The winners of the 2020 Tech Trailblazers Awards have been announced, with a number of early-stage tech companies recognized for their outstanding innovations during what has been a turbulent year.
There was lots of competition this year, with a record number of entries despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, which is testament to the growing importance of the tech and cybersecurity sectors as a result of changing working and home practices emanating from the global crisis.
A total of 15 winners were selected by a combination of public vote and a panel of judges, which included Infosecurity’s editor Michael Hill.
The coveted Tech Trailblazer of the Year Award, which celebrates individual male and female executives who have delivered outstanding innovation or change, went to Stephanie Fohn of NeuVector and Dean Sysman of Axonius in the female and male categories, respectively. The runners-up in the female category were Grace Waters of Codastra and Melissa Wong of Retail Zipline, while runners-up in the male section were Patrick Harr of SlashNext and Tim Hinrichs of Styra, Inc.
The Firestarter award went to Codastra, with the runners-up prizes going to Eldir (Pty) Ltd, NexBotix Ltd and Vastmindz.
Across the 12 major enterprise categories, this year’s winners were as follows:
- AI: MemVerge
- Big Data: MemVerge
- Blockchain: Cognitochain Technologies
- Cloud: Bamboo Systems Group
- Containers: Styra, Inc.
- Developer: Ambassador Labs
- FinTech: Modulr Finance
- IoT: BehrTech
- Mobile: SafeGuard Cyber
- Networking: Ananda Networks
- Security: Abnormal Security
- Storage: VAST Data
Rose Ross, founder of the Tech Trailblazers Awards, commented: “Despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, we received a record number of entries this year – up by 50% from last year. We congratulate all the winners both on their innovation and on their efforts to bring their innovations to market – they are all outstanding in their fields.”
This has been the ninth edition of the Tech Trailblazers Awards since it first started back in 2012 to highlight the achievements of enterprise technology startups. Many previous winners and runners-up have gone on to receive substantial investment while others have been acquired. To qualify, businesses have to be under six years old, privately funded and at C-series funding or below.