A Judging panel comprising of Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, and Sir Richard Branson selected UK and Europe’s most disruptive and innovative tech startups and leaders at a prestigious awards ceremony held in central London

In an awards ceremony at the prestigious Museum of London, a variety of the UK and Europe’s most disruptive and innovative tech startups and leaders were crowned winners of the 2017 Talent Unleashed Awards, hosted by global IT and recruitment firm, Talent. Now in its fifth year, Talent Unleashed is a diverse awards programme that recognises outstanding startups and inspiring entrepreneurs dedicated to transforming business and the wider community through technological innovation.

Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, chaired the global judging panel for the awards and was joined by Virgin founder, Sir Richard Branson, UK National Technology Adviser, Liam Maxwell and many more.

Speaking about his motivation for judging the event, Steve Wozniak said that “people are always at the centre of the best technological innovation. The truly outstanding, inspirational developments in tech are rarely about efficiency and profit alone; they’re about making people’s lives better, and encouraging and enabling people to do their best work and live their best lives. That’s the unifying theme this year.”

The 2017 Talent Unleashed Awards UK & European Regional winners are:

  • ‘Best Idea – One to Watch!’ – Minespider

Minespider

uses blockchain tokens to track conflict free minerals. Metals that come from conflict zones are difficult to uniquely identify because shipments can be mixed, so our approach is to create blockchain tokens according to production volumes of responsibly sourced material. These tokens are passed up the supply chain to purchasers of metal, so that manufacturers can trace their money to responsible sources.

Minespider uses blockchain tokens to track conflict free minerals

  • ‘Best Startup – Tech or Digital Innovation’ – Drum Roll HQ

Drum Roll HQ are creating

Erase All Kittens

– the world’s first game designed to inspire girls to code and teach them professional coding languages. Solely through word-of-mouth, the pilot version of E.A.K. has 120,000 players in over 100 countries and 55% are girls (compared with an average of less than 18% for other coding tools/clubs). Our mission is to inspire and teach at least 500,000 girls aged 8-13 to code and create on the web, by 2019.

  • ‘Best Startup - Social or Community Impact’ – E-Kite

E-Kite

develops kite power systems to generate electricity at >50% lower costs than wind turbines. Our systems consist of a wing tethered to a ground station. While flying away the wing is pulling the tether, causing a pulley to turn. This pulley then drives a generator. E-Kite power systems are mobile, so they can be used at temporary or remote sites. Our systems can be deployed offshore in deep waters at very low costs, because they can float on pontoons.

  • ‘Most Disruptive Tech or Digital Leader’ – Richard Corbridge, eHealth Ireland

Richard is a leader in the digital healthcare arena with 20 years’ experience. He has a passion for business change and benefits management. Richard insists on a focus on engagement and highlighting benefits brought to every technology implementation he has responsibility for. In the last 3 years he has been responsible for

digital in health in Ireland

before that he was responsible for making a change to how clinical research is conducted in the UK.

‘Most Disruptive Tech or Digital Leader’ – Richard Corbridge, eHealth Ireland

  • Most Progressive Workplace Leader’ - Greg Reed, Homeserve Membership

With 20 years’ international Banking experience, Greg joined HomeServe Membership in 2012, as Chief Marketing Officer, becoming CEO in June 2017. He leads a business with 3,000 people, including 1,000 engineers, with 2.2m customers and a turnover of £326m. Upon joining,

HomeServe

had just come through a regulatory, reputational and commercial near-death experience. Greg has helped a new HomeServe emerge; a commercially powerful business built on strong principles with the right culture of committed people delivering effortless service to customers.

HomeServe had just come through a regulatory, reputational and commercial near-death experience

Jon Butterfield, EMEA CEO at Talent,

 commented on this year’s winners and the incredible journey that awaits them all: “Congratulations to all of our 2017 Talent Unleashed winners. Out of hundreds of entries from some interesting and cutting-edge companies, we believe we have unearthed the best and brightest in UK and European tech talent. Each of the companies and leaders crowned this year have their own missions, their own achievements and the ability to deliver real change and innovation for the wider community.” In addition to winning at the regional finals, ethical mining startup, Minespider, clean energy startup, E-Kite and Homeserve CEO, Greg Reed, were recognised as global winners standing out against winners from other regions including APAC and the US. As part of their global winner’s prize, they’ll fly for an all-expenses-paid trip to San Francisco where they’ll tour the biggest technology companies in the world and enjoy a private lunch with Steve Wozniak.