National competition recognises the UK’s brightest and best tech startups
Today, SETTLD has been named winner of the prestigious Tech Nation ‘Rising Stars’ competition. The competition recognises the brightest and best early-stage tech scale-ups from every region of the UK.
Settld is the first so-called ‘deathtech’ business to ever win the government-backed Rising Stars competition, beating off strong competition and nearly 400 other companies.
Tech Nation’s Rising Stars
Previous years’ Rising Stars Winners have included financial disruptors such as Monzo and Revolut as well as businesses like SeedLegals and Skyscanner. This demonstrates the ability of the Rising Stars to scale quickly. It also shows their potential to become the UK’s tech ‘unicorns’ (companies with valuations of $1bn+) of the future.
This year’s winners have been selected by a panel of 7 judges (industry experts with extensive experience in starting and scaling tech businesses). They included Emma Jones (Founder of Enterprise Nation), Nahu Ghrebremichael (Partner at Singular Ventures) and Jess Jackson (Head of Investment at GC Angels). The competition was judged on each business’s value proposition, competitive advantage, market traction, team experience and potential to scale.
Esme Caulfield, Competitions Lead at Tech Nation, said: “This year’s Tech Nation Rising Stars 4.0 Winners demonstrate the very best of UK tech innovation. It’s been so exciting to see this year’s Rising Stars winners disrupting a wide variety of tech sectors, like fintech, lawtech and so many others, including – for the first time – deathtech. Perhaps even more excitingly, this is one of our most diverse cohorts yet, with the majority of winning companies having female founders or co-founders, and nearly three quarters hailing from outside of London.”
The success of early-stage North East tech startups reflects the strength and fast growth of the North East’s tech sector overall.
According to data from Tech Nation, the North East received $283m in VC investment funding last year (a 66% increase on the $96m received in 2020).
Tech job creation is also growing rapidly in the North East, with over 42,000 people currently employed by tech startups and scaleups in the region.
Emma Jones CBE, Founder of Enterprise Nation and Rising Stars 4.0 Judge, said: “With the tech talent shortlisted, this was a tough competition to judge! It’s amazing to see the results reflect a truly enterprising nation with founders from across the UK and a high number of firms started by women. Winning this accolade is sure to set them up for the next stage of growth and at a time when the economy needs the innovation and driving force of entrepreneurs, I salute all the founders who took part and made it to the finals and the winners list.”
What does Settld do?
Settld’s award-winning nationwide service simplifies end-of-life admin for bereaved individuals and service providers.
The automated solution, is free for members of the public. It takes away the stressful and time-consuming process of contacting individual companies to notify them of a death. This turns a task that can take up to 10 hours, into a 15-minute task. We can also support finding information for probate and inheritance tax forms.
The vast majority of the communication with service providers is handled by Settld and tracked in an online dashboard which can be accessed at any time.
Launched in February 2021, Settld enables users to notify multiple companies of a death in one go. We connect with more than 850 service providers, from banks and insurers to energy firms, mobile providers, subscription services, social media platforms and others.
Vicky Wilson, co-founder and CEO of Settld, said: “We are over the moon to have been chosen as a Rising Stars Winner. It’s a testament to the hard work of our small team, and it shines a positive light on the way Settld is using technology for good. We would like to dedicate this Award to our bereaved customers and to all those dealing with end of life admin.
“Settld is fixing a major pain point in people’s lives. Dealing with piles of account admin when someone close dies, can be unnecessarily stressful and time-consuming. We are also streamlining the system for businesses. This helps them better support their customers at a time of need. Our mission is to simplify end of life admin and be a strong voice for bereaved consumers everywhere.”
Settld’s growing B2B service also improves operational efficiency for a growing number of enterprise customers, who benefit from access to Settld’s bespoke online portal. Settld streamlines and digitises bereavement processes for service providers, by offering a portal specifically designed for bereaved and vulnerable customers, which can achieve up to 50% reduction in cost to serve, along with significantly reduced call volumes.
The business consistently gets 5-star reviews from customers, who appreciate the one-stop shop nature of Settld’s automated service.
Headquartered in Sunderland, Settld was also recently selected as a Northern Star at the Northern Tech awards which celebrate the best technology companies in the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
