The wireless headphone space is becoming increasingly competitive, but imagine having a pair that when not in use can transform into a portable speaker – so when you are not listening to music by yourself you can listen out loud with others.

As part of a new mini-series with Nova, a Liverpool-based tech cofoundery that partners with entrepreneurs to turn ideas into successful, scalable tech startups, in sectors including healthtech, fintech and edtech, Startups Magazine caught up with Gavin Delaney CEO, of Hy-genie.

A startup who in my opinion is a very deserved winner, and one of the best UK Startups we have come across. If you have read the last issue you may be familiar with Tractable, a company that uses AI for accident and recovery, and although it focuses primarily on car accidents, there is potential for that to grow to cover natural disasters too.

“I never put myself forward for awards, so this was a really nice surprise,” is what Tamsin Dewhurst, Founder at Uptree said to me when I asked how she felt about winning our Founder of the Year award in this year’s Virtual Hustle Awards.

Maskey, the brand behind the UK’s first mask vending machines, has signed a deal with leading British retailer WHSmith to stock its individual fashionable face coverings on the shelves of hundreds of outlets on high streets and in train stations, airports and hospitals.

Online shopping is arguably one of the best inventions out there. Nothing beats that feeling of joy when your parcel arrives! But what about the times when your parcel isn’t successfully delivered and you arrive home to find a ‘sorry we missed you’ card through your letterbox? iParcelBox solves the problem of missed deliveries, providing a smart, secure and weatherproof parcel delivery solution that users can monitor and control from their smartphone.

Johnathan Bulmer, MD at Cleveland Containers here chats to Startups Magazine about how three food and drink businesses pivoted in the pandemic. As restaurants and other leisure businesses steadily start to reopen, there’s many stories of businesses which have been heavily impacted by the financial crisis the pandemic has caused. 

The technology industry is growing at a massive rate, and especially within hardware startups, there is such a large number of tech products coming onto the market every year. So how do you stand out and make sure you are seen above the rest?

Fashwire is a mobile and web marketplace for discovery where you can shop directly from over 300 fashion brands from over 33 countries you know and love and discover new ones from all over the world. Fashwire is changing the way we shop on our phones. By connecting consumers directly with brands all in one app, and it also allows brands to curate, create, and control all product and content in their profiles, which is different from a traditional retail model.

Johnathan Ransom, CEO & Co-founder of Square Mile Farms spoke to Startups Magazine about the challenges and opportunities that arose during the 2020 COVID crisis whilst raising from their network. Think back, post-2008 financial crisis, internet technologies and crowdsourcing both evolved to allow companies to easily raise funds from their network and community for the first time. The power and value of the crowd have only increased since then, helping businesses grow quickly and sustainably while reaching entirely new audiences.

While the world battles a loneliness epidemic, reinforced by COVID-19 imposed lockdown and social-distancing, a new, rapid growth startup uses technology to help solve the problem for companies individuals. Panion has recently announced a suite of features that solidify the startup's position as the most exciting new virtual community-building app in the world. Panion encourages its members to be authentically themselves and to lean into the interests that make them unique.

Founded by Milo Hill and David Hampshire, DOOZY was built during lockdown and allows people to create free quizzes, share them with friends and play them instantly. And it really is as simple as that - no downloads, no sign-ups, just creating a quiz and sharing it with friends.

No Isolation  was founded with the aim of reducing loneliness and social isolation through the creation and implementation of warm technology. Following the success of its first product, the AV1 telepresence avatar, designed to tackle loneliness amongst children and young adults affected by long-term illness, the company brought its second product, ​KOMP​, to the UK in 2019. KOMP - a one button communication device, designed to connect seniors with their wider family unit - has been bought by 3,300 families across Europe.  
 

It is fair to say that so many startups have used the year 2020 to really show how they can adapt and help and shine through, but for the Biggest 2020 Hero category this year there was one clear winner who really have done some amazing work in 2020 and through the COVID crisis, and that is Joanna Montgomery, Founder and CEO of Little Riot which develops connected products that enable human connection in an otherwise very digital world, such as the product Pillow Talk.

Enter Farm-Hand: a software startup revolutionising life for farmers in India by applying Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology to irrigation hardware.

Award-winning startup, e-peas, a supplier of advanced energy harvesting solutions, has just completed its latest funding round.

Chocolate and technology, arguably two of the greatest two things in the entire world, and Sergio Figueredo, Founder of the startup Choco4Peace, is therefore arguably one of the greatest men in the world, as he managed to combine the two. Not only that he has also this year been chosen as the first Hustle Awards Winner in the category Social Impact Hero!

With a large and growing range of smart devices and intelligent products, Imou serves global IoT users through a ‘three in one’ business system encompassing Imou Cloud, the smart devices and the intelligent technology – and the latest and arguably most exciting one is the Ranger IQ.

Embracing her entrepreneurial spirit and pursing a new venture, Suzann Bozorgi launched a tech platform designed to make interior design more accessible for clients.