The co-founder of Manchester unicorn Matillion is the latest speaker confirmed for the GM 125 Rising Stars of Business launch event.
CTO Ed Thompson co-founded the data productivity company in 2011 and it achieved unicorn status in 2021.
He’ll be joined by a number of the companies included in BusinessCloud’s inaugural ‘GM 125 Rising Stars of Business’ list, run in association with GM Business Growth Hub, and will be speaking at the launch event at KPMG’s Manchester office on May 17th.
Patrick Smith, founder of Zally, which is on a mission to end passwords as we know them, and Janine Smith, director of GM Business Growth Hub, have brought the number of confirmed speakers for the event to 10.
Such was the response, the GM 125 Rising Stars of Business list had to be increased from the original target of 100 firms and there were still enough exciting companies to create a separate ‘Ones to Watch’ list of 30 up-and-coming businesses.
The lists showcase companies from Greater Manchester’s 10 local authority areas across four key sectors: GreenTech; digital, creative and tech; advanced manufacturing and materials; and life sciences.
The other speakers include Sean Brown, CEO and founder of Versori, who has gone from sleeping rough to raising $10m for his startup, and Dr Vivek Koncherry, CEO of Graphene Innovations Manchester.
Holly Holland, co-founder of the exciting financial app Financielle, will also be taking part in the panel discussion.
The other four confirmed speakers are Gareth Langley, CEO of Piing; Eleanor Harry, CEO, HACE: Data Changing Child Labour; Somayeh Taheri, CEO of fast growing Urban Chain, and Gary Brandwood, managing director of Wigan-based Perfect Sense Energy.
The launch will be followed by a series of sector-specific roundtables across the region.