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January 21, 2026
John Brazier

The winner of the fiercely contested UNLEASH Startup 2024 Award has been decided!
Five startups took to the stage to present their pitch to our industry judging panel and faced questions from the crowd in a bid to join the illustrious ranks of former winners, which includes Peakon (now part of Workday), Oneteam, Talent Alpha, Clustree, TandemHR, HourOne and last year’s champion, Talk’n’Job.
But, as always, there could be only one winner and in Paris this year, that honor went to Welliba.
Congratulations!
Welliba helps organizations unlock a better employee experience (EX), moving beyond traditional employee listening and engagement technology solutions.
Ireland-based Welliba wowed the judges with its pitch, led by Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Katarina Coppe, who was presented with the grand prize of €50,000 worth of future sponsorship opportunity with UNLEASH, by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Marc Coleman and Startup & Investor Program Lead Kennedy Cook.
Speaking to UNLEASH in the aftermath of its victory, Coppe told UNLEASH:
“It also shows that clients are actually sharing what they’ve learned and giving us their business. And this shows we’re on the path of helping customers solve key business problems: We’re very happy to have achieved that.”
A huge well done to Welliba and, of course, all of the finalists this year – Taiwa, CoComply, Omind NeuroTechnologies, and Alda.
Commenting on Welliba’s victory, Ilonka Jankovich, Impact Venture Capitalist at Rubio Impact Ventures and awards judge, told UNLEASH: “The pitches were high quality. We saw that everything is around data and AI; every company is talking about it.”
“We have chosen Welliba as the winner because they were the most precise and knowledgeable in their answers. We experienced the enormous amount of depth behind their product.”
Piyush Hemnani, Principal and Mediahuis Ventures and fellow awards judge, adds: “It's good to see so much innovation happening in future of work and UNLEASH leading this platform, bringing us all together - investors, founders and the industry leaders.