Reach and Rescue took home the overall award聽at Venturefest聽North West聽2018 in front of an audience of hundreds at Manchester Central.
The Wigan-based business invented a 17-metre versatile rescue pole which is used by 80 per cent of the UK鈥檚 fire and emergency services. Now in over 30 countries around the world, its tagline is 鈥榬eaching out to save lives鈥�.
Company director Sean Burke told 老九品茶Cloud he believes they took home the trophy because of the simplicity of the idea.
鈥淭here are a lot of amazing tech innovations out there but I don鈥檛 understand half of them. Often they鈥檙e not presented correctly but are actually really cool,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e took an idea and made it very simple, very easy to use and distilled down a really important thing that鈥檚 needed to rescue people from the water, which didn鈥檛 exist before this.
鈥淚t鈥檚 got a human element to it, it saves a lot of people and animals and people understand it straight away.
鈥淥ur system is hands-on and useable by a whole range of different people 鈥� I could teach you to use it in 10 minutes. It鈥檚 effective, affordable and can be used in any country in a lot of different industries.鈥�
Commenting on the win, Burke said it feels 鈥榝abulous鈥� to gain recognition from the judges, remarking on the positive journey the company has had over the last seven years.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still the only people in the world that make and sell this product,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e have no competitors, we鈥檝e protected our product well and we鈥檝e really taken advantage of the latest tech advancements in carbon fibre. That鈥檚 fundamentally why the product works so well, is unbreakable and has a lifetime guarantee.鈥�
Going forward the company is now able to take the core technology and put various tools on top of it to serve a whole range of different industries.
鈥淩escue is where the tech came from but it goes into surveillance, security, border control, military 鈥� it鈥檚 all fundamentally down to the efforts we鈥檝e put into carbon fibre technology which is now paying off,鈥� he said.
Technology is rapidly growing in the search and rescue space, says Burke, with other types of innovation coming in to aid rescue workers around the world.
鈥淚t was very much a spit and sawdust kind of industry,鈥� he explained. 鈥淣ow people have monitoring systems, sensors, recording systems, performance monitoring and enhancement, and a lot of that鈥檚 coming from all different types of industries.
鈥淚 see so much tech in the rescue industry around the world, it鈥檚 amazing.鈥�
Tech Manchester project lead Patricia Keating聽was impressed by the system and described it as 鈥渁 simple approach to innovation鈥�.
Reach and Rescue triumphed after pitches from 12 finalists.
Corporation Pop won the digital innovation competition for its Xploro mobile app, which uses 3D augmented reality interactive models and games to prepare children for going into hospital, reducing their stress and anxiety.
The winners of the innovative established business award were Rochdale’s Whitham Mills Engineering, which has created a food waste tipping solution.
Urban Chain triumphed in the service innovation category for its blockchain-based platform which helps consumers switch to a better energy deal instantly.
Telcom鈥檚 Doug Ward won the audience competition with its Node聽technology which connects landlords and tenants,聽while Corporation Pop and Brain In Hand were runners-up.
The event was hosted by Century Tech founder and CEO聽Priya Lakhani.
The other finalists were Fulfilment Crowd, Call Me Help, Clyz Labs, Million Stars Sustainable Events, Radic8 and Redman Racing Boats.