All the chosen finalists in The Spectator’s Economic Innovator of the Year Awards, in partnership with Investec Wealth & Investment (UK), have unique stories to tell. And in 2024, alongside regional and overall winners and an extra award for excellence in Sustainability, we’re looking for a very special entrant which we’re calling the One to Watch.
It’s the range of sizes, sectors and stages of development that makes our awards such a fascinating challenge
Our Innovator finalists always have positive traits in common. Whether they’re at the cutting edge of bioscience or artificial intelligence, or finding greener ways to make familiar consumer products, they are entrepreneur-led UK ventures that share a commitment to perfecting their products, changing their marketplace and making a better world. But they can also be at very different stages of growth.
At one end of the scale, a finalist might be a recent start-up that has just passed the threshold of commercialisation – whether that means selling direct to consumers or joint-venturing with larger companies to market a product that’s tested and approved. At the most advanced level of Innovator entries, we’re meeting potential ‘unicorns’ (companies valued at a billion dollars or more) that are already acknowledged market leaders in their specialist fields.
We love meeting companies at both ends of this scale. And it’s the range of sizes, sectors and stages of development – among an overall population of entrants that grows in number year by year – that makes our Awards such a fascinating challenge for our expert judges.
Last year, we introduced a division of entries by size: Breakthrough for those with total annual revenues of less than £3 million and Scale-up for those with revenues of £3 million or more. This year we’ll pick a smaller finalist in the Breakthrough category that catches the eye of the judges for its outstanding growth prospects and the passion of its founders to achieve its full potential: our One to Watch.
Apply now: spectator.co.uk/innovator
