Fantastic four pipped to tech award by firm on its 19th birthday

Clinching one of the most hotly-contested Tees Tech Awards proved an ideal 19th birthday present for training and event booking management firm ServAce.

Whereas the other 11 categories had two or mainly three finalists, such was the competition for the Small Business of the Year gong, sponsored by Tees tech firm Alt Labs, that FIVE firms went head to head for the title.

But pipping BearTech, Embeddable, Outrank and Yellowbox to the trophy was ServAce which, through its bespoke technology and first-class customer service, has helped clients to manage thousands of residential bookings a year since 2006.

And picking up the trophy, director Victoria Brunton revealed their award success came on the eve of the firm’s 19th birthday.

She said: “I’m very excited and so grateful. It’s our 19th birthday tomorrow so it couldn’t be a more fitting way to celebrate.

“We’ve grown 30-40% over the last year and we’re looking at 40-50% for the coming year, so it’s a really exciting time – employing more people and more opportunities.”

With an IT background and degree, Victoria told how she was 25 when the business started. She said: “We spotted an opportunity where somebody didn’t have a system in place for doing niche bookings for apprenticeships. We developed a system around that 19 years ago and it’s just grown and grown ever since.”

It helped ServAce rapidly grow its workforce during 2024 and, with people at the heart of its offering and being its USP in an increasingly digital world, it’s well placed to grow further in 2025 and beyond.

Victoria explained: “We’re in a good place and AI is certainly going to drive things forward for us in terms of helping our customers by making processes easier – it’s going to be a big part of the future.

“But it’s great to win this and so nice for the team as well. It shows that all the hard work they’re doing is paying off, so it’s lovely to be celebrating that and our 19th birthday.”

Presenting the award, Dan Watson, head of ecosystem and operations at category sponsor Alt Labs, said: “Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and we had five strong local businesses in the shortlist. The other categories have three finalists but, ultimately, we’ve not been able to cut this one down to three, so strong were the entries. That shows the strength of the overall shortlist in this category.”

The sixth Tees Tech Awards were organised by Tees Business in association with Applied Integration and held at the Kirkleatham Walled Garden pavilion.

The awards were hosted by Alt Labs CEO Imran Anwar, with Intasite director Danielle Croce – the reigning Tees Businesswoman of the Year – delivering a keynote speech, while funds were raised for autism and neurodivergence charity Daisy Chain.

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