TEES TECH AWARDS 2025

SPONSORED BY ALT LABS

FINALISTS

BEARTECH

A rapidly-growing technology consultancy delivering cutting-edge digital solutions, in one year BearTech has scaled from two people to 22 employees, generating £ 1.27m in revenue and launching innovative AI-powered platforms such as Automate Legal and Flo AI.

Committed to diversity, sustainability and regional growth, BearTech is planning a new office in Middlesbrough’ s Boho One.

Dan Watson( right) from Small Business of the Year sponsor Alt Labs presented the award to ServAce co-owner / director Victoria Brunton and COO Jonathan Connelly.

WINNER

Clinching a Tees Tech Award proved an ideal 19th birthday present for training and event booking management firm ServAce.

Whereas the other 11 categories had two or mainly three finalists, such was the competition for the Small Business of the Year category, sponsored by Alt Labs, that five firms went head to head for the title.

But lifting the trophy was ServAce which, through its bespoke technology and first-class customer service, has helped clients manage thousands of residential bookings a year since 2006.

And director Victoria Brunton revealed their award success came on the eve of the firm’ s 19th birthday.

She said:“ I’ m very excited and so grateful. It’ s our 19th birthday tomorrow so it couldn’ t be a more fitting way to celebrate.

“ We’ ve grown 30-40 % over the last year and we’ re looking at 40-50 % for the coming year, so it’ s a really exciting time.”

With an IT background and degree, Victoria told how she was 25 when the business started.

She said:“ We spotted an opportunity where somebody didn’ t have a system in place for doing niche bookings for apprenticeships. We developed a system around that 19 years ago and it’ s grown ever since.”

Based in Wynyard, the company has 24 staff and is constantly looking to improve the customer experience, with a rebrand, a mobile app launch, new payment technology and integration of AI all part of its recent journey.

It helped ServAce rapidly grow its workforce during 2024 and, with people at the heart of its offering and being its USP in an increasingly digital world, it’ s well placed to grow further in 2025 and beyond.

Victoria explained:“ We’ re in a good place and AI is certainly going to drive things forward for us in terms of helping our customers by making processes easier – it’ s going to be a big part of the future.

“ But it’ s great to win this and so nice for the team as well. It shows that all the hard work they’ re doing is paying off, so it’ s lovely to be celebrating that and our 19th birthday tomorrow.”

SPONSOR’ S MESSAGE

Dan Watson, head of ecosystem and operations, Alt Labs: Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and we have five strong local businesses in the shortlist. The other categories have three finalists but, ultimately, we weren’ t able to cut this one down to three, so strong were the entries. Over the last year we’ ve been running the Tees Valley Labs programme, supporting hundreds of SMEs across the Tees Valley, and we felt this was a fitting end to that.

EMBEDDABLE

Middlesbrough-based Embeddable is a forward-thinking technology partner, seamlessly combining software development and consultancy to help businesses scale and succeed.

Led by MD Peter Calvert, the company has delivered significant commercial and financial success, securing major project wins by providing expert guidance, bespoke development and fractional CTO services.

OUTRANK

Based on Middlesbrough’ s Riverside Park but with offices in Edinburgh and London, Outrank is a leading specialist local search digital marketing agency.

With services including integrated SEO, content, social and paid marketing services, it combines smart insight, creativity and technical expertise to earn brands exceptional digital coverage.

Since 2019, it has served 300 North-East customers and more than 4,000 nationally.

YELLOWBOX

Leading full-service digital agency Yellowbox has 14 years of expertise in web design, SEO, PPC, email marketing and more.

In 2024, it rebranded to attract businesses seeking powerful, results-driven digital marketing strategies, and with further expansion the firm is aiming to hit the £ 1m turnover mark this year.

146 | Tees Business