AI dominated the 2024 Greater Manchester Tech Climbers list.
The 17 companies that made the main list – and the eight names on the Ones to Watch list – were revealed at a packed event on Wednesday evening at The Alan Hotel in Manchester.
Product-led AI businesses made up 77 per cent of all entries, and they are hungry for growth, with three quarters of AI firms in the region on the hunt for funding.
The data from Tech Climbers also demonstrated how investors are going all in on Manchester, with over two thirds (69 per cent) of the region’s AI firms already in receipt of funding.
For the 75 per cent looking for further growth capital, four in five were confident they’d be able to get the finance they needed to scale.
Greater Manchester’s AI ecosystem will also contribute 70 per cent of the 200 projected tech jobs in the year to come.
The winners were announced to a standing-room-only crowd of tech founders, investors and supporters at The Alan Hotel in Manchester, which was hosted by BusinessCloud’s executive editor Chris Maguire.
The list is judged by the project partners and selected experts, and reviews investment, impact, and innovation performance to date.
Entrants submit a snapshot of their data which is also used to chart growth and insight into the businesses and their challenges.
Some of this year’s winners include AI education assistant, TeachMateAI, Vulse, the AI-powered content creation tool and digital healthcare specialists, Decently, who recently closed their pre-seed investment round.
Several of the companies included on the lists spoke of their joy at the recognition.
Sean Brown, CEO of Versori, said: “Manchester’s ecosystem for technology startups is growing. Some of the names on the list are amazing so to be included with these great companies is a real compliment.”
(L-R) Ben Armstrong, co-founder, Cytix; Kate Longworth, CEO and co-founder, Gaia Learning; Joe van Gelder, CEO, Powdr; and Patience Tucker, CEO, wi-Q
Rishi Kapoor, CEO of audience intelligence platform North AI, said: “We founded the business seven months ago. To get this recognition so early in is so good for us as a business. It highlights the North West as a good ecosystem for AI companies.”
Dan Rosenberg, CEO and co-founder of EdTech, said: “It’s a big deal for us to be included in the list. We’re Manchester born and bred. To be included in this list with some of the region’s biggest and heaviest hitters is a massive honour. Manchester is the true second city.”
Anna Heyes, founder of Tech Climbers and CEO at Active Profile commented: “It’s our second year in Manchester with Tech Climbers, and you can feel how the ecosystem is evolving both through the entries we’ve received, as well as the conversations on our panels during our events.
“As is the case globally, but interesting to see in the Greater Manchester ecosystem, AI is dominating our list, contributing greatly to the region’s investment landscape.
“AI is driving local talent into the area through job creation and in so many cases shown through our entries, helping to solve social and environmental challenges as a force for good.
“Our data found that 100 per cent of entrants believed that Manchester was a good place to create and grow a business, and this is reflected in the story we have seen here this year. I look forward to seeing where we go in 2025!”
The full Tech Climbers 2024 Greater Manchester report and list is available here or on the Tech Climbers website.
The headline sponsors were: Brabners, Marks & Clerk, Rathbones, Investec and Robert Walters. The ecosystem sponsors were Turing innovation Catalyst, Greater Mcr Business Growth Hub, InnovateUK, Exchange, Manchester Digital, UK Tech Week, Manchester Angels and STFC. The national partners were: Techuk, Hubspot, Data City and InnovateHer. NatWest was the event sponsor. Active Profile came up with the idea while BusinessCloud acted as media partner.