£3m up for grabs in competition to find UK’s most innovative early-stage startups
A new competition, supported by the Rigby Group, has been launched to uncover and accelerate the most innovative early-stage companies in the UK.
The competition, titled as ‘The 2025 Rising Stars’ is open to early-stage B2B and B2B2C founders from all regions of the UK who are building technology in any sector, including agritech, edtech, medtech, AI, health, beauty tech, and more.
It was launched by Tech Nation and OnetoWin. Applications are open from 21 January to 2 March 2025.
This year’s competition is now merged with the West Midlands pitch competition OneToWin, which brings existing partners Rigby Group (including SCC) and Haatch.
Wealth Club will also be contributing to the investment prize this year and additional partners include HSBC Innovation Banking, Amazon Web Services and British Business Bank.
NGOs and industry organisations across the UK are providing support and resources for the Rising Stars competition, including Manchester Digital, Sunderland Software City, Tramshed Wales, TechSPARK (Bristol), ScotlandIS, Innovate Cambridge, and Cambridge Tech Week.
Technology companies in the UK are worth a combined value of $1.1 trillion and the nation is home to 171 unicorn companies, according to Tech Nation’s most recent report.
Tech Nation’s Rising Stars competition aims to support up-and-coming entrepreneurs and innovators from across the UK, including those in underserved regions and communities, with new investment and exposure.
The revamped competition aims to inspire and enable more people to embrace tech entrepreneurship by providing resources to help bring their ideas to life. It is powered by Founders Forum Group and supported by and in partnership with Rigby Group and its cornerstone IT services businesses SCC, Haatch and Wealth Club.
Rising Stars features two competition tracks: pre-seed or seed-stage companies, and Pre-series A to Series A and later.
A judging panel of founders, investors and ecosystem leaders will assess each company's team experience, value proposition, traction and revenue, and future goals and projections.
Over a nine-week period, selected participants will benefit from networking opportunities, as well as regional support and resources.
Winners of the early-stage track regional finals will have the opportunity to win the Haatch regional investment prize of £335K.
Across the regional finals there will be over £2 million up for grabs.
For the later-stage track, grand finalists from each region will have the chance to exhibit at London Tech Week, taking place 9-13 June at London’s Olympia.
Last year’s Rising Stars’ winner was Novai, a medtech company from Reading combating blindness and disability by pioneering early detection and intervention for eye and brain diseases using DARC technology.
Steve Rigby (pictured), co-CEO of Rigby Group said: “Talent can only thrive when it meets opportunity.
“That’s exactly what the revamped OnetoWin competition offers – with an incredible prize on offer for the UK’s best up-and-coming tech entrepreneurs.
“The UK has huge untapped potential, with tech talent spread far and wide throughout the country.
“By providing resources, mentorship and networking opportunities through a competitive pitch process, this year’s Rising Stars competition will unleash new, amazing ideas that can boost our economy and solve problems for customers in sectors ranging from AI to medtech.”
