- Cash prizes of £300,000 will support the best young UK start-up founders on their growth journey to encourage job creation for the UK economy.
- This year’s winners are a varied mix of sectors—from the car industry, marketing and communications to Scotch whisky.
- A total of 61 applications were received from UK start-ups, each with a minimum revenue of £500k
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has announced the winners of the 2026 Young Entrepreneurs’ Awards run through his UK-registered charity, the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation. This year the winners represent three completely different sectors.
- Daniel Owen scoops the top prize of £150,000 to support the growth of his company The Car Contact, a car-buying website simplifying vehicle sales. https://thecarcontact.com/
- Jess Hickman is named runner-up and takes £100,000 for her full-service marketing agency, The Cusp. https://the-cusp.com/
- Adam Harding and Carl Johnstone and take third prize for their luxury private label Scotch whisky business, Tailored Spirits. https://www.tailoredspirits.co.uk/
The top prizes, totalling £300,000, were announced in London and follow on from the success of last year’s awards and Sir Stelios’s other UK awards for disabled entrepreneurs (run in partnership with Leonard Cheshire, the disability charity).
The 2026 UK Young Entrepreneur Awards saw 61 UK-based businesses apply, with a shortlist of entrants facing a grilling from Sir Stelios over several key criteria. He chose winners who he and the Foundation felt could ensure the money would be best used to create jobs in the UK and provide a multiplier effect.
The awards aim to recognise outstanding young start-up entrepreneurs while supporting their transition into higher-growth businesses. The awards bring them well-deserved recognition on their journey to scaling up into a successful growth business with job creation in the UK.
Winners were also chosen because Sir Stelios believes each entrepreneur can be a role model for young people who are dreaming of starting their own businesses and be their own boss rather than working for others.
THE 2026 WINNERS
Daniel Owen, The Car Contact – £150,000
Daniel’s company, the Car Contact Ltd., is a wholesale business supplying cars and vans to dealers across the UK. It operates as a B2B sales business and has grown quickly through a high-volume and low-margin trading model and just generated more than £20m in turnover last year.
“I started the business just over three years ago, and the idea came from me working in the motor trade for six years,” says Daniel. “Firstly, in a car auction where I worked my way up, I became the Ireland area manager and then was headhunted by a Volkswagen dealership in the Midlands to set up their trade outlet. I thoroughly enjoyed both roles, but deep down I longed to set up a business of my own.
“The first year was just me in the business; however, we now have eight employees in total and look to grow this further during the rest of 2026 by finding the best and most driven staff to join our successful team. I am majorly proud of how quickly I have grown this business and especially that it is completely bootstrapped and done without any funding or external investments.”
Daniel added: “Winning this award is one of the proudest moments of my life. After three years of hard work and determination building The Car Contact from scratch, it’s brilliant to see that effort recognised. To win an award from this foundation that was founded by a business icon such as Sir Stelios, who has built a globally recognised business and inspired many entrepreneurs around the world, makes winning this award even more special. Building this business without any outside investment has been a challenging but hugely rewarding journey and this recognition means a great deal to me. The prize money will be reinvested straight back into the business and will be used to continue our exponential growth by helping us recruit more excellent staff who possess the skill and drive needed to excel in our team!”
Jess Hickman, The Cusp – £100,000
Founded in 2023, The Cusp is a full-service marketing agency spanning digital, creative, and organic social. Established by two female entrepreneurs who had built successful careers in both start-up and large-scale agencies, the business was created to prove that agencies can operate differently: commercially successful while also creating meaningful impact for their clients, communities, and teams.
Based in Swansea, a region not traditionally recognised for creative and digital opportunities, The Cusp is demonstrating that world-class talent exists everywhere and can be recognised on a global stage. Today, over 50% of the agency’s revenue comes from international markets. The business specialises in innovation (AI & tech), education, and government and engineering sectors, supporting organisations ranging from ambitious regional institutions to global leaders.
Launched with just £750 in funding, The Cusp has grown into a £2m+ annual turnover business in under two years and has been profitable from day one. Built around the philosophy of profit, possibilities, and positivity, the agency focuses on delivering measurable results while creating opportunities for people and places often overlooked. The next phase of growth will focus on expanding international partnerships and continuing to scale impact alongside revenue, including creating jobs, developing future talent, and contributing to regional economic growth.
Jess said: “Being recognised in the Stelios Young Entrepreneur Awards is hugely meaningful to me because it validates what we set out to prove—that businesses can be both profitable and purpose-driven. From day one, we’ve built The Cusp around the belief that commercial success and positive impact go hand in hand.
“We’re at a really exciting stage of growth, and the prize fund will allow us to move faster on plans we already have in place and scale our impact in a meaningful way. We’ll use it to bring in specialist talent in areas like AI and performance to expand our services, put more resource behind our international growth, and support the opening of our second UK office. For me, it’s less about the accolade and more about what it represents—that you don’t have to choose between profit and purpose. You can do both and do it well.”
Adam Harding (left) and Carl Johnstone (right) Tailored Spirits – £50,000
Tailored Spirits is a luxury private label Scotch whisky business. It works with private clients, luxury brands, and premium businesses globally to collect and commission their own exceptional Scotch whisky. The business was founded by Adam Harding and two co-founders, Carl Johnstone and Tom Costello, starting where all good ideas do, in the pub over a pint.
Since launching the business in early 2024, the firm has seen the demand surge, with its best year in 2025, achieving £2.35m turnover in testing global market conditions. It has also seen the team double in size to eight highly skilled staff, allowing that growth to continue and global reach to expand. It has exciting future expansion plans this year with additional skilled staff and an exciting move to a new brand home here in Edinburgh. As well as an upcoming project bottling one of the rarest whiskies in the world for a prestigious private client.
Adam said: “The opportunity to have our young business assessed by one of the UK’s most respected entrepreneurs was one we were beyond excited for. To win a prize and be recognised for our efforts so far as young entrepreneurs is an incredibly proud moment.”
“This endorsement will not only support our visibility globally but also ensure our standing among peers, mentors, and future investors is appreciated. And the prize money will help to fund some key hires we have in our plans this year. The Stelios Foundation is providing much-needed support at a time when governments are dialling back. I hope to one day be successful enough with the same passion and energy to be able to support the next generation of entrepreneurs pushing the UK forward.”
Entry criteria
Each applicant for the awards had to meet the following criteria:
- aged 34 or under, born in 1992 or later;
- Running a start-up company registered at Companies House (UK) in the last 5 years (registered in 2021 or later);
- In current ownership of more than 50% of the shares of the company and be a director of the company;
- Revised minimum revenue of £500,000 per annum in audited accounts filed at Companies House;
- This threshold has been increased from the £200,000 in previous years due to the high popularity and success of these awards – last year 180 applications were received.
There are three cash prizes for the winners totalling £300,000 that must be invested in the business to further its growth and success. For the avoidance of doubt: these are cash grants to be paid by the Stelios Foundation to the business accounts of the three winners without any other conditions. They are prizes and not an investment in return for shares nor a loan.
Sir Stelios said: “This year we again saw an amazing reaction from UK young entrepreneurs, with a total of 61 entries. The competition was so popular last year we had to bring the deadline forward and raise the bar for revenues to £500k a year for the 2026 awards.
“Once again there have been some astonishing and inspiring success stories that we have uncovered, demonstrating that entrepreneurship is alive and well in the UK among the young generation.
“Each of the winners are very good at promoting themselves and their businesses in the marketplace, and I think they would make great ambassadors for our awards going forward and great role models for others to start their own business! That is how new jobs are created in the real economy!”
For more information:
Tavistock Communications
David Cracknell, Lucy Thomas
E: easygroup@tavistock.co.uk
About easyGroup Ltd and the Sir Stelios Philanthropic Foundation
The Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, which launches and funds the awards, has the stated mission of supporting a very diverse range of good causes but “close to home”. In other words, in the local communities that Sir Stelios and his family have lived and worked in—and, of course, the UK is one of them. The foundation has been running very successful similar entrepreneurs’ awards in Greece and Cyprus, supporting job creation in the local economies for many years.
easyGroup Ltd is the creator and owner of the easy family of brands (see www.easy.com, www.easyHistory.info).
www.stelios.org. Sir Stelios and easyGroup have donated more than €84,000,000 to the UK charity since 2010.
The main projects are:
- Food from the heart: 35,000,000 free snacks given to those in need in Greece and Cyprus since 2013 with a retail value of €35,000,000
- €8,800,000 for about 300 Scholarships at London School of Economics, City University and other academic institutions
- €7,200,000 in cash prizes to entrepreneurs to encourage job creation
- €2,500,000 for the environmental working with WWF and the Prince Albert II Foundation
Over the past 30 years, the easy family of brands have been carefully managed and developed to become the icons they are today. easyGroup, owned by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has created a steady recurring income stream from the “easy” royalties. As a result, easyGroup donates the majority of its profits to the UK-registered charity Stelios Philanthropic Foundation www.stelios.org through which Sir Stelios gives back to society. Sir Stelios every year launches new easy branded businesses in partnership with more entrepreneurs who are experts in their own fields; they have realised that using the easy brand under licence can fast track their own growth.
This investment is justifiably protected by easyGroup on behalf of the easy family of brands by stopping brand thieves who use the easy brand without our permission and without our controls. We want to uphold the rule of law and protect consumers from being misled by these brand thieves that they are a legitimate member of the easy family when they are not. Ultimately, it is this protection that allows Stelios Foundation to deliver a positive impact, including with this latest young entrepreneur competition.
A list of cases brought against brand thieves can be found at https://easy.com/.
