Every year, the AXA Startup Angel competition, run in partnership with The Standard, seeks out the UK’s most exciting new businesses. This year’s winners are practical and ambitious, but also quietly purpose-led, building companies that solve real-world problems while carving out commercial success.
The prize is not just money but momentum: £25,000 for the two winners, mentoring from industry leaders and AXA Startup Angels – Henry Firth and Ian Theasby (co-founders of plant-based food brand BOSH!), Sharmadean Reid MBE (founder and CEO of The Stack World), and Raphael Sofoluke (founder and CEO of UK Black Business Week and UK Black Business Show), pictured above with winners Princess Ebi and Simone Panella – plus a year of business insurance thanks to AXA.
For the four runners-up, there is an enviable package of media support and mentoring.
“Learning from the mentors will help us scale smarter and bigger”
Simone Panella founded Dyamotech “to build the global standard for youth sports brain safety”
Kate Hockenhull photography
“This is transformational,” says Simone Panella, founder of Dyamotech, the self-funded startup that is “building the world’s first wearable concussion management system designed to monitor head impact exposure for schools and sports clubs”.
Existing solutions such as helmets and mouthguards are expensive or impractical for children, but Dyamotech’s smart headband tracks G-force and rotational data, with instant feedback via an app.
The £25,000 prize will directly fund the next production batch and support its pilot with Harrow School and Return2Play. More than hardware, Panella believes Dyamotech is “a data company” with the potential to set new global standards. “This will give us the confidence and credibility to build the global standard for youth sports brain safety,” he says.
“Winning £25,000 will be a game-changer for us. The first thing we’ll spend it on is R&D”
Princess Ebi of Main Squeeze is keen to expand her brand of medical-grade suppression socks
Kate Hockenhull photography
“Winning unlocks the next stage of growth,” says Princess Ebi, founder of Main Squeeze. “This isn’t just about scaling a business, it’s about shifting how people experience and talk about chronic conditions.”
The idea came when a close friend developed lymphedema after surgery and began hiding her compression socks. “She loved bold outfits but started dressing to conceal them and avoiding social plans. Not because she felt unwell, but because she couldn’t wear them without feeling exposed.”
Ebi set out to change that. Main Squeeze makes medical-grade socks with fashion-forward designs for people who want style as well as support. With more than 200 pairs sold and no marketing spend, she now plans to expand into sustainable fabrics and new markets. “We’re building a world where caring for your body never means compromising your confidence.”
“We’re on a mission to make sure every child in this country has access to fun, creative financial education”
Christina Lartey has a playful solution to promoting financial literacy
Kate Hockenhull photography
This runner-up prize “means accelerating a vision I’ve already begun to build,” says Christina Lartey, founder of Think Pieces. Inspired by her sister’s lessons in money management, she saw how “only one in four children learn about money in school. As a result, 24 million UK adults now struggle with financial literacy”.
Her solution is playful: money-themed puzzles and gamified workshops where children earn, spend, save and invest in a virtual world. Think Pieces has already sold over 200 puzzles and reached 600 children with no marketing spend.
She adds, “With your support, Think Pieces can become the go-to provider of fun, effective financial education for all schools across the UK.”
“We believe onions could be our heroes, and this opportunity will put us in front of consumers who will want to know how”
Renuka Ramanujam and HUID have an innovative way of making packaging from onion skins
Kate Hockenhull photography
“Winning this prize will unblock key milestones so our materials can begin replacing plastic at a meaningful level,” says Ramanujam. “We’re in an industry where we need consumers to know about us in order to make an impact in the packaging space. The Standard’s coverage will help us reach that audience.”
Her startup HUID transforms discarded onion skins into a high-strength, lightweight pulp that can replace single-use plastic packaging. Farmers in the EU generate more than 600,000 tonnes of onion waste a year, and HUID’s patent-pending process extracts cellulose fibres five times faster than traditional pulping.
Ramanujam hopes the runner-up support will help “enable trials on industry-standard equipment, easing adoption and de-risking the scale-up process”. The next step for HUID is to upscale trials of its fibre-based packaging, with the aim of producing in bulk next year.
“This prize is a fantastic opportunity for the world to see what TechTags can do”
Denise Stephenson founded TechTags to help make clothing returns more efficient and eco-friendly
Kate Hockenhull photography
“Returns cost UK retailers over £8bn every year,” says Denise Stephenson. “Around 40 per cent of returned items show signs of wear, meaning they can’t be resold and often end up in landfill.”
Her startup TechTags is designed to change that. Its patented smart care labels are sewn into garments during manufacture, then scanned at return to instantly verify whether they’ve been worn. With three retailers already secured for pilots and more than 15 on the waitlist, Stephenson says, “Smart retail tech is where femtech (women’s health technology) was 10 years ago. With the right support, we can lead it.”
People’s Choice winner: Silly Sarah
“This will help us reach the children and people with disabilities who need our toothpaste most”
Anthony Pachon is a dental hygienist who created Silly Sarah to make brushing with natural toothpaste more fun for kids
Kate Hockenhull photography
“As a dental hygienist, I struggled to find a natural toothpaste I could confidently recommend to my patients,” says Anthony Pachon. “With the most common hospital visit for children aged five to nine being tooth pain, my idea is to combine a clinically proven natural toothpaste with engaging educational content to help families build better oral health habits and reduce tooth decay.”
Silly Sarah uses hydroxyapatite, safe to swallow and gentle for children, with playful flavours and a hedgehog mascot to make brushing fun. Pachon’s vision: accessible, sustainable oral care that turns a daily chore into a game.
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