UK's Top Tech Entrepreneurs Celebrated at the 2026 Enterprise Awards

Discover the winners of the 2026 Enterprise Awards as the UK's leading technology entrepreneurs and founder-friendly investors are recognised for driving innovation and business growth.

Britain's thriving technology sector took centre stage in the City of London this week as some of the country's most innovative entrepreneurs and investors were recognised at the 2026 Enterprise Awards.

Held at the prestigious Drapers' Hall on 1 July, the awards celebrated the founders, business leaders and investors helping to shape the next generation of high-growth UK technology companies. Now in its 14th year, the Enterprise Awards has become an important fixture in the UK's innovation calendar, highlighting businesses that are solving real-world problems through technology, creativity and entrepreneurship.

Since the awards were launched, almost 120 entrepreneurs have been recognised. Collectively, their businesses now generate more than $3.1 billion in annual revenue while employing around 18,000 people worldwide, demonstrating the significant impact that British innovation continues to have on the global economy.

The evening was opened by Enterprise Awards founder John O'Connell, Executive Chair of ScaleUp Group, alongside Tola Sargeant, Chair of the Judging Panel and CEO of Archives of IT, and Paddy McGwire, Senior Partner at Silverpeak. Entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders gathered to celebrate the individuals and organisations driving the UK's technology ecosystem forward.

This year's winners reflected the breadth of innovation taking place across the country.

Laura Earnshaw of myHappymind was named Social Enterprise Entrepreneur, recognising the company's work supporting children's mental wellbeing. Helen Murphy of Opply received the Applied AI Entrepreneur award, highlighting the growing importance of artificial intelligence in solving business challenges. Sean Williams of AutogenAI won Scale-Up Entrepreneur, while Thomas Garnett and Vlad Galu of Refute secured the Emerging Entrepreneur title. 

Stephanie Eltz of Doctify was recognised as Developing Entrepreneur, and Michelle He of Abound received the prestigious Enterprise Entrepreneur award.

One of the biggest additions for 2026 was the introduction of the Founder Friendly Funds recognition. Eighteen investment funds were honoured for backing ambitious UK technology businesses, collectively making almost 400 investments worth around $600 million during 2025, covering everything from Seed funding through to Series B investment.

Tola Sargeant praised the exceptional standard of entries, saying this year's winners demonstrated commercial success alongside innovation, leadership and a commitment to creating lasting impact.

John O'Connell added that both the entrepreneurs and the newly recognised investment funds represent the people and organisations helping to shape the future of UK technology by supporting ambitious founders over the long term.

At a time when the UK continues to compete on the global technology stage, the Enterprise Awards offer a timely reminder that great ideas, backed by visionary founders and supportive investors, remain one of the country's greatest strengths.

https://www.enterprise-awards.co.uk

Bad Data Could Be Costing Tower Operators Millions, New Report Warns

New research from PowerX Technology reveals widespread telemetry data issues across telecom tower networks, highlighting the importance of data integrity before AI deployment.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly important across telecoms infrastructure, a new report from PowerX Technology suggests that many tower operators may have a more fundamental problem to solve first: their data.

The AI optimisation specialist has published a new white paper revealing widespread telemetry data integrity issues across telecom tower networks, highlighting how inaccurate sensor readings and unreliable monitoring systems could be masking significant operational inefficiencies.

The report, Data Crisis in the Tower Industry: Why Operational AI and Data Integrity Now Define Competitive Advantage in Tower Networks, analysed nearly 20 million telemetry records collected from hundreds of live tower sites across Africa over a six-month period.

The findings paint a concerning picture.

According to PowerX, 80% of sites recorded telemetry readings above expected operating ranges, while 70% showed inconsistent or erratic fuel sensor behaviour. Over a third of sites with grid connections were still relying heavily on generators because power could not be drawn effectively from the grid.

Perhaps most strikingly, two in ten sites showed unexplained fuel losses averaging more than 140 litres per site every month.

Rather than pointing the finger at operational teams, PowerX argues that the issue lies with the quality of the data itself.

“This is not a competence problem, it’s a visibility problem,” Justin Head, co-founder and Executive Vice Chairman of PowerX told That's Technology.

“The data is broken, not the teams. Our job is to fix the data and give operators the clarity they've been missing.”

The company believes many operators are making critical decisions using incomplete or misleading information because telemetry systems have drifted, sensors are behaving unpredictably, and data pipelines were never designed to meet the demands of modern AI-driven operations.

The good news is operators do not need to wait for a full AI rollout to see improvements.

PowerX says that simply improving data quality can deliver immediate operational and financial benefits. Correcting telemetry errors can help identify fuel losses, detect misconfigured hybrid power systems, and uncover avoidable solar energy inefficiencies.

Looking ahead, the report warns that AI systems are only as good as the data feeding them. Poor-quality data can lead to poor-quality decisions, with errors amplified at scale.

For telecom tower operators investing in predictive maintenance, energy optimisation and automated monitoring, establishing trustworthy data foundations today could become a major competitive advantage tomorrow.

The full white paper is available from PowerX Technology here:- http://www.powerx.ai

AI Is Shrinking Cyber Attack Windows. Can Your Security Team Keep Up?

Horizon3.ai launches Rapid Response to help organisations identify genuine cyber risks as AI-driven attacks reduce vulnerability exploit windows to less than 24 hours.

The race between cybercriminals and security teams is accelerating, and artificial intelligence is changing the rules faster than ever before.

Security specialist Horizon3.ai has unveiled a new capability called Rapid Response, designed to help organisations identify and prioritise genuine security risks as AI dramatically reduces the time between a vulnerability being discovered and attackers exploiting it.

For years, cybersecurity teams have battled an overwhelming stream of vulnerability reports, security advisories and threat intelligence alerts. The challenge has never been finding vulnerabilities. The challenge has been figuring out which ones actually matter.

Thousands of new vulnerabilities are disclosed every year, but only a small percentage are actively exploited by attackers. Yet security teams are often forced to treat every alert as urgent, creating a flood of noise that can distract from the threats that pose the greatest business risk.

According to Horizon3.ai, analysis from more than 250,000 NodeZero security assessments shows that exploitability is the key factor. A vulnerability that can be exploited today presents a far greater risk than one that simply exists on paper.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important as AI-powered tools enable attackers to discover weaknesses and develop exploits at unprecedented speed. Security experts warn that exploit windows are now shrinking to less than 24 hours in some cases, leaving organisations with very little time to react.

Rapid Response aims to tackle that problem by combining emerging threat intelligence, exposure validation and automated testing. Rather than forcing security teams to investigate every headline vulnerability, the platform helps determine whether an organisation is genuinely exposed, which systems are affected and what actions should be prioritised first.

The company’s Attack Team continuously evaluates newly disclosed vulnerabilities based on factors such as attacker interest, ease of exploitation and the popularity of affected technologies. When a high-risk vulnerability emerges, production-safe validation tests can often be developed within hours.

The result is a more focused approach to vulnerability management. Security teams can quickly identify exploitable assets, verify whether mitigations have worked, track remediation progress and demonstrate measurable risk reduction to leadership teams.

As AI continues to transform both offensive and defensive cybersecurity, the days of spending weeks assessing every new vulnerability may be coming to an end.

The message from Horizon3.ai is clear: in an era where attackers can move in hours, organisations need to focus on what can actually be exploited, not simply what appears on a vulnerability list.

https://horizon3.ai/intelligence/blogs/exploit-window-shrinking-rapid-response