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Ones To Watch 2021

Showcase - Ones To Watch 2021

The UK Creative Industries Council (CIC) promotes and protects opportunities for growth in the UK Creative Industries. CreaTech is one such opportunity, with high growth in investment and jobs in new emerging areas.

The CreaTech 100 Ones to Watch provide an annual showcase of innovative UK-based companies which are creating new business opportunities in B2B and B2C at the interface between creativity and technology. They help us to explain this dynamic new part of the creative industries to investors, ministers and the industry at large, and to demonstrate British creativity and ingenuity.

Over 200 companies self-selected to start the application process. Application was via the CIC’s CreaTech web portal and required a short written submission of 600-750 words, supported by creative assets. Applicants were also requested to put forward a person to represent their application and to complete an entry form to help log essential information and help with classifications.

The selection panel represented industry influencers and practitioners, from across the creative disciplines, and in service organisations in support of the creative industries.

Convenor:

Janet Hull, Director of Marketing Stratey, IPA & Lead CIC CreaTech

Selection Panel:

Brian Baglow, Founder & Director, Scottish Games Network and Producer, Beyond Games
Andrew Chitty, Creative Clusters Challenge Director, AHRC UKRI
Louise Conolly-Smith, Head of Creative, London & Partners
Parveen Dhanda, Former Head of Programmes, Tech Nation
Elizabeth Diaferia, Senior Policy Adviser, Creative Industries Trade and Investment Board
Julian Douglas, International Chair, VCCP & IPA President
David Furmage, Creative & Cultural Senior Policy Lead, GBSLEP
Rob Husband, Partner, Moore Kingston Smith
Amanda Kamin, Chief Marketing Communications Officer, Digital Catapult
Mark Leaver, Former DIT Specialist
Michelle Marks, Head of Creative Strategy, Facebook EMEA
Suzy Pallett, Former London Tech Week Producer
Casandra Strauss, Director of Innovation & Special Projects, BPI
Sam Whitear, Creative Industries Lead, The Growth Company

The selection process took account of the following five factors:

1.    Surprise

Is it something we haven’t come across before? Is it cool and surprising in the way creativity meets technology?

2.    Purpose

Does it solve a problem and deliver new opportunities in the way people live, work, play and learn?

3.    Disruption

Does it show potential to transform the way businesses operate and service markets?

4.    Opportunity for global collaboration/cross-sectoral impact

Does it encourage partnerships and collaboration across sectors and industries in the UK and worldwide?

5.    Commercial impact

Is the innovation far enough along to be able to offer evidence of likely commercial viability?

In addition, the selection panel were looking for enthusiasm, commitment and passion from the team behind the innovation.

The 2021 List

Of the 100 companies, 9 are established businesses, 25 are scale-ups and 66 are start-ups.

See the list below and click on the links to find out more about them.

Ones to Watch 2021 Video

Established

AI Music

Blue Zoo Animation Studio

Crowd

Factory 42 Ltd.

Imagination

Moonraker VFX Ltd

Multiview Media Limited

nDreams Ltd

Simworx Ltd

Scale-up

ATMOS VR

Calvium

City Emulator

Cooperative Innovations

dandelion + burdock

Dojo Films Ltd

Dragonfly AI

Draw & Code

Engineered Arts Ltd

FX Digital

GigRealm

iAM Learning

Immersive, Ltd.

Lost Horizon Ltd

Make Real Ltd

Overview Ark

Poplar Studio

Purple Monster

RecodeXR

SonicData Limited

Stagescreen Ltd

Sugar Creative

Swamp Motel

SyncVault

terrible*

Totem Learning Ltd

Start-up

3dctrl

A-dapt International Ltd

Air Giants Limited

Audoo

Black Goblin Audio Ltd

Breathe Music Limited

Bristol Braille Technology CIC

Buttercup Learning

Circle Instruments Ltd

Condense Reality

Curation Zone Limited

Data Duopoly

Delic/Superrational Limited

designerzen ltd

Electric Skies Ltd

elvinyl

Engine House VFX

Etic Lab LLP

Fat Red Bird

Feed

Fictioneers

FlairBox

Forest Tribe

GEEIQ

Gritty Talent Group

GroundWaves

Happaning

Hollow Corp Ltd

Immersive Networks Collective Ltd

Immersive Promotion Design Ltd.

InFashion Tecnologies Ltd.

Inside Theatre

KAVE Immersive Ltd

Larkhall

Limbic Cinema

Limbik

LimboTech

MAD XR Limited

Mativision

Musemio

OnJam

Online Music Exams

paus

Peter & Paul

Playlines

ClicknClear

Reflex Arc Ltd

Saarey Ltd

Scribeasy Ltd

Snap Finger Click

SpaceForm Technologies Ltd

Stornaway.io

The Choral Hub

The Original Content Company

The Round Live Ltd.

Trajectory Theatre

Valkyrie Industries

Vialog

Viktrs

Virtual Visitor

Vital Culture UK

WeJam

WildMeta

Urban XR

Xplorealms Ltd