Edinburgh software company founder wins CEO title at Scottish technology awards

An entrepreneur who founded a crowdfunding software firm after a career as an accountant with Deloitte and BT has been named chief executive of the year by judges of a Scottish technology awards scheme.

Jude Cook established Edinburgh-based ShareIn in 2011 and it has since developed into one of Scotland’s most successful fintechs.

Cook was one of ten winners at the Scottish Tech Startup Awards staged in Edinburgh by technology conference organiser Turing Fest.

Brian Corcoran, chief executive of Turing Fest which is staging its next event in Edinburgh in August 2020, said Cook had led ShareIn through a “challenging regulatory environment” over the past year.

“Not only is ShareIn now one of Scotland’s most highly rated fintechs, perhaps as importantly the team has equal gender balance and over 14 different nationalities. Jude and the company are both great adverts for the very best in Scottish tech”, he said.

ShareIn, which employs more than 20 staff, has developed software to handle investment and compliance throughout the crowdfunding process.

The Startup of the Year award went to facial animation company Speech Graphics, which works with clients includes Warner Brother and Def Jam Recordings. It is one of more than 70 start-ups based at Edinburgh’s tech incubator CodeBase, which was an award winner itself in the Ecosystem category.

Other winners on the night were Adimo (Software-as-a-Service Startup category); Criton (Mobile Startup); Current Health (Hardware Startup) category; Dresscode (Diversity in Tech); Design and Code (Agency of the Year); Intelligent Growth Solutions (Tech for Good), and Techstart Ventures (Investor of the Year).

Originally published at TheStartupFounder.com.