The Aberdeen-based business won for its ground-breaking use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in its end of line automation and machine vision systems for food producers. The company’s Co-CEOs, Ben Stuart and Ben Bamford, will now go on to pitch at the competition’s UK final in July.

A total of ten fast-growing businesses based in Scotland went head-to-head on Tuesday 20 June at KPMG’s Edinburgh office. Each pitched to a panel of five judges, which included ultra-endurance athlete and investor Mark Beaumont of EOS Advisory, Gopalan Rajagopalan, head TCS Scotland, Tata Consultancy Services, and experienced business consultant Julie Grieve.

Ben Stuart, Co-CEO at Leap Automation, said: “It’s a real privilege to be representing Scotland at the UK finals. The standard of applicants at the pitch event was incredible and spoke volumes to the breadth, depth and ingenuity of the entrepreneurial community in Scotland.

“Innovation is at the core of everything we do at Leap Automation, as we strive to deliver robotics at a level of simplicity and price point that make robotic automation accessible to all. Being recognised for this is great validation for all the clever things our brilliant team do on a daily basis.”

Amy Burnett, head of KPMG Private Enterprise Access at KPMG in Scotland, said: “It was always going to be difficult to choose one winner from ten fantastic entries this year, but we were really impressed by Leap Automation’s use of AI and machine learning which increases efficiencies in fresh product supply chains.

“We’re very excited to support the continued growth of our tech innovators who are either hidden gems in our huge tech ecosystem or leading the way in disruption and innovative thinking. Huge congratulations go to Ben Stuart and team at Leap Automation.”

“Over the last decade, we have seen our competition go from strength to strength as our tech ecosystems across the UK continue to mature, grow and attract many home-grown disruptors. Innovation is now firmly on the agenda of businesses and policy makers as a vital contributor to the health and wealth of our economy. This competition is a great platform to help profile, recognise and celebrate the outstanding technology being developed across the Scotland and the wider UK.”

The UK final will take place on 24 July in KPMG’s new Ignition Centre in Manchester. The virtual event is open to the public, who are also able to vote for their winner by signing up here.

Both Leap Automation and the runner up, MI:RNA – a diagnostics testing laboratory based in Edinburgh which uses ground-breaking technology and AI to detect early-stage disease in animals – will be provided with entry to a bespoke version of KPMG’s Access programme for fast growth businesses, exclusive networking opportunities among industry experts, their peers and other tech innovators. The Tech Innovator in the UK winner, and the winner in each of the other participating countries, will progress to the Global Tech Innovator final at Web Summit 2023, where they will compete on the global stage.

The nation-wide competition, which is celebrating its 10th year, has uncovered British tech innovators including What3Words, SafetoNet, FIDOTech and 2022 winner HiiROC who went on to win the global final during Web Summit. Having shone a light on a host of tech success stories from across the country, the competition is also now in its third year of going global and has expanded to include technology innovators competing across over 20 countries representing major regions of the world.

The ten Scottish businesses that were selected from nearly 400 UK applications to the competition were:

• Dyneval
• Forrit
• Gigged.AI
• Invizius
• Kenoteq
• Leap Automation
• MI:RNA
• Pawprint
• Recast
• ZIPZERO Global