Winners · Innovative AI Business — Adrian Cadbury Award 2026 | Fledglings × Aston University
Award Announcement March 2026 Birmingham, UK

We just won the Innovative AI Business Award.

Aston University's flagship prize for venture innovation — recognising the most distinctive use of AI in a young company.

In partnership with

Aston University

2026 Adrian Cadbury Award — Innovative AI Business

What the panel said

In their own words.

Your proposal stood out to the panel for its outstanding quality, remarkable levels of innovation, and exciting market potential. We were highly impressed by your vision and the way you've approached the challenge with such creativity and ambition.

It's clear that your idea has the power to make a real impact, and we can't wait to see how it develops. It is with great pleasure that we can announce you have been successful in this competition — and we are delighted to support you in bringing your idea to life.

The Adrian Cadbury Award panel · Aston University, on naming Fledglings a 2026 winner
About the award

Two things worth knowing.

The Adrian Cadbury Award

Named for Sir Adrian Cadbury — the businessman and longstanding Chancellor of Aston University — the award is Aston Business School's flagship prize for entrepreneurial ventures of genuine impact. Each year a panel of academics and industry leaders names winners across a small number of distinct categories.

The Innovative AI Business category

Recognises the venture making the most distinctive use of artificial intelligence — not as a buzzword, but as the engine of something genuinely new. The panel looks for AI that serves a clear human need, not AI for its own sake.

The journey

From peer-built idea to award-winning.

01 Proof of concept

Won the Young Enterprise programme with Monito

Before Fledglings, the founding team built Monito — a peer-led financial-literacy venture that took the Young Enterprise national programme. The win proved the model: young people teaching young people, properly.

02 Founded

Built the platform the generation needed

Monito became Fledglings — expanded from financial literacy alone into a full curriculum: employability, confidence, online safety. Apprentices and recent school leavers co-created every module, for the people they used to be.

03 Backed

Backed by Aston University

Aston Business School took us on as an enterprise to support — bringing academic weight, mentorship from their enterprise team, and the credibility that comes with a triple-accredited business school.

04 March 2026 — Winner

Cadbury Award winners

Named the 2026 winner in the Innovative AI Business category — Aston's flagship venture prize. Our learners are what brought us here.

What this means

More than a trophy.
Proof for the people we serve.

01
For Learners

You're learning from a platform an actual university backs.

Every module, every AI tool, every scenario has been validated by people whose job it is to spot ideas worth backing — not just marketed.

02
For Institutions

A safer pick for your governors, your inspectors, and your team.

An award-recognised, university-backed provider isn't just a nicer-looking line on a tender — it's evidence you've chosen a serious tool, not a startup that vanishes in 18 months.

03
For Us

It's the start, not the finish line.

The award gives us mentorship, a network, and sharper accountability to the young people we built this for. We're using all of it to ship better, faster, further.

The partnership

What backing from Aston actually means.

The Adrian Cadbury Award is a one-off recognition. The relationship with Aston is the ongoing part — and it's what makes this milestone matter beyond the day we won.

  • Ongoing mentorship from Aston Business School's enterprise team
  • Access to Aston's research, alumni and industry networks
  • A formal academic relationship backing the platform's direction
  • Recognition that peer-built solutions belong in the conversation
In partnership with
Backed · Endorsed · Award-winning

Now come and see what we're building.

The award explains why people are taking us seriously. The product is what'll change how your learners feel about life after the exam hall.

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