Tech Business of the Year 2014: Meet the finalists

The UK’s tech scene is thriving and there are a plethora of exciting tech businesses disrupting almost every existing market. With so many emerging tech businesses – this category looks to celebrate tech businesses that have the potential to become global success stories.

This award recognises fast-growing digital businesses with innovative technology at their core and ambitious plans for market disruption.

The finalists

Centtrip Card

With a strong background in the financial industry, the founders of Centtrip bring plenty of experience to their ‘game-changing’ FinTech business – which has ambitious plans to “shake up the way other financial firms contribute to the consumer.” Offering a prepaid MasterCard that can spend in 14 currencies, it’s the tech behind the card that really makes it stand out. Managed via a smartphone app or through an online account (which acts as a safe and secure bank account), consumers are offered multiple currencies at ‘spread-free’ exchange rates, giving users fairer prices and intuitive account management.

Read the full Centtrip Card profile here.

Flubit

With over £45bn spent annually, the e-commerce market is booming and Flubit’s compelling proposition has enabled it to gain a strong position in this lucrative and growing space. Offering a new way to buy and sell, through Flubit’s technology, consumers receive a discount on items they wish to purchase from existing retailers – and sellers are offered an additional route to market. Having recently secured a deal to supply the technology for Barclaycard’s bespoke offers, in addition to its existing user base, Flubit’s tech could potentially reach approximately 20 million Barclays customers later this year.

Read the full Flubit profile here.

Powerlinks Media

Claiming to be the “only fully comprehensive platform for native advertising”, Powerlinks offers customers a unique digital service. With its one-of-a-kind technology that removes the obstacles and issues previously effecting in-feed, in-text and in-image ads, Powerlinks enables the buyers and sellers of native advertising to trade transparently and efficiently. Its market leading technology, referred to as the “Powerlinks Intelligence Engine” is currently patent pending in the US.

Read the full Powerlinks Media profile here.

The Judges

Our Tech Business of the Year category will be judged by industry experts including CEO of TechHub Elizabeth Varley – an expert in and committed supporter of the technology industry – and Startups.co.uk’s editorial director Ian Wallis, (Startups has a dedicated tech start-ups section). The judges will be looking for the business that displays great traction with truly game-changing technology.