On Wednesday 10 June 2026, Maths Angel won the People's Choice vote at Canopy Community's Signature Edition Demo Night, held during London Tech Week and hosted by City Ventures, part of Bayes Business School. Co-founder Lexie Li pitched against a lineup of the year's previous winners, and the room voted Maths Angel top of the four startups on stage, making us the pick of the year.
What we pitched
Lexie introduced Maths Angel as it works today: an AI maths tutor for students aged 10 to 16, built around a five-second answer and a five-minute learning loop. She put it in front of a room of first-time founders, early-stage investors and advisers, and set the opportunity against the roughly £2bn UK private tuition market.
Why we won: clarity
The vote came down to how clearly the idea landed. According to Canopy Community's published recap, Maths Angel scored 3.9 out of 5 on “I get it”, the highest mark any founder earned that evening, across the audience's four questions: I get it, I'd use it, I'd invest in it, and I'd recommend it. The night itself drew a 9.2 out of 10 rating from the room.
A clear problem, a clear user, a clear product. That clarity is what carried Lexie to the top spot.
What this win means
As Canopy put it, winning People's Choice is “more than a trophy”. It means the room didn't just understand the problem; they felt its urgency, believed in the mission, and saw why Maths Angel needs to exist. At this stage, clarity is everything, and it's exactly what we keep building on.
The questions that mattered
For Lexie, the Q&A was the highlight of the night. “Being challenged in the room gave me the chance to sharpen our positioning and gather honest feedback,” she said. The questions were exactly the ones worth answering:
- Will AI replace tutors in the long run?
- How is ChatCat different from Claude or other general-purpose AI?
- And from teachers: how can AI actually help students learn maths better?
These are the conversations we care about most, and what we heard in the room is already shaping how we build. If you're a parent, teacher, school, or partner who wants to be part of what's next, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch.
A big thank you
Our thanks to Sarah Worth and City Ventures for hosting, and to the other founders who pitched alongside us: Aeli Health, Phase Space and Canopy Capital. Pitching at this stage takes nerve. Lexie's closing line was a simple one: we want to be the angel for every student in maths. Simple, clear, and always there.
Read more about Maths Angel, or try ChatCat, the AI tutor Lexie demoed.