Northern Tech Awards 2026: Leeds Firm Genio Wins Culture Prize

Northern Tech Awards results: Genio takes Judges’ Award for Cultural Excellence as nine Leeds companies recognised at GP Bullhound’s 2026 ceremony

Leeds EdTech company Genio has won the Judges’ Award for Cultural Excellence at the 2026 Northern Tech Awards, held on Wednesday evening at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester. Genio was one of nine Leeds-headquartered companies recognised at GP Bullhound’s annual celebration of the fastest-growing tech businesses in the North, with eight others Leeds businesses also shortlisted; TPP, Answer Digital, Boxphish, Hippo Digital, The Data City, White Label Loyalty, Nexus Vehicle Rental, and Burendo. The 100 companies on the list generated a combined £2.4 billion in revenue.

Why This Matters For Leeds

Nine companies from a single city featuring at the Northern Tech Awards, with one taking home an individual prize, is a strong showing. Genio is an interesting winner: a 21-year-old Leeds EdTech company with 900+ institutions on its books, winning for how it builds its culture. Combined with eight companies in the Top 100 spanning healthtech, cybersecurity, AI, loyalty, fleet, and public sector digital, the results reinforce the breadth of the city’s tech ecosystem. Read more Leeds business news across all sectors.

Who Genio Are and Why They Won

Genio, founded in Leeds in 2004 by Dave Tucker, builds learning tools for higher education. It’s flagship product, Genio Notes, is a note-taking and study platform used by more than 900 institutions globally. The company has its roots in assistive technology, originally designed to support students with accessibility needs, and has expanded to serve what it calls “new majority learners”, students who are parents, veterans, working full-time, neurodivergent, or over 25. The Judges’ Award for Cultural Excellence recognises how a company builds and sustains its internal culture.

What the Numbers Tell Us

GP Bullhound’s analysis of the 2026 cohort shows the Northern tech ecosystem continuing to mature. The Top 100 companies generated a combined £2.4 billion in revenue, with an average growth rate of 28%, down from 32% in 2025, but still strong given what GP Bullhound describes as an ongoing challenging backdrop for founders. For the first time, companies with revenues above £10 million accounted for more than half of all entrants, with 43% in the £10–50 million bracket and 10% above £50 million. Over a quarter of the 2026 cohort were first-time additions to the Top 100, reflecting both sustained growth and the ecosystem’s ability to produce new success stories.

Software continues to dominate the shortlist at nearly half of all entrants, though digital services companies remain the majority in the sub-£10 million bracket. GP Bullhound also highlighted seven key transactions involving Top 100 companies over the past year, among them Leeds-based Hippo Digital, whose acquisition by Exponent in March 2025 was flagged as one of the standout deals in the Northern tech ecosystem.