myHappymind, UrbanChain, Summize and AeroCloud were among the big winners at GP Bullhound’s 2025 Northern Tech Awards.
The 12th edition of the awards were held at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool and were attended by 250 CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from across the digital economy to celebrate innovation and excellence across the North of England.
The winner of the Judges’ Overall Award went to myHappymind, which has developed a digital mental wellness platform for the education sector to support good mental health for kids.
It was founded by CEO Laura Earnshaw and the award was in recognition of the company with the highest achievements for growth, innovation, global ambition, cultural excellence and leadership.
Laura Earnshaw, CEO, myHappymind, winner of the Judges’ Overall Award
The Fastest Growing Company Award went to Manchester-based UrbanChain, which has developed a platform for the buying and selling of renewable energy.
The business has appointed KPMG to lead their current £50m+ Series B fundraise.and was founded by CEO Somayeh Taheri. They beat runner-up Utopi and third-placed Vivify to the accolade.
However Vivify did win the Judges Tech4Good Award for its digital platform designed to partner with schools to hire out their facilities.
Tom Dunlop, CEO of LegalTech Summize collected the Judges’ Innovation Award while the Judges’ Award for Global Ambition went to Stockport-based airport tech firm AeroCloud.
The Judges’ Leadership Award went to Apadmi, the Manchester-headquartered mobile-first digital agency specialising is app design and development and was collected by a hobbling CEO Garry Partington.
The Judges’ Entrepreneur Award went to Ian Flanagan, CEO, Voly Group, developer of accounting software for the yachting industry.
Earlier in the evening the guest speaker was Graeme Ankers, who shared the remarkable story of scaling Firesprite from a startup into the largest independent development studio in Merseyside and one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies, before its acquisition by Sony PlayStation in 2021.
In his opening address GP Bullhound’s Javed Huq spoke about a challenging and uncertain tech landscape.
The full list of winners were:
Fastest Growing Company – Urban Chain
Fastest Growing Larger Company (with revenues over £10m) – Vespertec
Judges’ Innovation Award – Summize
Judges’ Award for Global Ambition – AeroCloud
Judges’ Leadership Award – Apadmi
Judges Tech4Good Award -Vivify
Judges’ Entrepreneur Award – Ian Flanagan, CEO, Voly Group
Judges’ Award for Cultural Excellence – Thrive Learning
Judges’ Overall Award – myHappymind
Northern Star Innovation Award – Vsim
Northern Star Entrepreneur Award – Raven Controls
Northern Star Award for Commercial Success – SeeChange
Northern Star Overall Judges’ Award – PlayerData