Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the Smart Home space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Robin Knox
Founder and CEO of Boundary
Robin Knox is the Founder and CEO at Boundary.
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About Boundary, Intelligent Point of Sale, Intelligent Point of Sale, iZettle, Seed Haus: Boundary is an IoT Home Security company providing a smart burglar alarm system that can be controlled over mobile devices.
Ales Spetic
Co-founder & CEO of Klevio
Aleš Špetič is a co-founder and CEO of Klevio, a startups working on platform for managing access. Previously he ran a hardware startup that built and shipped its first product to over 50 countries worldwide from Ljubljana, Slovenia without traditional or crowd funding. Previously he cofounded and ran Zemanta, one of the first successful East European startups. Even though he holds an MBA and has extensive managerial experience in IT companies of different sizes, he started his career with a computer science degree and an O’Reilly book on SQL programing. He’s also Slovenia’s Digital Champion, a father, food and wine enthusiast, and a certified pastry chef.
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About Klevio, Koto Labs: Klevio lets users open doors and share their virtual keys using a smartphone.
Prashanth Makaram
Founder & CEO of Crocus Labs
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About Crocus Labs: Crocus Labs is developing smart LED technology for horticulture.
Paul Besnainou
Founder & CEO of Sweet Inn
Paul Besnainou is a 31-year old French-Israeli entrepreneur, who is entirely self-taught. After his high school diploma, he opted to pursue his studies at the Mir Yeshiva rather than attend a prominent business school. Following his seven years of Talmudic studies, he emerged filled with intellectual curiosity, discipline, and an analytical spirit – characteristics that would lead him to found and direct, only a year later, Sweet Inn. In just 5 years since its founding, Sweet Inn is already located in 13 cities around Europe and in Israel, totaling over 700 apartments and employ more than 200 employees.
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About Sweet Inn: Sweet Inn is a booking platform intended for hotel services for tourists and business travelers.
Daniel P Dykes
CEO of Aeotec
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About Aeotec: Creators of home automation products and specialists in Z-Wave, Aeon Labs offers a broad range of IoT accessories under its Aeotec brand.
Leon Doyle
CEO & Co-Founder of WIFIPLUG
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About myma.io, WIFIPLUG: myma.io – the IoT cloud that powers WIFIPLUG
Yohei Kiguchi
Co-Founder & CEO of Enechange
Graduated from the University of Tokyo and Oxford graduate school. Joined Milog in 2009. He participated as a co-founder. Joined Cambridge Energy Data Lab in 2013. Jointly joined as a co-founder and data scientist. Joined ENECHANGE in 2015. He participated as a co-founder. Joined SMAP Energy in 2016. He participated as a co-founder. Was elected in 2017 Forbes Europe as 30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 (“FORBES 30 UNDER 30 EUROPE”).
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About Cambridge Energy Data Lab, Enechange, SMAP Energy: ENECHANGE is the technology-focused multi-national energy ventures.
Maria McKavanagh
Chief Executive Officer of Verv
Ex National Instruments, responsible for multi-million pound sales territory within Aerospace & Automotive winning ‘new sales person of the year’ for EMEIA as well as an Engineering Impact award. Holds a degree in Electronic Systems Engineering.
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About Verv: High definition fault detection technology for the next generation of smarter, longer lasting and more sustainable appliances
Simon Phelan
Co-Founder and CEO of Hometree
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About Hometree: Hometree exists to make home ownership simple & sustainable
Alfredo Belfiori
Founder & CEO of Flicktek Ltd
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About BetterSpace, Flicktek Ltd: Gesture control for smartwatches, IoT and VR
Vassilis Seferidis
Co-Founder & CEO of Zeetta Networks
Vassilis has more than 25 years of experience in the Telecom and Consumer Electronics (CE) industries mainly in Strategic Business Planning and Development roles. Before co-founding Zeetta Networks, Vassilis was VP of European Business Development for Samsung Electronics responsible for driving revenue growth and strategic development of the company’s Consumer Electronics business in Europe. Prior to Samsung, he held senior management positions with British Telecom, Toshiba Information Systems, Philips Electronics, and British Standards Institute. During 2006-2009 he was the CTO of QIO Systems Inc., a pioneer in wearable electronics based in New York City. Vassilis holds a BSc and MSc from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a PhD in Electronic Systems Engineering from Essex University and an MBA from Cass Business School, University of London. In 2011 he was included in Euro50, a list of Europe’s 50 most influential people in Broadband &Telecoms industries.
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About Zeetta Networks: Zeetta Networks simplifies the monitoring, management and automation of complex ICT networks
Nils Mattisson
CEO & Co-founder of Minut
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About Minut: Minut is a computer software company that specializes in product design, hardware, electronics, software, IoT, and smart home.
Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson
CEO of Yourkeys
Entrepreneur
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About Yourkeys: ‘Yourkeys is a real-time transactional and data platform for house builders and estate agents selling properties.
William Makant
Co-Founder and CEO of Plumis
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About Plumis: Intelligence in the fabric of every building
Daniel Burton
Chief Executive Officer of Wondrwall
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About Wondrwall: Wondrwall has pioneered the first intelligent living system that will transform how people interact with their homes.
John Nussey
Co-founder & CEO of Ding
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About Ding: At Ding we make beautiful smart home products. Our first is a smart doorbell which allows you to talk with the person at your door.
Paul Lamkin
Co-CEO of Wareable Media Group
Prior to founding Wareable, Paul was a contributing editor on Pocket-lint where he was nicknamed ‘news monkey’ due to his comprehensive coverage of everything and anything new in tech. He then edited a laptop magazine where the pace was a little bit slower (as were some of the readers). When he wasn’t writing about RAM or SSD options Paul also penned more interesting reviews for Tech Radar and T3. Most recently the senior editor of MSN Tech, Paul is a self-confessed geek and has been accused of being both an Apple ‘fanboy’ and a Google ‘fandroid’ – so at least you know that his bias is balanced.
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About Pocket lint, Wareable Media Group, Wareable Media Group: Wareable Media Group has expanded to three publications: Wareable, The Ambient and Get Sweat Go.
Adam Kent
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Enado
Adam is a successful entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience in running technology-based businesses. Dynamic, visionary, enthusiastic, persuasive and energetic, he has a proven track record of creating profitable businesses that successfully fulfil gaps in the market, meet latent demand and are at the leading edge of market trends. Among his business creations, Adam founded one of the UK’s leading home automation installation companies a CCTV systems supply business and founded one of the pre-emminent manufacturers of Audio Visual racking. It is through his in-depth knowledge of these sectors that he identified the opportunity for Enado and brought its first embodiment to market.
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About Enado: Enado is the result of several years of planning and development.
Simon Eccleston
CEO of Stacking Systems
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About Stacking Systems: Stacking Systems Ltd creates bespoke collating, buffering and stacking systems for automation-wise companies.
Simon Eccleston
CEO of Stacking Systems
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About Stacking Systems: Stacking Systems Ltd creates bespoke collating, buffering and stacking systems for automation-wise companies.
