Women and purpose led businesses take the most wins at Pause Awards ‘22

The annual business awards programme for the most ambitious and forward-thinking companies, Pause Awards has announced 50 bold winners for 2022, with the champions from: Great Wrap, Verve, Bare Cremation, Separation Guide, Wisr, Circle In, Pentanet, Evee, TernX and many more.

December 6, 2022 – Melbourne, Australia – Pause Awards, powered by VicGov, is building better ecosystems in Australia through their business awards programme that celebrates only the real winners, now in the 5th annual edition.

In 2022, Pause Awards upgraded to a lavishly designed BOND Melbourne bar, a local icon that gathered people from all over the country to attend the biggest night for the Australian innovation ecosystem. The awards were packed with sophistication, palpitating excitement, tears, silly industry hosts and finished off with clubbing to classics.

The Pause Awards are highly competitive! The entries are evaluated by 60 international and local judges, including founders, CEO’s, execs and entrepreneurs who are experts in their field. Judges ensure only the highest quality of winning entries is selected each year, on their merit and impact, not just growth. 

​​The 2022 entrants showed businesses have a key role to play in creating a more equitable and regenerative world. Submissions were authentic and bold in their approach to tackling some of society’s biggest challenges and delivering real and measurable change where it matters.

Lee Tonitto B. Com, MBA, GAICD and Chair at Pause Awards

There are too many upgrades this year, we’ll mention only a few, from the complete website redesign, Entry Portal built from scratch, 14 new categories, entry questions to wearable trophy design! 

Companies entered are mostly small businesses with less than ten employees, closely followed by medium size businesses of up to 100 employees, and there has been a significant growth of over 100 employees companies applying. The average founder age this year has dropped to 29, compared to 37 in a previous year.

The Education sector jumped one spot up to fourth place, remarkably the Food & Beverage industry has completely disappeared and Health entered the Top 5 industry charts this year. The ‘Defiant Ones’ category, for new tech breakthroughs, took over leadership from ‘I Wish I’d Done That’ for sheer brilliance.

I’m honoured to be recognized. The Pause Awards build better ecosystems by recognizing real people who do real things, and I’m so proud to be one of those

Fiona Wood AM FAHMS, Hall of Fame ‘22 winner for pioneering the innovative ‘spray-on skin’ technique (Recell)

“This award programme is not just about recognising the real winners, through excellence, performance and effectiveness in the Australian marketplace, we’re celebrating ingenuity and total commitment to tackle serious problems in response to local and global challenges and unstable markets,” Hedon added.

Out of 50 winners, 7 double title winners went to Bare Cremation, The Separation Guide, Wisr, Circle In, Pentanet, Evee, TernX and 2 triple titles went to Great Wrap and Verve. 

There were only 7x Grand Prix awards out of 32 categories, Grand Prix stands for best in category, and are awarded only if the Judging Board fully agrees, those went to Bare Cremation, Great Wrap, Music Health, The Separation Guide, Midnight Health, Vanessa Doake and Verve.

The ceremony was masterfully conducted by returning ecosystem champion and MC Garry Williams from Tractor Ventures who announced the awards are returning on 18 May 2023. Winners for 2022 are:

CULTURE
Diverse Co. – Wisr
Work Sweet Work – Honeycomb Strategy
Work Sweet Work – Wisr
Work Sweet Work – PwC Australia

EXCELLENCE
Company of the Year – Bodd
Defiant Ones – Great Wrap
Defiant Ones – Switch4Schools
Hammer – Marketplacer
Hammer – Aussie Broadband
Hammer – Pentanet
Hammer – Aquarzon
I Wish I’d Done That – Great Wrap
I Wish I’d Done That – TernX
I Wish I’d Done That – Labflow by Comply Group
I Wish I’d Done That – Driveschool Enterprises
I Wish I’d Done That – LunchFox
On the rise – Music Health
On the rise – Bare Cremation
Women In Business – Christina Hobbs
Women In Business – Kate Pollard
Women In Business – Angela Harbinson

GOOD
B-Good – Linkmate
Circular Pioneer – Goterra
Circular Pioneer – Circle In
Going Green – Verve
Going Green – evee
You’ve Got Ethics – The People Spot

GROWTH
Design First – Quad Lock
Design First – TernX
Wildfire – Food Frontier
Wildfire – Pentanet
Wildfire – Linktree
Out of the Garage – Matrak
Out of the Garage – STEM Punks

OPERATORS
Do You Know Who I am – Mark Brownlee
Future Builder – Slava Kozlovskii
Future Builder – Jordan Shreeve
Future Builder – Alex Goulios
Hottest Hub – Hub Australia
C-Suite – Dom Pym
Launch Pad – INCUBATE (University of Sydney)
Super Connector – Michelle Mannering

HALL OF FAME
Hall of Fame – Fiona Wood

GRAND PRIX
Defiant Ones – Bare Cremation
Going Green – Great Wrap
Hammer – Music Health
On the rise – The Separation Guide
Wildfire – Midnight Health
Women In Business – Vanessa Doake
You’ve Got Ethics – Verve

DOUBLE X7
Circular Pioneer – Circle In
Women In Business – Circle In
On the rise – Bare Cremation
Defiant Ones – Bare Cremation
Diverse Co. – Wisr
Work Sweet Work – Wisr
Hammer – Pentanet
Wildfire – Pentanet
Going Green – evee
Future Builder – Slava Kozlovskii
I Wish I’d Done That – TernX
Design First – TernX
Women In Business – Angela Harbinson
On the rise – The Separation Guide

TRIPLE X2
Going Green – Verve
Women In Business – Christina Hobbs
You’ve Got Ethics – Verve
Defiant Ones – Great Wrap
I Wish I’d Done That – Great Wrap
Going Green – Great Wrap