Paul Hawkins: Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd

Paul Hawkins
Age: 30
Company: Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd

If you’ve watched Test Match cricket or Wimbledon coverage in the past couple of years, you’ll have noticed a nifty little feature enabling the viewer to see exactly where the ball bounced and, in the case of cricket, where it would have gone. Still with only eight employees, but utilising a pool of freelancers, three-year-old Hawk-Eye has a £1.2m turnover-doubling from last year – and has been profitable since its second year after TV company Sunset & Vine backed development of Hawkins’ technology. Now working with Sony, the business has a beachhead to the Asian market.

2016 update:

Hawk-eye is now used in over 20 sports in 7,200 games, more than 450 stadiums and 65 countries every year including Wimbledon and the Premier League. It has offices in the UK, Germany, Italy, the USA and Australia. Hawkins remains as Chief Innovation Officer at the company and was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours 2014.