UK Business Tech Awards 2026 named Doncaster entrepreneur Lynn Hughes Female Founder of the Year, recognizing a 23-year path from Human Advertising to AI recruitment startup BeCareers.
BeCareers was built in six months by a four-person team without external funding and uses AI conversational screening to assess candidates in under five minutes.
The platform has already been tested with organizations in three countries, including multilingual screening, ahead of a public launch planned later this year.
Hughes said her own experience as a woman with disabilities and later as an employer shaped BeCareers' focus on fairer hiring beyond CV-based judgments.
BeCareers was also shortlisted for Best AI Start Up, underscoring its push into HR technology as it seeks to help employers hire faster and with more confidence.