International law firm Pinsent Masons has partnered with Tech Nation’s Rising Stars competition to support innovative early-stage scaleups across the UK.

Pinsent Masons will run two sessions open to all Rising Stars 4.0 applicants on topics including raising investment (with a focus on seed-stage). Additionally, a member of its team will help to judge the Rising Stars 4.0 Semi-Final.

A purpose-led professional services business with law at its core, Pinsent Masons recognises that its clients rarely have legal problems; they have commercial challenges and opportunities. That’s why it combines legal expertise with a wide range of complementary professional disciplines – enabled by processes and technology – to address its clients’ most pressing needs.

With over 450 partners and more than 3,300 people operating globally from 26 offices around the world, Pinsent Masons’ people champion change, promote progress and enable everyone to make business work better for people.

Rising Stars is the UK’s most exciting competition for innovative, early-stage tech companies. Following an initial application stage in September, Rising Stars 4.0’s Regional Winners were revealed last month as part of our latest ‘12 Days of Scaleups’ campaign.

Designed to showcase the best the country has to offer, Rising Stars 4.0 provides the platform for businesses from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to shine bright. Competing companies benefit from significant profile-raising on both a national and international level.

Rising Stars 4.0 entrants are supported throughout the application process and given training and support at each stage of the competition to help them compete to their best ability and deliver the perfect pitch.

The competition’s top 20 companies are showcased and promoted to a highly curated audience of investors, corporates, influencers and the wider tech ecosystem. The judging panel will then deliberate over the final 20, selecting 10 companies to be named as this year’s Rising Stars, who will feature in a high-profile celebration event on 24 March 2022.

Since Rising Stars 1.0 debuted in 2018, the competition has supported 176 companies that have collectively raised more than £176m. Applicants to Rising Stars 4.0 raised an average of £644,815 and had an average business age of 2.2 years, with 39% founded by females and 5.4% based outside of London.

Esme Caulfield, Tech Nation’s Competitions Lead, said: “We’re really excited to be working with Pinsent Masons on Rising Stars 4.0, as their expertise in the tech sector and passion for early-stage tech companies makes them the ideal partner for the competition.

“With Tech Nation’s Rising Stars competition now in its fourth year, it’s amazing to see so many inspiring companies innovating to change our world for the better. This year, we reached the milestone of 1000 applications to Rising Stars (and surpassed it). We had a record number of applications this year (380) and we also saw our first applications – and our first Regional Winner – from the spacetech sector (Elestial, from the Midlands) and agritech (Cropsafe, from Northern Ireland).

“From revolutionising modern healthcare and disrupting the finance sector to transforming education and tackling climate change, each of these fast-growing regional early-stage tech companies is helping us improve our economy, society and quality of life. This year’s Regional Winners represent the brightest and the best of UK tech and talent, and I’m excited to see what they do next.”