Two standout founders have been crowned winners of the two pitch competitions that AIN judged at SCALE EXPO & SUMMIT 2026. The event was held at London’s Business Design Centre on 22–23 April.

Nina van Schaick, founder of Peri Pear, took the top prize in the Female Founders category. Meanwhile, Dr Sangeethsivan Sivakumar, CEO and founder of Ardhann, won the Underrepresented Founders competition.

The two live pitch events on the Launchpad Stage were judged by a panel of fundraising experts. The panel included AIN’s Director of Brokerage Xavier Ballester. The competitions were designed to spotlight entrepreneurs who have traditionally faced barriers in accessing early-stage capital.

Peri Pear: Tackling an unaddressed crisis in maternal health

Nina van Schaick was a midwife with over a decade of clinical experience who witnessed firsthand the devastating and largely preventable impact of perineal injuries during childbirth. Significantly, approximately 90% of vaginal births result in perineal tearing. This causes lasting pain and health complications for women.

Peri Pear has developed a wearable thermotherapy device that provides gentle, targeted warmth to the perineum during labour. This device is clinically shown to reduce tearing, pain, and episiotomy rates and save longer term costs for health services. Importantly, it’s a simple, evidence-based innovation addressing a gap that has been overlooked for far too long.

Ardhann: Intelligent materials for the energy transition

Dr Sangeethsivan Sivakumar holds a PhD in composites manufacturing. He also conducted postdoctoral research at the Henry Royce Institute. Ardhann is building next-generation composite infrastructure for hydrogen and hydrocarbon energy systems, pipes, pressure vessels, and storage cylinders. These are lighter, stronger, and smarter than their steel equivalents.

The company’s technology embeds graphene sensors at the fibre level, feeding live structural data into a proprietary AI-powered monitoring platform. The result: infrastructure with a nervous system, capable of giving 48 hours’ advance warning of failure. With Europe planning over 11,000 km of hydrogen pipelines by 2030, Ardhann is positioned at the intersection of deep tech and the global energy transition. Currently, the company is raising a £500,000 pre-seed round with S/EIS advanced assurance in place.

A Platform for diverse founders

Commenting on the winners, Xavier Ballester said: “AIN’s mission has always been to democratise access to capital by opening up more opportunities for a wider pool of entrepreneurs. Opportunities like SCALE are important for building a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem and there were two worthy winners with genuinely innovative products that solve real world problems. Underrepresented entrepreneurs, including female founders, bring unique perspectives and solutions, driving meaningful change across industries.”

Both Peri Pear and Ardhann exemplify the kind of bold, problem-driven thinking that investors in the AIN network look for. These founders are tackling real-world challenges with scalable, defensible solutions.

Both winners win a Global Pro access on the AIN site, a 1-on-1 pitch review session with our brokerage team and will be featured on our blog.

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