Who is eligible?

To be eligible to enter, businesses must:

  • have started to trade on or after 1st June 2018
  • be located in Wales
  • be independently owned i.e. is owned by its founders/independent investors and is not a subsidiary of another business

The Application and judging process

The Wales Start-Up Awards have been designed to be make the application and judging process as simple as possible.

Applications are to be received by 11.45pm on 31st May 2020. Following receipt of entries, the judges will draw up a shortlist of a minimum of four finalists for each award.

This year, the judging panel is hoping to undertake interviews with all the finalists either on a face-to-face basis or online. This will take place in July at a date to be confirmed and a panel for each category will be made up of Professor Dylan Jones-Evans (chair), along with representatives from the sponsors and the Welsh entrepreneurship community. The original application and the interview will be the process by which the winner of each category is chosen.

Details of all the judges can be found here

The decision of the judges is final regarding all categories for the Wales Start-Up Awards.

The Categories

The Wales Start-Up Awards have the following awards in 2021:

  • Business to Business Services Start-Up of the Year
  • Cardiff Start-Up of the Year
  • Construction Start-Up of the Year
  • Consumer Services Start-Up of the Year
  • Creative Start-Up of the Year
  • Digital Start-Up of the Year
  • Financial and Professional Services Start-Up of the Year
  • Fintech Start-Up of the Year
  • Food and Drink Start-Up of the Year
  • Global Start-Up of the Year
  • Graduate Start-Up of the Year
  • Green Start-Up of the Year
  • High Street Start-Up of the Year
  • Innovative Start-Up of the Year
  • Manufacturing Start-Up of the Year
  • Medtech Start-Up of the Year
  • Mobile and Emerging Technologies Start-up of the Year
  • North Wales Start-Up of the Year
  • Online Retail Start-Up of the Year
  • Prince's Trust Cymru Start-Up of the Year
  • Rural Start-Up of the Year
  • Social Enterprise Start-Up of the Year
  • Swansea Bay City Region Startup of the year
  • Tourism and Leisure Start-Up of the Year
  • Valleys Start-Up of the Year
  • Young Entrepreneur of the Year
  • Rising Stars award
  • Special 19 Covid award

Our Sponsors

  • Capital Law