Bridgend business shortlisted for Wales UK StartUp Award 2024

BRIDGEND-BASED startup Pet Business Support has been named a finalist ahead of the Wales final of the StartUp Awards.

The UK StartUp Awards was launched to recognise the booming start-up scene across the UK which has accelerated over the last few years with over 900,000 new businesses founded in the UK in 2023, a 12% increase from the year before.

Over 900 businesses have been shortlisted for this year’s UK StartUp Awards and the contribution of these firms – all of which were started in the last three years – is significant, having created nearly 6,000 new jobs since they were established and generating annual sales of £480 million.

Pet Business Support is a digital marketing company founded by Charlotte Perrott in 2021.

Charlotte has been nominated for the Young Entrepreneur StartUp of the Year Award in Wales. Charlotte, founder of Pet Business Support, said: “I am incredibly excited to announce that I am a finalist for the Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award in the Wales UK StartUp Awards 2024 category sponsored by the Welsh Government!

I am also proud to be the only woman finalist in my category, representing young women entrepreneurs across Wales. This nomination is not just a personal milestone for me; it symbolises the strides we are making towards inclusivity and diversity in the entrepreneurial landscape across the county.

Starting my journey as an entrepreneur founding Pet Business Support, I was driven by a passion to make a difference in the pet business community and bring innovative solutions to the challenges they face -for example, my product, Canine Marketing Support. I created this budget-friendly product to help as many canine business owners with their marketing as possible.”

Supported nationally by ScoreApp, GS1 UK, Starling Bank, OVHcloud, GiftRound, Airwallex, the programme will celebrate the achievements of the amazing individuals who have turned an idea into an opportunity and taken the risk to launch a new product or service.

The cohort of finalists will be considered for the regional prizes by a panel of seasoned judges with experience founding or supporting entrepreneurial ventures. The winners from each region will then be invited to the first UK final taking place at Ideas Fest, the Glastonbury for Business festival in Tring, Hertfordshire on 12th September 2024.

Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE, the creator of the UK StartUp Awards, said, “Start-up businesses are the lifeblood of any economy, being responsible for new jobs, innovation and wealth creation across the UK. All the finalists this year represent those entrepreneurs who have spotted an opportunity and through their sheer hard work, talent and perseverance, have created amazing new businesses that are creating real impact in their sectors. Building on the success of previous years, we are now looking to identify the ‘best of the best’ with all the finalists who win their category in their region going on to represent their region at the first ever UK National StartUp Awards final later this year”.

The UK StartUp Awards was created in collaboration with the team behind the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, one of the most successful awards programmes in the UK. The UK StartUp Awards are running for the third year after launching in 2022.

This year’s regional UK StartUp Awards finalists can be found online at https://startupawards.uk/