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KPMG crowns ECHO Best British Mobile Startup 2018 at Mobile World Congress

KPM MWC Finalists Echo winners

A British NHS repeat prescription reminder and tracking app successfully fought off competition from over 100 other startups to be crowned the Best British Mobile Startup 2018 at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

West London based Echo is made up of a team of doctors, pharmacists and technologists with a simple vision – to use technology to make everyone’s experience of healthcare and wellness better and more fulfilling. They pitched their app – which works with GP practices to deliver medication to patient’s homes and reminds them when and how to take it, to a room full of industry experts and investors at the world’s largest mobile technology gathering to walk away with the crown. The app is free and works with a patient’s existing GP practice, so there is nothing to set up. It is designed by patients and NHS clinicians, supported by global technology leaders and could help the NHS in their fight against billions of pounds wasted each year in prescriptions not taken as directed.

KPM MWC Finalists Echo

The competition, organised by KPMG’s Innovative Startup practice, saw regional pitching competitions take place in London, Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester to find five outstanding finalists from more than 150 applications to the competition in Barcelona this week.

Commenting on the competition, Patrick Imbach who leads KPMG’s Innovative Startup practice in the UK said:

“Throughout the competition we have seen over 30 pitches at four qualification events across the UK resulting in five amazing finalists who represent a cross section of the UK’s mobile startup ecosystem. Each of our finalists are doing great things so we were very excited that they were part of the competition. Echo is a fantastic example of a disruptive startup addressing a real problem. The judges were hugely impressed with the patient led focus of their platform and the strong early traction in the market. They are fantastic representatives of what is coming out of the UK’s significant tech startup community, that is consistently producing great tech businesses.”

Echo pitched their business against Landmrk, Circleloop, Link App and Smartpipe at the ‘Four Years From Now’ technology startup conference (“4YFN”) at Mobile World Congress 2018. They were proclaimed overall winner by a panel of judges made up of tech specialists including Priya Prakash – Founder of Design For Social Change, Dr Mike Short CBE – Chief Scientific Advisor at Department for International Trade (DIT) and Alex Holt – Partner and Global Head of Telecoms and Media at KPMG LLP.

Judge Alex Holt, KPMG’s global Head of Telecoms & Media added :

“It was a privilege to be a judge for this year’s Best British Mobile Startup competition, which is now in its fourth year. We had 5 brilliant finalists, but the judges believe today’s winner will go onto fantastic things and have a positive impact on patients up and down the country.”

Margot James, Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries who presented the award, concluded:

“Congratulations to the winners of the competition and to all the nominees. Echo is a great example of the health sector and tech world joining forces to make it easier for patients to get their prescriptions.

“The UK ‘s digital start-ups are worth more than £116 billion to our economy and we are doing all we can to support firms as we work to make Britain the best place to start and grow a digital business.”

Mobile World Congress is the largest annual gathering for the mobile industry, organized by the GSMA, and held in the Mobile World Capital of Barcelona.

KPM MWC Finalists

About the other finalists :

  • Bristol – Landmrk, experiential marketing enterprise which creates bespoke campaigns that place digital content into physical locations anywhere in the world.
  • Manchester – Circleloop, a cloud-based business phone system which creates a global, real-time, privacy compliant and completely secure data ecosystem linking network operators to data platforms
  • Birmingham – Link App: A platform specifically designed to help law firms improve client communication while gaining a competitive advantage.
  • London– Smartpipe has developed a de-identification technology enabling telcos to monetise their data through advertising, while maintaining the privacy and security of subscribers