The votes are in, and our winners are chosen. Read on to find out all about our 2025 winners.
What is AXA Startup Angel?
When you’re first starting out, the best advice you can get comes from those who have been in your shoes. That’s why we created AXA Startup Angel. This competition gives budding entrepreneurs the chance to turn their business dreams into a reality.
For the last 4 years AXA Startup Angel, in partnership with The Standard, has given 6 of the most promising up and coming businesses from across the UK a variety of incredible prizes and first-class mentoring.
Ready to see who walked away with a life changing prize this year?
Introducing the 2025 AXA Startup Angel winners
Our two top-prize winners won £25,000 of startup funding to help launch or grow their business, as well as mentoring advice from our expert Angels, and business insurance for a year thanks to AXA. So, let’s meet our winning businesses.
Simone Panella
Founders, Dyamotech
“This will give us the confidence and credibility to build the global standard for youth sports brain safety.”
Dyamotech is the world’s first wearable concussion management system designed to monitor head impact exposure for schools and sports clubs. The smart headband tracks g-force and rotational data, with instant feedback via an app.
Princess Ebi
Founder, Main Squeeze
“This isn’t just about scaling a business; it’s about shifting how people experience and talk about chronic conditions."
Main Squeeze creates compression socks that combine medical-grade performance with bold, fashion-forward design, for people who live with invisible conditions – all with the aim of helping people feel stylish, supported, and seen.
Who were our 2025 runners up?
Now that we know who took home the top prizes, let’s take a look at our 2025 runners up. Our three runners up have each won an estimated £18,000 worth of media, mentoring and exposure.
They'll receive a bespoke The Standard advertisement profile feature as a digital article on standard.co.uk, inclusion in The Standard winner’s announcement advertisement feature in print and online, and mentoring with a member of The Standard team.
Christina Lartey
Founder, Think Pieces
“We’re on a mission to make sure every child in this country has access to fun, creative financial education."
Think Pieces creates playful, money-themed puzzles and gamified workshops where children earn, spend, save and invest in a virtual world to educate them on money management.
Renuka Ramanujam
Founder, HUID
“We believe onions could be our heroes, and this opportunity will put us in front of consumers who will want to know how."
HUID transforms discarded onion skins into a high-strength, lightweight pulp that can replace single-use plastic packaging. HUID’s process extracts cellulose fibres five times faster than traditional pulping.
Denise Stephenson
Founder, TechTags
“This prize is a fantastic opportunity for the world to see what TechTags can do."
TechTags provides patented smart care labels that are sewn into garments, then scanned at return to instantly verify whether they’ve been worn to help make clothing returns more efficient and eco-friendly.
Who was the winner of The Standard People’s Choice poll?
Our sixth and final winner was chosen by the public in a poll hosted by our partner, The Standard. Our people’s choice winner will receive the same prizes as our runners up, so let’s meet them.
Anthony Pachon
Founder, Silly Sarah
“This will help us reach the children and people with disabilities who need our toothpaste most."
Safe to swallow and gentle for children, Silly Sarah creates toothpaste that uses hydroxyapatite with playful flavours, to make brushing with natural toothpaste more fun for kids.
See what last year's winners are up to
We caught up with our two 2024 top prize winners to find out what they had been up to since winning last year, and to hear more about their plans for the future. Let’s see what they had to say.
Entries for this year’s competition may be closed, but things don’t stop there
If you’re interested in finding out more about the future of AXA Startup Angel or you’re considering entering your business in next year’s competition, you can use the sign up form below to register your interest.
All you have to do is give us a few quick details and we’ll be in touch next year to let you know when entries open.