Award-winning New Companies Making It To Final Have Been Announced

The 36 start-up companies to make it to the final of this year's Startups Awards have been announced.

The annual awards are designed to showcase the cream of Britain's start-up sector. The finalists are split over 12 categories and cover a variety of businesses, from established brands such as The Cambridge Satchel Company to Rocktails, a two-month-old Cardiff-based firm that sells frozen cocktails.

Steph Welstead, Editor of Startups.co.uk, said: "Our finalists this year are as diverse, exciting and creative as ever. Painful as it was, some fantastic companies didn't quite make it this far from the hundreds of entries we received. For those that have made it to the 2011 final, competition for the honours in each category will be incredibly fierce and we anticipate one ofthe toughest judging days we've had since the awards launched in 2004."

The winners of this year's awards will be unveiled during a ceremony, due to be held at London's Kensington Roof Gardens on 2 December. One of the 12 winners will also be announced as the NatWest Startups Business of the Year 2011 during the evening.

Speaking at a business conference in London earlier today, David Cameron said grants would be awarded through the Regional Growth Fund, which is set to be administered by RBS, NatWest and HSBC. According to a report by The Independent, ministers anticipate that the scheme could unlock as much as 500m of new investment by small and medium businesses.

The idea is for small firms that are unable to secure commercial funding to support investment in new capital assets and the creation of new jobs to seek government support through the banks' regional networks.

Business Minister Mark Prisk said: "These schemes will directly help SMEs that want to invest and create new jobs. They will deliver a shot in the arm to local communities, whilst also helping small businesses to drive local growth. There will be 100% of the RGF funding provided as grants to small businesses, with the banks employing their regional networks to administer the schemes for free."

This announcement came at a similar time to the directory firm Yell announcing the appetite amongst small businesses for digital growth.

The company said yesterday that it now runs 355,000 websites for its customers, which is up from 124,000 last year. According to Internet Retailing, the company's total number of digital customers grew by 11.1% to 940,000 during the 26 weeks to September 30, compared to the same period last year. The average digital spend by those customers was also up 3.2% to 523.

The firm's Chief Executive said new digital products were appealing to small businesses and had helped the company to boost income from all its digital services by 149.1% to 63.6m, and its total digital revenue by 9.1% to 236m.

by: Tim Bisley

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