A standout moment of the evening was a fireside chat with guest speaker Graeme Ankers, who shared the remarkable story of scaling Firesprite from a startup into the largest independent development studio in Merseyside and one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies, before its acquisition by Sony PlayStation in 2021.

This year’s Top 100 league table is a testament to the Northern tech ecosystem’s innovation, resilience, and rapid growth. We congratulate all the winners and thank every participant who made the Awards a true celebration of the region’s thriving community – from the fastest-growing companies in the Top 100 to the rising stars recognised for their future potential.

The 2025 Northern Tech Awards winners:

View the Top 100 Ranking here

Our sincere thanks to the esteemed panel of judges, for their time, insight, and dedication in reviewing the shortlists and selecting this year’s winners. We are also deeply grateful to our sponsors – HSBC Innovation Banking, Apprentify, Cazenove Capital, Inflexion, Oakley Capital, Squire Patton Boggs, Bruntwood SciTech, London Stock Exchange, and YFM Equity Partners – for their continued support, which has been instrumental in making the Northern Tech Awards a success.

The Northern Tech Awards are proud to support Ada, the National College of Digital Skills in their mission to educate and empower the next generation of diverse digital talent.

Enquiries
For enquiries and 2026 partnership opportunities, contact northerntechwards@gpbullhound.com or visit northerntechwards.com

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999 in London and Menlo Park, the firm today has 13 offices spanning Europe, the US, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com.

At Molten (formerly DFJ / Draper Esprit), Jonathan led investments in over 80 VC funds and secondary deals, backing category leaders such as UiPath, Revolut, and TransferWise, and driving successful exits including Ravenpack and Ledger.

Jonathan Sibilia commented: “I’ve followed Bullhound Capital’s journey for years and am excited to join at a time when AI is reshaping the innovation landscape. With deep ties across Europe’s tech ecosystem, a high-conviction entrepreneurial team, and a platform built to scale both capital and strategic solutions, Bullhound is uniquely positioned to lead this next wave. I look forward to working with visionary founders to build meaningful companies and contribute to Bullhound’s continued success.”

Managing Partner Per Roman added: “I’ve spent years working with Jonathan on the board of RavenPack, as we first imagined, then built, and finally launched Bigdata.com. He brings a unique combination of intelligence, creativity, and humility—traits that are rare among venture capitalists. I’ve also had the pleasure of learning from him across technologies and investment styles, and we’ve shared more than a few great evenings talking about fast cars, boats, and everything in between. His deep network and experience across both direct and fund strategies align perfectly with our vision. We’re thrilled to welcome him.”

Jonathan holds degrees from EM-Lyon, the University of St. Gallen, and Paris IX Dauphine.

For inquiries, please contact: 
Jonathan Sibilia at jonathan.sibilia@bullhound.com
Press inquiries: press@gpbullhound.com  

About Bullhound Capital
Bullhound Capital is the investment management arm of GP Bullhound, building with founders creating category-leading technology companies. With over €1 billion under management and 25 years of performance, it has invested in global leaders like Spotify, Klarna, Revolut, Slack, Unity, Connex.ai and EcoVadis. Operating from 13 offices worldwide, its platform delivers hands-on, founder-focused support across strategy, growth, and execution. From quantum to entertainment, Bullhound Capital backs global leaders applying Artificial Intelligence to solve real-world problems.

Bullhound Capital has already invested over €1 billion in category-leading technology companies and will continue to back the best of the best. The small team has built a successful track record with investments in already successful global leaders such as Spotify, Klarna, Revolut, Slack, and Unity. Currently working with growing new leaders such as EcoVadis, Whoop, ConnexAI, Q-CTRL and LeoLabs. The team is engaging with founding teams applying Artificial Intelligence to solve real-world problems.

GP Bullhound and Bullhound Capital remain closely aligned and commonly owned, united by a shared heritage and deep respect for the founders’ journey.

Always at the forefront of innovation.

Per Roman, Hugh Campbell, Manish Madhvani
The Founders

Read more about Bullhound Capital here

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact: press@gpbullhound.com

Founded in 2021 by Dom Maskell and Ben Parker, Runna delivers tailored training plans for runners of all levels—from 5Ks to marathons—designed by elite coaches. The app combines live run tracking, pace guidance, and holistic support around nutrition and injury prevention, with seamless integration across Apple Watch, Garmin, and COROS devices. With millions of users across 180+ countries, Runna has rapidly become one of the world’s top-rated running coaching platforms.

The partnership with Strava creates an unmatched ecosystem for runners—combining Strava’s global community and social features with Runna’s high-performance training engine.

“We are absolutely thrilled for both the Runna and Strava teams in this acquisition,” said Eric Crowley, Partner at GP Bullhound. “It is truly a 1+1 = 5 situation where consumers will be the ultimate winner. The Runna team has built a fantastic business in just four years, winning love from users around the globe. GP Bullhound’s CSS team is honored to represent Runna and its shareholders in this transaction. We can’t wait to see the future for Dom, Ben, Josh, Holly, and all the Runna and Strava employees.”

Reflecting on the partnership, Dom Maskell, CEO and Co-founder of Runna, said: “We absolutely loved working with the GP Bullhound team, and don’t think we’d have got to where we are—certainly not as quickly—without their help. Apart from being smart, fast, and experienced, they’re also just such great, fun people to work with. I’ll really miss working closely together.”

This transaction reinforces GP Bullhound’s extensive leadership in the Consumer Subscription Software (CSS) sector, with a strong track record advising global category leaders including Urban Sports Club on its sale to Wellhub, Flo Health on its $225 million investment from General Atlantic, and TeamSnap on its acquisition of MOJO Sports.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact:
Eric Crowley, Partner, at eric.crowley@gpbullhound.com

About Runna
Runna is a global running coaching app delivering personalized training plans, real-time tracking, and expert guidance for runners of all levels. Launched in 2022, the app is available in over 180 countries and was a finalist for Apple’s 2024 App of the Year. Learn more at www.runna.com.

About Strava
Strava is the app for active people. With over 150 million athletes in more than 185 countries, it’s more than tracking workouts—it’s where people make progress together, from new habits to new personal bests. No matter your sport or how you track it, Strava’s got you covered. Join the Strava Club or follow Strava on Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Visit www.strava.com for more information.

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs. Founded in 1999, the firm has 13 offices across Europe, the US, and Asia. Learn more at www.gpbullhound.com.

WestBridge will support the business to deliver continued organic growth in its core US, European and APAC markets alongside M&A to accelerate scale, broaden its geographic reach and expand service capabilities

Ravi Ghedia, Partner, at GP Bullhound, commented: “We see a growing premium placed on brand identity as companies fight for relevance in crowded, digital-first markets. The ability to build trust, clarity, and distinction through design is becoming a key driver of competitive advantage.”

This transaction is further testament to GP Bullhound’s position as a leading adviser globally in the Digital Services sector, having recently advised Croud on its sale to ECI Partners, Unlimited on its sale to Accenture, and Goat on its sale to WPP, among many others.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact:
Ravi Ghedia, Partner, at ravi.ghedia@gpbullhound.com

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999, the firm operates across 13 offices in Europe and the US. For more information, visit www.gpbullhound.com.


The acquisition signifies a major advancement in the corporate wellness sector, broadening access to physical and digital wellness solutions for millions of employees. By integrating Wellhub’s extensive health, sport, and wellness offerings in the US, LATAM, and Europe with Urban Sports Club’s well-established European presence, the newly formed entity is strategically positioned for accelerated growth and innovation. The combination will also create new opportunities for wellness partners—including gyms, studios, and digital apps—to connect with a larger audience of corporate clients and their employees. This is enhancing the value proposition for all stakeholders and growing the market for corporate wellness solutions.

The corporate wellness market in Europe is experiencing substantial growth, driven by factors such as increasing awareness of mental health, rising healthcare costs, and a shift towards hybrid work models. Together, the combined entity is better equipped to capitalize on market trends and address the growing demand for comprehensive corporate wellbeing solutions and employee benefits.

“This acquisition represents a significant milestone in Wellhub’s European strategy, ” said Cesar Carvalho, CEO of Wellhub. “Urban Sports Club’s deep-rooted presence in Europe, coupled with their innovative approach to employee wellness, makes them an ideal partner as we meet the surging demand for holistic corporate wellness solutions and employee benefits. This strategic combination will empower more companies to invest in their employees’ health, ultimately leading to a more engaged and productive workforce.”

Simon Miremadi, Managing Director at GP Bullhound, commented: “We are incredibly proud to have been part of the phenomenal value creation journey of Urban Sports Club and its shareholders over the past 18–24 months. Through multiple transactions and now this strategic milestone, we are deeply grateful for a long-standing partnership built on trust and strategic alignment.”

With the acquisition, the combined entity will serve an expanded network of 34,500 corporate clients and 83,000 holistic wellbeing partners, including premium gyms, boutique studios, and digital wellness providers. This will allow more companies to easily offer accessible physical and digital wellness plans for their employees, with Urban Sports Club contributing a network spanning seven countries and Wellhub bringing coverage in 11 countries.

As part of the transaction, Urban Sports Club’s co-founders and Co-CEOs, Moritz Kreppel and Benjamin Roth will continue to play an active role in Urban Sports Club while also reinvesting in the combined entity to support the joint future vision and joining Wellhub’s Global Leadership Team, bringing valuable regional expertise and industry relationships.

Moritz Kreppel commented, “This is an exciting day for Urban Sports Club—for us and for the entire wellbeing and fitness industry. This acquisition is a perfect strategic fit: while Wellhub brings global reach and a technology platform, Urban Sports Club has a strong presence in Europe with a broad network of local partners. Our shared mission to inspire more and more people to lead an active and healthy lifestyle aligns perfectly. For our partners, members, and corporate clients, as well as our employees, this creates new opportunities for growth, diversity, and innovation.”

Benjamin Roth said, “We are at the beginning of an incredibly exciting chapter. Together with Wellhub, we can offer millions of people even more opportunities to stay active, healthy, and connected. The timing couldn’t be better, as our market is growing rapidly, driven by increasing awareness of health and wellbeing. This acquisition is a great opportunity for us to grow faster and drive the market forward with new ideas and innovations – benefiting our partners and members in particular.”

Urban Sports Club will operate as a separate entity, as both companies work towards a seamless integration and service for partners and clients, with Wellhub focusing on its core B2B strategy and Urban Sports Club continuing to focus on its established offerings. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory closing conditions.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact:
Simon Miremadi, Managing Director at simon.miremadi@gpbullhound.com
Eric Crowley, Partner at eric.crowley@gpbullhound.com

About Wellhub
Wellhub is a corporate wellness platform that connects employees to a wide range of partners for fitness, mindfulness, therapy, nutrition, and sleep, all included in one subscription. More than 22,000 companies in 11 countries use Wellhub to provide their employees with access to corporate wellbeing programs. With Wellhub, employees can engage with their wellbeing every day. The result is better productivity, higher retention, and lower healthcare costs. This is the Wellhub Effect. Become a wellness company today. For more information, visit www.wellhub.com.

About Urban Sports Club
Urban Sports Club, a leading European platform for sports and wellness, is dedicated to inspiring people to live healthy and active lives through a large and highly diverse offering. From fitness, yoga, swimming and climbing to team sports and wellness offers –members can design a unique training plan from over 50 sports across Europe and check in for sports via smartphone app. Together with its members and partners, Urban Sports Club creates a diverse community that collectively follows a vision: to be active in a world where the joy of sports is at the forefront for everyone – at any time and in any place. Urban Sports Club describes this as a world of inclusive and sustainable sports and wellbeing.

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999, the firm operates across 13 offices in Europe and the US. For more information, visit www.gpbullhound.com.

Playtomic partners with more than 6,000 clubs across +60 countries, and is set to accelerate its global expansion, particularly in the United States, where the market for padel is poised for significant growth. The company plans to allocate one-third of the new funding to U.S. expansion, one-third to product development, and one-third to strategic M&A activity.

GP Bullhound has been a long-term supporter of Playtomic, first investing in the company in 2018. Commenting on the investment, Per Roman, Managing Partner at GP Bullhound, said: “We recognized Playtomic’s potential early on and have been proud to support its journey from an emerging player in sports tech to a global category leader. With the rapid expansion of padel, particularly in the U.S., Playtomic is well-positioned to leverage the structural tailwinds of AI, which are accelerating adoption in sports tech, and Playtomic is at the forefront of this shift. We are excited to continue backing the company as it scales its platform, enhances its product offerings, and solidifies its leadership in the market.”

The company also plans to introduce new features, such as tools for player-coach connections and league management, further strengthening its value proposition for clubs and its 1.5 million active players.

Felix Ruiz, Co-founder and CEO of Playtomic, emphasized the company’s ambitious vision: “Now, there are only 500 padel courts in the United States, and we aim to gain 75% of the market in the next six months. With the backing of our investors, including GP Bullhound, we are well-positioned to drive rapid expansion and innovation in the industry.”

Other recent investments from GP Bullhound include Q-CTRL, LeoLabs, Mentimeter, Sesame, and ConnexAI, among others.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact Carlos de la Esperanza, at carlos.delaesperanza@gpbullhound.com

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999 in London and Menlo Park, the firm today has 13 offices spanning Europe, the US and Asia. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com

Peak, an AI-native company headquartered in Manchester, streamlines AI deployment by transforming siloed data into AI-ready datasets, enabling smarter decision-making. The Peak platform enables customers to develop AI workflows, process data, and provide predictions that optimize critical business processes through APIs or integrated web applications. It also provides a new breed of AI-based decisioning applications that enable business users to make highly complex decisions such as planning inventory and optimizing pricing decisions. 

The Acquisition enables UiPath to accelerate market growth and deliver vertical-oriented, next-generation AI-driven agentic applications with intelligence powered by predictive and generative AI. 

Richard Potter, CEO & Co-Founder, Peak, commented: “Joining forces with UiPath is the perfect next step for Peak at this stage of our journey, and I couldn’t be more excited. GP Bullhound have been a great advisory partner to us, and their commitment and deep sector knowledge were instrumental in delivering a successful transaction.”

Alexis Scorer and Jonathan Cantwell, Partners at GP Bullhound, added “It has been a pleasure to advise the Peak team and shareholders on this transaction. This demonstrates our commitment to working with category-leading enterprise software companies, and highlights our cross-border advisory capabilities.”

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact:
Alexis Scorer, Partner, alexis.scorer@gpnullhound.com
Jonathan Cantwell, Partner jonathan.cantwell@gpbullhound.com
Javed Huq, Managing Director, javed.huq@gpbullhound.com

About Peak  
Founded in Manchester in 2015 by Richard Potter, David Leitch and Atul Sharma, Peak is on a mission to change the way the world works by democratising AI for every business. With a core belief that businesses need their own AI — built for their business, with their data — Peak’s pre-built AI products can be configured to fit unique requirements. From a decade of successful AI deployments, Peak has a proven track record of delivering rapid performance gains for its customers helping to increase their revenues, profits and efficiency.

About UiPath 
UiPath (NYSE: PATH) develops AI technology that mirrors human intelligence with ever-increasing sophistication, transforming how businesses operate, innovate, and compete. The UiPath Platform™ accelerates the shift toward a new era of agentic automation—one where agents, robots, people, and models integrate seamlessly to enable autonomous processes and smarter decision making. With a focus on security, accuracy, and resiliency, UiPath is committed to shaping a world where AI enhances human potential and revolutionizes industries.  

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999, the firm operates across 13 offices in Europe and the US. For more information, visit www.gpbullhound.com.

The report draws on GP Bullhound’s internal successes and extensive external research with some of the world’s fastest-growing software companies, presenting a robust framework for integrating AI into business practices.

Leaders must be held to the highest standards when embracing innovation. If executives are not power users of new technologies, how can they inspire and guide others through the challenges of adoption? Boards should proactively evaluate which tools their executives employ and how deeply they engage with them. In many ways, this is more critical than focusing on a superficial AI strategy from someone who may neither grasp the technology’s capabilities nor its current limitations.” commented Per Roman, Managing Partner at GP Bullhound

Key Takeaways:

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999 in London and Menlo Park, the firm today has 13 offices spanning Europe, Asia and the US. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com

For inquiries, please contact: 
Callum Stewart, Investment Principal, callum.stewart@gpbullhound.com
Press inquiries: press@gpbullhound.com  

These promotions underscore our dedication to excellence and our strategic vision for the future. Congratulations to all our newly promoted team members.

Open positions
We are actively recruiting for several positions across our Investment Banking, Asset Management and Operations teams. To search for roles or find out more about what makes life at GP Bullhound unique, visit our Careers Page.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact careers@gpbullhound.com.