The Explorage.com team won the coveted Rising Star Award at The StartUp Awards 2023 held at the Depot Venue in Cardiff.

The Rising Star Award is a tremendous honour awarded by the StartUp Awards, comprised of the crème de la crème of the business community. The Start-Up Awards are only the beginning for Explorage.com as we cement our reputation in the self-storage and business community. The Rising Star award indicates that Explorage.com is being recognised on a national level as the prominent online self marketplace for self storage solutions. 

In a world where Female Founders battle against the odds, Explorage’s achievement shines even brighter. Statistics echo a stark reality with Crunchbase reporting that only 16% of start-ups have a female founder globally. The Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship published in 2019 reported that only 1 in 3 entrepreneurs in the UK are female, indicating that only 33% of all entrepreneurs across the country are women. Here at Explorage.com, we are proud to defy those odds and we are proud to fly the flag for Wales.

It wasn’t the only award of the day as the Explorage.com team cracked many codes and problem solved together in the escape room earlier that day. The Explorage.com team enjoyed an away day to remember in sunny Cardiff where they took part in an escape room where the team succeeded in escaping the hardest Adventure Wales room with six minutes to spare. Phew! A true team effort! 

The atmosphere was electric as the Explorage.com team stepped onto the stage to collect their award. Founder Anna Roberts celebrated alongside her team and toasted their success alongside fellow start ups in an evening to remember.

Explorage.com Founder Anna Roberts said, "Thank you to our brilliant network of self storage businesses who continue to support us. A huge thanks to our backers and community of businesses and fellow founders. Wales has been the home of many well-known marketplaces and I feel it’s not a coincidence. Our heritage is built on community, networks, relationships and sheer tenacity….the very ingredients needed to build notoriously difficult marketplace businesses. We are blessed with this, and are determined to do you proud"

The award is a significant milestone for Explorage.com, an online marketplace that began less than 12 months ago. The Rising Star award indicates that Explorage.com is on an upward trajectory. It is a testament to the extraordinary potential and unwavering dedication of the Explorage.com team. The Rising Star Award is just the beginning, a stepping stone on our extraordinary journey to redefine the world of self-storage. The future is bright for Explorage.com!