Hundreds of businesses from across the UK applied to be part of the competition and dozens were shortlisted among the most exciting tech scaleups to take part in a series of eight regional heats.
The winners of each regional heat came together to compete in a UK grand final and Leicester-based Inicio AI wowed the judges to come out on top.
The firm uses AI to improve how organisations assess customer affordability, particularly for those in financial difficulty.
The competition, which KPMG runs to spotlight and celebrate the world’s most innovative technology, provides a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their businesses and collectively champion the future of tech.
Rachel Curtis, CEO of Inicio AI, said:
“We are absolutely thrilled and honoured to be crowned KPMG UK Tech Innovator 2025. This prestigious recognition is a testament to our team's hard work and validates the powerful impact of our product. It has also generated immediate interest, with companies actively reaching out to us – a clear sign of the market's need for our innovation.”
The competition, which has been running since 2013, has celebrated some of the UK’s best pure technology and tech-enabled businesses including What3Words, VividQ and HiiROC who have all been crowned previous winners. 2022 winner HiiROC took it a step further by winning the global final at Web Summit.
Inicio AI will now advance to the global final later in the year, where an international panel of judges will select the KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator.
The People’s Choice award, which saw members of the public vote via social media for their favourite company, saw Manchester-based Collctiv recognised for its work to create an app that helps group organisers collect money for activities and large gifts simply by enabling them to send just one link and receive payments in less than five seconds.
Nicole Lowe, Head of Emerging Giants at KPMG UK, said:
“Inicio AI is an amazing example of what the UK has to offer when it comes to tech.
“They joined a strong line-up of eight scale-ups who showcased the stunning range of companies we have across the country, all of which are doing great to work to address important issues for everyone across the globe.
“All are shining examples of the great tech talent we have in the UK and the innovation being shown every single day.
“We now wish Inicio AI the very best of luck as they head to the global final of this competition to represent the UK and look forward to watching their continued growth in the future.
“Big congratulations also to Collctiv for being handpicked by the public in our People’s Choice Award.”
The eight UK finalists were:
Materials Nexus Limited | East of England winner |
One Plan Limited | London winner |
Exciting Instruments | North East and Yorkshire winner |
Collctiv | North West winner |
iLivestock | Scotland winner |
Quantum Dice Limited | South Central winner |
Drift Energy | South West and Wales winner |
Inicio AI | Midlands |
Previous KPMG UK Tech Innovator winners
2024 - Halocycle
2023 - Inovus Medical
2022 - HiiROC
2021 - FIDO Tech
2020 - VividQ
2019 - Humming Bird Technologies (acquired by Agreena)
2018 - Echo (acquired by McKesson UK)
2017 - Safe To Net
2016 - What 3 Words
2015 - RefMe (acquired by education company Chegg, Inc)
2014 - Babylon Health (acquired eMed Healthcare UK)
-ENDS-
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