Meet the Rising Stars 3.0 regional winners: London’s five top early-stage companies

Kane Fulton, December 15, 2020 5 min read

Rising Stars is the UK’s only national competition for innovative, early-stage tech companies. Last year, 10 companies were crowned Rising Stars 2.0 Winners at our London Grand Final. Now, five regional winners for each region and nation across the UK will compete nationally for the chance to be named as one of the 10 winners of Rising Stars 3.0. Read on to find out more about our five London regional winners – Define, Dragonfly AI, ufurnish.com, Vimma, and Zobi.

Define

Drafting made simple, Define optimises the contract drafting and reviewing process by allowing users to quickly access key information (namely all defined terms and references) in legal documents without ever having to leave the provision they are working on and lose their context of review. Define acts as a risk management tool and efficiency software that helps lawyers save time when working on legal documents. Founder and CEO Nnamdi Emelifeonwu spoke to Tech Nation.

How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?

We are thrilled to have been selected as a Tech Nation Rising Stars Regional Winner and one of the top 5 early-stage scale ups in London, especially given the competitive start-up landscape in the city. This is a testament to all the hard work that our team continuously put in day in, day out and I am proud of them for this incredible achievement particularly in the backdrop of a challenging year.

What is it like being a tech company based in London?

London is the leading startup ecosystem in Europe and being part of such a diverse and vibrant startup community has been incredibly beneficial to us. There is an abundance of opportunities and support that the city provides to help startups like ours thrive, from the various accelerators and incubators, to access to capital as well as mentoring support. We are truly fortunate to be a part of it.

Dragonfly AI

Dragonfly AI uses cutting edge neuroscience to accurately predict how the design of any content or experience influences what your audience sees first, across any channel. It measures the effectiveness of a wide range of assets before you publish. Dragonfly AI accurately shows you what audience attention is drawn to across assets by outputting several attention metrics and visual heat maps over content. Cofounder Mark Bainbridge spoke to Tech Nation.

How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?

2020 has been a year for DragonflyAI unlike any other; given the circumstances and conditions, we are delighted to have achieved Rising Star Regional Winner status.

What is it like being a tech company based in London?

Being part of the vibrant London ecosystem of startup and scale-up companies has been vital to our growth; the spirit of collaboration is second to none and we are grateful for the support and confidence placed in us by a great many partners and advisors in the tech space.

ufurnish.com

Ufurnish.com is an online search and discovery engine which enables consumers to easily search, discover, compare and shop furniture products across the entire retail market on one website. A one-stop shop for furniture search in the same way Rightmove facilitates property search, ufurnish.com creates a level playing field for furniture retailers, enabling them to get their products in front of the right consumers. Cofounder and CEO Deirdre McGettrick spoke to Tech Nation.

How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?

I’m absolutely thrilled that ufurnish.com is representing London as a Tech Nation Rising Star. It’s great recognition of what we’ve created and are growing at ufurnish.com as we look to disrupt the £25.5bn furniture market. We’ve grown substantially during 2020 hiring 14 people to our team and 2021 is set to be an even bigger year as we look towards raising a Series A investment round in Q1 2021.

What is it like being a tech company based in London?

Ufurnish.com is based in vibrant London and we are in good company amongst the most innovative technology companies coming out of the UK. It has superb events with top class speakers and an abundance of top-notch talent and investors. It’s a great place to grow a startup company.

Vimma

Vimma is a productivity suite for online content creators. 96% of influencers and content creators currently do not have access to talent management, and are left to solve their growth and monetisation on their own. Vimma’s talent management platform is building a software toolset to serve their talent management needs. Cofounder and CEO Outi Pietilanaho spoke to Tech Nation.

How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?

We are really excited to be nominated as a regional winner. We’ve grown our team, revenue and customer base with incredible speed in the past months, and the nomination will help us gain even more visibility and traction. This is truly a great recognition of all the hard work my team has been putting in this year.

What is it like being a tech company based in London?

London is a unique place to build a company. It is competitive and inclusive at the same time, and the ecosystem is always there to support and challenge you every step of the way. The support structures for ambitious people building globally important companies are fantastic, and I can see both the government and private sector understand the importance of startups here.

Zobi

Smart home technology that puts your privacy first, Zobi’s smart, brand-agnostic solutions take a holistic view of homes – people, devices, networks, habits. They build an anonymous profile for each home, then use that intel to spot unusual behaviour and stop cybercriminals. Founder Scott Lever spoke to Tech Nation.

How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?

We are honoured and thrilled to be named amongst the regional winners of Tech Nation Rising Stars 3.0, representing London. This timely award comes as we close a £1m investment round to create technology that puts your privacy first. Our Zobi Home Intelligence (AI) and consumer product Hedgehog, the home’s digital guardian, comes to market in early 2021.

What is it like being a tech company based in London?

The regional support for our cybersecurity startup in London has been fantastic, from the DCMS funded Cyber 101 Bootcamp through to HutZero accelerator and beyond.

London