QL Security Named a Double Finalist at the SME National Business Awards 2026
We are pleased to share that QL Security has been named a finalist in two categories at the SME National Business Awards 2026: Best New Business and Business Innovation. The winners will be announced at the grand final on Friday 6 November 2026 at the Leonardo Royal London Tower Bridge, and we will be there.
The double listing pleases us more than either category would alone, because the two test different things. Best New Business asks whether a young firm has built something of substance. Business Innovation asks whether the way it works is worth examining in its own right. Reaching the final in both suggests the operating model itself stands up, separately from the brand we have built around it.
What the judges assessed
For Best New Business we set out what has happened since QL Security came out of stealth in early 2026: we defined and publicly claimed a new category, the AI Security Specialist Partner, took our flagship AI Security Gap Analysis to market and ran live engagements with UK organisations in regulated sectors.
For Business Innovation we entered our own way of working. QL Security runs AI-first: our finance, our marketing and much of our sales and business development are AI-assisted, and every tool was adopted through the same lens we apply for clients. Before anything touches our data, we assess how that data is handled, where it sits and what controls it needs. That discipline is why a small team can operate with the reach of a far larger one, and it makes us our own first case study.
Why we are telling you this
Trust is hard to earn in a young discipline. A buyer weighing up an AI Security partner has little track record to go on, so independent signals carry weight, provided they can be checked. This one can. The SME National Business Awards have run since 2017, the judges are named and the finalist lists and winners are published each year. If you want to verify this claim, you can.
The finalist listing sits alongside the Most Disruptive Brand Award we won in June. Recognition remains a by-product, though. The test we hold ourselves to is whether our clients can stand in front of their board, a regulator or a customer’s procurement team and demonstrate working AI Security rather than describe it. A shortlist does not change that; working controls and the evidence they produce do.
Our thanks to the team at Events & PR, and our congratulations to the other finalists. We will report back after 6 November, whatever the result.
Common questions about the finalist listing
Which categories is QL Security a finalist in?
QL Security is a finalist in two categories at the SME National Business Awards 2026: Best New Business and Business Innovation. Best New Business recognises companies started on or after 1 January 2024. Business Innovation recognises the way a business works; our entry covered our AI-first operating model and our integrated Assess, Implement, Assure delivery model.
Does reaching the final change anything for QL Security’s clients?
No. Our priorities stay the same: helping clients move from identified gaps to working controls and audit-ready evidence. A finalist listing is an independent, checkable signal that the model behind that work stands up. The outcome that matters is still what our clients can demonstrate to their own boards, regulators and customers.
When will the winners be announced?
At the grand final on the evening of Friday 6 November 2026 at the Leonardo Royal London Tower Bridge. The SME National Business Awards have run since 2017 and publish their finalists and winners each year.
If you want to demonstrate your AI Security rather than just document it, book a call.