO Virti. Improving human performance & training for organisations by making experiential education affordable, accessible and data-driven. In June of this year Virti closed a $10m investment raise

Katherine previously worked as the Senior Vice President at Airbus. She was awarded a CBE for services to aviation and aerospace industry and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She now leads the High Value Manufacturing Catapult who recently launched a new £10m programme, DETI, to better connect tech and engineering

Lewis is a broadcaster, producer and director representing some of the biggest YouTube channels in the world. He is the Managing Director of The Yogscast, an entertainment company based in Bristol that primarily produce video gaming-related videos on YouTube and Twitch, and also operate the Yogscast multi-channel network for affiliated content creators.

Tom is CTO and Co-Founder of Ultraleap – formerly Ultrahaptics and Leap Motion, its mission is to redefine interaction. Tom founded Ultrahaptics as a result of his PhD at Bristol University; the technology enables users to receive tactile feedback without needing to wear or touch anything and it is now the world’s leading touchless haptics company.

Nick is known as the driving force behind the establishment of Engineshed and for his leadership of SETsquared Bristol. He is currently working as the Non-Executive Director at CFMS, Chair of Helastel and a Governor of Bath Spa University. He is advising on the Golden Valley scheme in Cheltenham.. In the past, Nick was honoured with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honour list for his services to the digital economy.

Clare is CEO of The Watershed, Bristol’s iconic independent cinema and event space. Since joining The Watershed, Clare has established its creative technology programmes including Pervasive Media Studio and Playable City. She works with industry, academic and creative partners from around the world to champion inclusion, support talent and develop new ideas.

Steve is the Vice-Chancellor, President and CEO at the University of the West of England. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to higher education and continues to enable UWE to facilitate the pioneering developments that take place at the university.

Marvin is currently the Mayor of the City of Bristol. His career has hopped from Journalist to Local Authority Director to Charity Trustee, but now as mayor he is committed to working for a fairer world. Marvin says its his aim to get politics, society and the economy working for everyday people.

Stephen is CEO and founder of Bristol-based unicorn, OVO Energy. The green-tech company was founded locally with the goal to disrupt the UK energy market – it has since become the largest UK independent energy supplier with over 1.5 million customers.

Science Creates is a Bristol-based deep tech ecosystem supported and backed by successful entrepreneurs that helps scientists and engineers accelerate their ideas and build disruptive businesses from scientific discoveries. Harry founded Life sciences business Ziylo who were acquired in a $800m deal.

Nigel is CEO and co-founder of the first Bristol-born unicorn, Graphcore. The semiconductor challenger has only been in business for three years and has managed to enter a league of its own when it comes to computer processing. In January Graphcore raise $222m valuing them at $2.77bn.

Samantha is the co-founder of Open Bionics, the startup making 3D-printed, bionic prosthetic limbs. Ever since its conception, Open Bionics has been winning awards whilst changing the lives of amputees.

Col is CEO & Founder of the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content, IMDb. From its humble beginnings as a personal database documenting one man’s obsession with film, IMDb now welcomes over 250 million unique users a month, whilst keeping its tech team in Bristol.

Sir James Dyson is the chairman of Dyson. Founded in Wiltshire in 1991, the company now employs more than 5,800 engineers around the world and says it invests about $10 million a week in product development. Since Dyson’s worldwide success, James and the company has set a precedent for just how much a South West tech business can achieve and give back to its community.

Methodology for ranking the South West Top Innovators