Brixton founder wins tech competition with platform built for the deaf community

Brixton-based entrepreneur Rob Troy has won the inaugural Yotewo  Competition 2026, a technology competition hosted by Yotewo, a fast-growing AI marketplace,  beating entrants from across the tech sector to be named overall winner by public vote.

His  company, Unzippd, is the UK’s first British Sign Language (BSL)-native feedback platform. 

[Rob Troy at work in Brixton library]

Unzippd replaces written English survey tools with video, allowing Deaf people to respond to  questions directly in British Sign Language, with organisations receiving the insights back in English. 

The platform was built on a simple belief: to amplify Deaf voices so that products and services  actually reflect the people using them. 

As Rob Troy puts it: “When businesses can hear from all their customers and not just some of them,  everyone benefits.” 

Rob has spent his career embedded in the community Unzippd serves. His family is from Trinidad and  he grew up in the UK as part of the Deaf community.

Before founding Unzippd, he worked in the  London Borough of Lambeth as a BSL interpreter in NHS and public services.

His background, and a  lifelong understanding of the barriers Deaf people continue to face in having genuine control over  voicing their opinions, is what drove him to build something different. 

Rob Troy said: “Deaf people are not hard to reach and they are not disengaged. The tools being used  to consult them and gather their feedback were simply never designed with them in mind. Unzippd  changes that.” 

The win adds to a growing list of recognition for Unzippd. The company was named a winner of the  Sage Small Business XI 2025 and earlier this year completed a landmark NHS pilot in Wandsworth,  which proved that Deaf BSL users become the most engaged patient demographic when linguistic  barriers are removed.

Earlier this month, Unzippd set a record at the inaugural DeafExpo at  Birmingham NEC, collecting over 2,500 BSL responses from Deaf attendees in a single day. 

Rob has lived in Lambeth for six years, first in Vauxhall and now in Brixton, and sees the borough as  home.

“Brixton is an entrepreneurial place. I’ve spent a lot of hours in Brixton library building  Unzippd, come rain or shine, and always listening to whatever music comes up from Windrush  Square.

 

I’m continually inspired by everyone else working away in that room, giving up time to learn and getting projects off the ground. This latest recognition is for all those hours I have put in, and will  no doubt continue to do so.” 

Rob also sees this win as an opportunity to demonstrate what genuinely accessible civic engagement  looks like: 

“Lambeth has an incredibly active BSL Deaf community, and I would love to see the council lead the  way in making consultations genuinely accessible to them.

 

We have just had local elections and once  the new council is up and running I am hoping the change in local government will be more  responsive than the last. That conversation is one I very much intend to have.” 

Unzippd is currently working with NHS commissioners and organisations across the public and  private sector, with ambitions to ensure that Deaf residents have a genuine route into civic life. 

Background

Unzippd (est. 2024) is a first-of-its-kind platform that replaces written touchpoints with video,  allowing Deaf audiences to share experiences directly in British Sign Language (BSL).

Founded by BSL  Interpreter Rob Troy, the company is Cyber Essentials certified and a UK Government-validated  supplier. Unzippd is a “Disability Confident Employer” working to make everyday interactions  genuinely inclusive. Unzippd does not provide BSL interpreting services. 

Rob Troy is a Lambeth resident, former BSL interpreter, and CEO and Co-founder of Unzippd. 

For more information visit  https://www.unzippd.co.uk