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The Northern Stars competition, launched in September by Tech North, has announced 10 tech start-up winners.
Supporting digital entrepreneurs across the North of England, the winners were chosen from 23 shortlisted companies from over 100 pitches.
Supporting the winners’ continued growth, the 10 winners were awarded a place in the Tech North pavilion at TechCrunch Disrupt in December and the opportunity to pitch to investors at Bloomberg in January.
All winning teams will also be sent to the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin Texas in March 2016, providing a global stage for the winners to showcase their technology.
Head of Tech North, Claire Braithwaite, commented: "Championing entrepreneurship is integral to the on-going acceleration of the digital economy in the North of England, and initiatives like Northern Stars help us to shine a light on our top digital talent and ensure we are encouraging the growth and success of the North.
"We have an abundance of digital expertise across the North of England, and our role is to find that talent and make sure we provide infrastructure and support to allow these companies to reach their potential.
Crowned at last night’s event at the UKFast Campus in Manchester, the winners were named as:
Airstoc (Sheffield)
The world’s first dedicated marketplace for the professional drone industry, connecting customers with operators around the world.
EvaluAgent (Teeside)
A suite of cloud-based software modules designed to enhance staff performance in multi-channel contact centres.
Formisimo (Manchester)
Provides unparalleled insight into where users struggle to fill out online forms. Their insights drive UX and design changes.
Geek Talent (Sunderland)
A data science company with a primary focus on reducing the skills gap between education and employment through digital products.
Gnatta (Manchester)
Allows businesses of all sizes to listen and speak to their customers on an individual basis quickly and effectively via one single interface.
In-Part (Sheffield)
An online system that strategically matches collaboration and commercialisation opportunities from university technology transfer offices (TTOs) to a network of senior decision makers.
Leaf.fm (Newcastle)
A music discovery and promotion platform using technology built on top of YouTube and social content.
M14 Industries (Manchester)
A platform that allows any one or any company to create their own niche-dating app. The first app on this platform is Bristlr, the ‘Tinder for Beards’.
Peak (Manchester)
A data analytics and intelligence company that offers a unique Data-as-a-Service platform.
Receptive (Sheffield)
Collates product ideas and feature requests for Software-as-a-Service (Saas) companies based on customer data feedback.
All winners will become part of the Northern Stars Founders Network, a network announced at yesterday’s event to create peer-to-peer connections between startup companies in the North.