Cera founder Dr Ben Maruthappu named Entrepreneur of the Year at British Business Awards 2026
Dr Ben Maruthappu MBE, founder & CEO of Cera, has been named Entrepreneur of the Year at the British Business Awards.
The event highlights the companies driving growth and economic impact, and attended by celebrities, politicians and leading lights from across the business world, with George Clooney and Sir Bob Geldof as special guests.
Dr Maruthappu has now become the only entrepreneur to be named Great British Entrepreneur of the Year (UK Overall Winner, 2023), EY’s UK Entrepreneur of the Year (UK Overall Winner, 2024) and Entrepreneur of the Year at the British Business Awards (UK Overall Winner, 2026).
Dr Maruthappu was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours in 2020 – the youngest doctor to receive an honour in the UK Honours System.
Dr Ben Maruthappu said: “This recognition reflects the dedication of Cera’s 10,000-strong team of carers, nurses, and technologists, who are helping to reshape health & care around the needs of patients, transforming the sector to improve health outcomes in the UK and internationally.
“Health & care systems everywhere are under growing pressure from ageing populations, rising demand and workforce shortages.
“Now more than ever, it is vital that we innovate to transform care – saving and improving more lives, freeing up valuable time for patient care, and empowering each worker to have a far greater impact.
“From AI algorithms and agents, to robotics, technology has a major role to play in driving this revolution, but Cera’s impact would be impossible without the dedication of our incredible teams, whose work is improving lives across the UK, bringing our mission and vision to life.”
Almost a decade in, Cera is pioneering the use of technology and AI to revolutionise healthcare – building a more sustainable model of care for an ageing population.
With more than 10,000 frontline carers and nurses delivering more than 2.5 million patient home visits a month, across the UK, Cera’s preventative technology has helped it halve avoidable hospitalisations and reduce falls by 20 per cent among the older and vulnerable people in its care – with £1 billion saved to date for the NHS and Government.
Cera is also innovating through robotics and agentic AI to lead care into the future, recently launching the world’s first AI Lab for the care sector, which will see it license its innovations to governments and providers globally, helping to solve health system challenges, and aiming to improve millions of lives.
This year’s British Business Awards were hosted by Rob Brydon, at the EICC in Edinburgh, attracting almost 2,000 guests. As well as George Clooney and Sir Bob Geldof, other speakers included Scottish First Minister John Swinney.
All 150 companies shortlisted were evaluated across five core pillars: business performance, innovation, workforce and culture, customer impact, and contribution to society and the wider economy.
Entries were assessed by an independent judging panel made up of 18 senior figures from British industry, chaired by former Unilever CEO Alan Jope CBE, and Emma Crystal, CEO of Coutts Bank.
Winners of other categories included major multi-nationals such as AstraZeneca, Holland & Barrett, Vanguard Asset Management, Octopus Energy and Dishoom restaurants.
Alan Jope CBE, chair of the judging panel, said: “Congratulations to all the winners! It was a tough shortlist – the calibre was extremely high, so the winners were up against some impressive competition.”
Founded in 2016, Cera has delivered one of the UK’s most significant scale-up success stories – growing 100-fold from $5 million to $500 million in just five years.
Cera’s 10,000+ carers and nurses now deliver care on behalf of more than 100 Local Governments and two-thirds of NHS regions, counting a visit every second, on average.
Cera is the UK’s most valuable company led by a doctor, and the largest UK company run by an under-40-year-old.
Find out more about Cera at cerahq.com
