Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2025: the “Grammys of Entrepreneurship”
- Merna Atef
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
On 17 November 2025, the Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2025 took over Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, London, for what organisers and partners now comfortably call the “Grammys of Entrepreneurship.”
Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2025: who took the top spot?
At the centre of the 2025 GBEA winners list is one headline announcement:
Great British Entrepreneur of the Year 2025:Simmy Dhillon & Jhai Dhillon – Simmer Eats
According to the official winners’ page, Simmer Eats began in 2017, when Simmy Dhillon launched the brand as a 19-year-old student, armed with just £10 from his student loan to plug a gap he saw for healthy, re-heatable meals. His brother Jhai joined a year later; together they bootstrapped the business without outside investment.
By the year ending January 2025, Simmer Eats had:
Delivered over 10 million chef-prepared meals nationwide.
Grown into a £36.1 million revenue business.
Positioned itself “between restaurant quality and meal-kit convenience” through fresh ingredients, smart packaging and subscription-led customer experience.
The GBEA site frames their story as the classic founder myth with a very 2025 twist: family recipes, DTC food-tech and a subscriber model – all from a £10 idea that scaled into a national brand. It’s exactly the kind of origin story that feels as cinematic as it is financial.
Founders as culture: what the 2025 winners represent
A cross-section of UK business in one room
The 2025 GBEA winners page reads like a map of the UK’s startup and scale-up scene. Alongside the overall winner, the awards recognise:
AI Entrepreneur of the Year
Creative Entrepreneur of the Year
Sustainability Entrepreneur of the Year
Fintech and tech-adjacent categories such as Technology Entrepreneur of the Year and Equity-Backed Entrepreneur of the Year
Plus Start-Up, Scale-Up, Family Business, Retail, Service Industries and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, among others.
An earlier release about the 2025 shortlist – covering more than 800 finalists – estimated that this year’s cohort:
Employ over 25,000 people across the UK.
Expect to create more than 9,000 new jobs in the coming year.
Generate a combined turnover of around £2.25 billion.
That’s the hard data behind the ballroom selfies: these are founders who are literally writing the UK’s jobs and GDP story.
Concrete examples: biotech, finance and beyond
A few of the 2025 category stories already highlighted in public press releases:
Equity-Backed Entrepreneur of the Year 2025:Nigel Greenaway, CEO of GS Verde Group, was confirmed as winner of this category, recognised for scaling an M&A advisory group at pace with investment while retaining strategic control and values.
A science-led winner:Biotech firm EnsiliTech announced it had been recognised as a 2025 Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards winner, celebrated for using its proprietary Ensilication® technology to improve access to biological medicines and vaccines.
Regional early-stage standouts:Startups like CO4CH, a Newcastle-based finance coaching platform, reported winning a regional Early Stage Stand Out Award, underlining how GBEA isn’t just about London or late-stage unicorns.
Put together, you have food-tech founders in branded hoodies, M&A dealmakers in tailored suits, biotech innovators in lab-adjacent smart casual and early-stage coaches still texting clients between course. It’s business, but it’s also lifestyle.
Inside the night: London glamour for laptop founders
While detailed dress codes and looks sit mostly in social posts, the vibe of the night is documented clearly:
The final takes place in the Great Room at Grosvenor House, one of London’s classic awards venues.
Tickets include a welcome drinks reception, three-course dinner, table drinks, professional photography and access to an awards ceremony with 800+ finalists and around 1,400 guests.
Instagram and Facebook posts from the GBEA accounts show winners like Simmy and Jhai Dhillon being celebrated as “Overall Winners”, complete with on-stage photography and behind-the-scenes clips.
It’s a deliberate contrast: where many founders usually update investors via Notion pages and Zoom decks, GBEA gives them spotlights, trophies and applause – a reminder that behind every cap table is a human story.
Why the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2025 matter
For Niche readers, the interest in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2025 isn’t just business; it’s cultural. The awards show us:
Entrepreneurs are now public characters, not just spreadsheet names.
Stories like Simmer Eats – from a £10 student experiment to £36.1m in revenue and 10+ million meals delivered – travel easily across TikTok, LinkedIn and mainstream press.
The UK’s economic narrative lives in rooms like this.
Shortlist data shows GBEA finalists collectively employ tens of thousands and plan thousands more jobs – a very real indicator of how founders drive regional economies.
Awards like these act as launchpads.
Organisers regularly highlight that past winners go on to become household names; previous years include founders behind brands such as BrewDog, ClearScore and Unbiased.
“Entrepreneur” is now a lifestyle identity.
The way the event is marketed – “The Grammys of Entrepreneurship”, staged at a London landmark, complete with red-carpet-style photos – positions founders alongside artists and athletes as people the public follows.
