Mobica has been crowned the UK’s leading data analytics and sensor technology business for 2020.
An independent judging panel and our readers voted in the inaugural 100 SmartTech Innovators ranking for 2020 – and the fast-growing Cheshire firm came out on top after securing backing from both.
A provider of technology solutions in the connected device market, Mobica has a long history of working with the likes of tech giants Arm and Intel, and also counts the likes of Google, Facebook, Vodafone and Jaguar Land Rover as clients.
The company also recently opened its first office in Germany to strengthen its relationships with the country’s leading automotive OEMs and suppliers.
CEO Simon Wilkinson said there are plans to expand its number of engineers significantly to 1,500 in the next three years as it eyes growth both globally and in its home region.
“Mobica is a North West business based in Wilmslow but it’s been very outward-focused in terms of its customer base in the last 10 years,” he tells BusinessCloud.
“It’s only within the last 12 months that we have started to turn to the opportunity in the North West, which is significant to me.
“That does not mean giving less attention to our international clients but the North is growing substantially. [It] has a deficit of digital talent and we can help fill the gap and allow companies to scale in the regions.”
The ranking’s top 10 featured businesses from nine different locations, with Yorkshire, the North East, Humberside, London and Wales also represented.
Mobica was followed in the ranking by Hark, an industrial Internet of Things monitoring platform based in Leeds which works with major supermarkets.
Gateshead’s wordnerds, an advanced linguistics technology which analyses customer feedback, was third, followed by near neighbour Nomad Digital, a leading provider of passenger and fleet connectivity solutions to the railway industry which is based in Newcastle.
Liverpool’s Medallia LivingLens, which analyses the sentiment in video content and was recently acquired for $26 million, rounded out the top five.
In sixth spot was The Floow, a telematics firm based in Sheffield which is making waves in North America. Connexin (Hull), Octopus Energy (London), Tribepad (Sheffield) and Academy of Robotics (Cardiff) also made the top 10.
You can see the full top 100 ranking, which was voted on from a long-list of 169 disruptive companies, here.
The judging panel was comprised of:
- Teodora Kaneva, programme manager at SmarterUK, techUK
- Stuart Lynn, TechNorthEast founder and former CTO at Sage
- Jon Corner, MD at The Landing
- Carly Gulliver, managing associate at Addleshaw Goddard LLP
- Dr. Joanne Phoenix, interim executive director at Sensor City
- Jonathan Symcox, editor, BusinessCloud