Here’s what happened at the Startups Awards 2018

In November 2018, Kensington’s Royal Garden Hotel once again played host to the Startups Awards and celebrated the best of UK small businesses. This was the 15th year for the awards, which shines a light on the most promising privately-owned start-ups launched in the UK during the last four years.

The Start-Up Loans Company returned as headline sponsor, alongside category sponsors AXA, haysmacintyre, GoDaddy, and Oracle NetSuite.

And once again, we assembled a line-up of amazing judges including Jon Wright, Co-founder, innocent drinks, JamJar Investments and the Wright Family Foundation, Justine Roberts MBE, founder and CEO of Mumsnet, and Julien Callède, co-founder of Made.com.

The 2018 awards introduced some new categories including Side Hustle of the Year, Family Business of the Year, and Best Place to Work, won by Mama Bamboo, Phelps Innovations (Doddl), and Tonik Energy.

The overall winner on the night was Salary Finance, which helps employees become more financially resilient with affordable loans and financial education. The start-up also won The Founders Pledge Social Impact Award.

See the full list of Startups Awards 2018 winners here. 

Another big winner on the night was Elvie, which picked up Venture Funded Business of the Year, and Women in Business Award for co-founder Tania Boler.

Elsewhere, after three year’s of consecutive wins for Cornerstone, Craft Gin Club finally upset the shaving subscription service’s monopoly with tens of thousands of votes.

Click on the video above to see exciting highlights from the night, as well as backstage interviews with the elated winners discussing how it feels to take home a Startups Award.