Showcase - Ones To Watch 2021

The UK Creative Industries Council (CIC) promotes and protects opportunities for growth in the UK Creative Industries. CreaTech is one such opportunity, with high growth in investment and jobs in new emerging areas.

The CreaTech 100 Ones to Watch provide an annual showcase of innovative UK-based companies which are creating new business opportunities in B2B and B2C at the interface between creativity and technology. They help us to explain this dynamic new part of the creative industries to investors, ministers and the industry at large, and to demonstrate British creativity and ingenuity.

Over 200 companies self-selected to start the application process. Application was via the CIC’s CreaTech web portal and required a short written submission of 600-750 words, supported by creative assets. Applicants were also requested to put forward a person to represent their application and to complete an entry form to help log essential information and help with classifications.

The selection panel represented industry influencers and practitioners, from across the creative disciplines, and in service organisations in support of the creative industries.

Convenor:

Janet Hull, Director of Marketing Stratey, IPA & Lead CIC CreaTech

Selection Panel:

Brian Baglow, Founder & Director, Scottish Games Network and Producer, Beyond Games
Andrew Chitty, Creative Clusters Challenge Director, AHRC UKRI
Louise Conolly-Smith, Head of Creative, London & Partners
Parveen Dhanda, Former Head of Programmes, Tech Nation
Elizabeth Diaferia, Senior Policy Adviser, Creative Industries Trade and Investment Board
Julian Douglas, International Chair, VCCP & IPA President
David Furmage, Creative & Cultural Senior Policy Lead, GBSLEP
Rob Husband, Partner, Moore Kingston Smith
Amanda Kamin, Chief Marketing Communications Officer, Digital Catapult
Mark Leaver, Former DIT Specialist
Michelle Marks, Head of Creative Strategy, Facebook EMEA
Suzy Pallett, Former London Tech Week Producer
Casandra Strauss, Director of Innovation & Special Projects, BPI
Sam Whitear, Creative Industries Lead, The Growth Company

The selection process took account of the following five factors:

1.    Surprise

Is it something we haven’t come across before? Is it cool and surprising in the way creativity meets technology?

2.    Purpose

Does it solve a problem and deliver new opportunities in the way people live, work, play and learn?

3.    Disruption

Does it show potential to transform the way businesses operate and service markets?

4.    Opportunity for global collaboration/cross-sectoral impact

Does it encourage partnerships and collaboration across sectors and industries in the UK and worldwide?

5.    Commercial impact

Is the innovation far enough along to be able to offer evidence of likely commercial viability?

In addition, the selection panel were looking for enthusiasm, commitment and passion from the team behind the innovation.

The 2021 List

Of the 100 companies, 9 are established businesses, 25 are scale-ups and 66 are start-ups.

See the list below and click on the links to find out more about them.

‍

Ones to Watch 2021 Video