spacebands’ wearable devices detect health and safety hazards in real-time – preventing workplace accidents and helping employers to reduce costs.
See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most exceptional founders in the complete 2026 Startups 100 index.
Founders: Ronan Finnegan and Harry Kimberley-Bowen
Year founded: 2020
Website: spacebands.com
Construction remains one of the most high-risk industries in the UK, with 35 fatalities reported between April 2024 and March 2025. And in most cases, they’re preventable.
Seeing just how common these kinds of accidents were on construction and manufacturing sites, founders Ronan Finnegan and Harry Kimberley-Bowen realised there was a glaring problem with how workplace safety was being handled.
The pair found that current safety audits only flagged issues after they’d already happened, rather than preventing them in the first place.
The solution? Wearable technology. Finnegan and Kimberley-Bowen launched spacebands with a mission to protect workers by detecting hazards in real-time, thus avoiding dangerous incidents.
So how does it work? Workers wear a compact multi-sensor device that monitors for hazards like loud noise, hand-arm vibration (HAV), proximity to moving machinery, unauthorised access zones, or missed personal protective equipment (PPE). It also gives real-time alerts directly to the user when a risky situation is spotted.
At first, it was tricky to convince businesses to swap out the clipboards for new technology. But after seeing the device in action – and the data to prove it reduced incidents at the workplace – spacebands’s solution quickly took off, and the company successfully onboarded five of the largest construction companies in the UK.
The Startups judges were impressed with Finnegan and Kimberley-Bowen’s innovative approach – something that earned them the Global Trade Review BExA -GTR Young Exporter of the Year Award 2022.
Just a year later, the Cardiff-based company exceeded its seed funding target of £60k, securing £1m in a round led by US venture capital firm Evergreen Mountain Equity Partners.
This impressive financial backing has been a huge step forward for spacebands’ founders, and the dynamic duo have big plans for the next five years. Aiming to expand into the logistics, mining, and oil and gas sectors, spacebands is setting the standard for how wearable technology can keep workers safe worldwide.
View the full Startups 100 Index for 2026
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