KPMG’s Black Entrepreneurs’ Awards 2024 winners

Following a UK wide search for this year’s most exciting UK Black heritage entrepreneurs, the final four winners of KPMG’s Black Entrepreneurs' Awards (BEA), which started in 2018, were announced at an award ceremony on Thursday 17th October.

Over 150 entrepreneurs from purpose-driven, profitable and diverse businesses across gen AI, venture capital, retail, sustainability, recruitment, education and more applied to this year’s awards. 12 candidates were shortlisted and invited to a pitch in front of live audience and a judging panel that included Margaret Sheyindemi, Start Up Growth Manager at BT, Ezechi Britton, MBE, CEO of the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology, Richard Tyler, editor of the Times Enterprise Network, Zuleika Philips, head of channels at Intuit and Roy Porter, corporate advisor. Pitches were marked for quality, disruption, market potential, traction, and innovation.

Most promising large business – Ayan Mohamed, Founder, Digitech Oasis Limited

Digitech Oasis is helping retailers optimise their order fulfilment processes, offering an end to end solution using autonomous mobile robots. We help our users predict, improve, automate critical business functions. On winning the award, Ayan said: “It feels amazing to win, it means a lot to the company, a company that has come so far in the last four years. In terms of accelerating growth, hardware is very capital intensive so we need support. I think it will propel us to do greater things.”

Most promising medium sized business - Anita Frost, Founder, Green Bean Studios

Green Bean Studios is a children’s IP entertainment brand that empowers children globally to play, learn and go on fun adventures. It is an eco-conscious brand which operates through the areas of retail, animation, music, TV and immersive events/attractions. Anita commented: “So excited to have won this KPMG award, it’s going to propel Green Bean, the team and the brand into new spaces, I’m particularly really excited about the partnership with KPMG for 12 months so that we can improve our infrastructure and being ready to level up.”

Most promising small business – Yasmin Greenaway, Founder, Dermie.AI

Dermie.AI is a deep tech company, building computer vision models and software for the detection and management of dermatological disease. Commenting on the win, Yasmin said: “I really appreciate winning because it’s so important that corporates ensure that we focus on diversity in AI because we’ve seen a lot of models coming out that aren’t working for everyone.”

Most promising not-for-profit-business - Ben Lindsay OBE, Founder, Power The Fight

Power the Fight is an award-winning charity which tackles violence affecting young people. They create long-term solutions for sustainable change and act as a link between the community and policy makers. On winning the most promising not-for-profit-business category, Ben commented: “I’m so excited that we’ve had this opportunity, it’s going to mean so much to us as a small charity to be associated with KPMG, but also the money makes such a difference to our digital offer which is going to impact young people and our training up and down the country.”

The winners will each receive £25,000 to invest in their business or as a donation to the charity or community project of their choice. While all the finalists will be given exclusive entry to a bespoke 12-month acceleration programme, designed to support Black heritage entrepreneurs and their businesses to grow.

Euan West, Head of Private Enterprise for KPMG in the UK, said:

“Research has shown that Black entrepreneurs in the UK receive a disproportionately low amount of venture capital investment, which often hinders business and economic growth.

“Supporting the development and scaling of Black businesses in the UK is incredibly important, which is why we’re committed to helping more Black Heritage entrepreneurs to gain access to the resources they need to make their businesses a success.

“We have been running the KPMG Black Entrepreneurs’ Awards for five years now. Every year we get to see some truly incredible and innovative businesses and this year has been no exception. Our four winners really stood out, not only for their entrepreneurship but the impact and reach their businesses could have. In fact, all the finalists showed great innovation in their businesses and should be proud of what they have achieved. We are looking forward to supporting all of them through our 12-month acceleration programme, helping them to grow their businesses.”

Founded by Olu Odubajo, a Product Manager at KPMG UK, the KPMG Black Entrepreneurs’ Awards started in 2018 and have so far supported 48 Black heritage founders, providing over £650,000 worth of investment into the programme. It has provided a launchpad for many successful Black-owned businesses: one former winner has now become a KPMG supplier helping us train our procurement and facilities teams, and another winner went on to establish a global award-winning business now valued at over £12m with annual sales of £650k and a presence in 27 countries. Other previous finalists have gone on to raise over £3m, expanded their business overseas, became a Forbes 30 under 30 and received MBEs for their services in making venture capital more inclusive.