- Accountancy and financial services group Smith & Williamson aligns itself with the top accolade for high growth SMEs for the second consecutive year
- The Growth Champion of the Year award will be presented at a black-tie dinner for 450 guests on 8 November at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London
- Online submissions for all 16 award categories of the 2017 Growth Investor Awards are now being accepted until 2 June
London, 28 April, 2017: Intelligent Partnership, the UK’s leading curator of education and insights on alternative investments, is pleased to announce that Smith & Williamson will again be sponsoring one of the flagship awards at the 2017 Growth Investor Awards on Wednesday 8 November at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.
The 2017 Growth Investor Awards will celebrate the UK’s SME investment management community’s role in job and wealth creation successes. The awards recognise companies and individuals who are helping start-up and ‘scale-up’ businesses realise their full potential and power Britain’s economy.
The Growth Champion of the Year award is open to any UK-based scale-up with a turnover of no less than £3m in the last financial year. It has been designed to recognise a stand-out company that has deployed tax-advantaged growth capital, such as SEIS, EIS and VCT, to ‘scale up’ its business, expand its market share, deliver economic benefits to its surrounding community, and even fund regional or international expansion. The judging process includes an initial shortlisting exercise, entries will then go to be assessed by a panel of independent judges before an online public vote.
Eve Sleep, designers of the “world’s most comfortable mattress”, claimed the inaugural award last year, ahead of runner-up Carwow, from a field that included Darwin & Wallace, Flyvictor, Go Outdoors, Gousto, Notonthehighstreet.com and Outplay Entertainment.
Presenting the 2016 award, Guy Rigby, head of entrepreneurial services at Smith & Williamson, said: “Eve Sleep launched in February 2015 and raised three funding rounds, reaching revenues of £1.5 million a month. This was an incredible achievement for such a young start-up company.”
Accepting the 2016 Growth Champion of the Year award, Kuba Wieczorek, Eve Sleep’s chief brand officer, said: “This is amazing recognition for all the hard work that the Eve Sleep team and investors have put in to achieve such significant growth. In just 18 months, Eve Sleep has gone from four founders in the UK to a team of 50 across the US and Europe. Our latest funding will supercharge that growth further in new markets and in new product development.”
This year’s awards are now open to any organisation or individuals involved in putting investment to work in UK SMEs. All entries will be initially assessed to ensure that they meet the category requirements. All organisations and companies that meet the relevant award criteria will be able to submit an entry by completing the online form and submitting an administration fee. As part of Smith & Williamson’s sponsorship, entries for the 2017 Growth Champion of the Year category can be submitted free of charge.
Companies and individuals have until 2 June to submit their award entries. All information about the 2017 Growth Investor Awards, including award categories, criteria and how to enter, can be found at growthinvestorawards.com.
Guy Tolhurst, managing director of Intelligent Partnership said: “We’re thrilled to be taking entries for our third annual Growth Investor Awards, and we’re delighted that Smith & Williamson will be participating once more.”
The 2016 Growth Champion of the Year finalists between them employed over 2,800 people and were expecting to achieve turnover in excess of £310 million.
Guy Tolhurst added: “Last year’s impressive finalists were backed by more than £120 million of venture capital, having optimised EIS, SEIS or VCT funding to successfully scale-up their businesses. We expect the 2017 Growth Champion to be just as inspiring.”
Commenting on this year’s awards, Smith & Williamson’s Guy Rigby said: “We’re very pleased to be sponsoring the Growth Champion of the Year Award once more. This award is open to any business that has used tax-advantaged growth capital to scale up and will be judged on how that investment and associated support has been optimised – including growth metrics and deployment. I can’t wait to see the calibre of this year’s entrants, and I wish them all the very best of luck.”
2017 Growth Investor Awards timeline
5 April: Award entries opened
2 June: Deadline for entries and nominations
15 July: Finalists and Growth Champion of The Year shortlist announced
3 August: Growth Champion of The Year finalists announced
8 November: Growth Investor Awards ceremony and black-tie dinner