Milton Keynes entrepreneur wins tech pitch competition with ambitious plans to transform pet travel safety

Celebrating 12 years in business and a major technology competition win, Milton Keynes entrepreneur Claire Harris is taking her mission to make Britain's roads safer for pets and people to the next level.

Milton Keynes-based entrepreneur Claire Harris, founder of Pets 2 Places, has been crowned winner of the TC Group Next Big Thing: Start-Up Pitch Challenge, held on Friday 16 October as the grand finale of Milton Keynes Tech Week 2026.

The victory comes during an especially significant month, as Pets 2 Places celebrates its 12th birthday, having first been established in October 2014.

What began as a local pet taxi service has grown into an established franchise business, giving Claire a unique insight into an overlooked area of road safety: the protection of pets travelling in vehicles.

Determined to address this, Claire established Pets 2 Places Pet Products Ltd, an innovative business developing a new generation of crash-tested pet travel safety equipment. The company aims to tackle the lack of clear, consistent safety standards for pet restraint products.

The business is working with innovation and product development specialists Inond Ltd, alongside the National Transport Design Centre at Coventry University, with automotive crash-testing expertise from Cranfield Impact Centre forming part of its technical development programme.

Its first product is an innovative vehicle safety harness for smaller dogs.

But Claire's ambitions extend far beyond a single product.

The company is developing a complete range of safer pet transport solutions, supported by education, independent research and a long-term ambition to influence industry standards.

Claire said:

"To be celebrating 12 years of Pets 2 Places and winning this competition in the same month is quite incredible. When I started my pet taxi business in 2014, I never imagined where that journey would take me.

"Our pets are passengers too, yet their safety is rarely given the same consideration as ours. I want to change that.

"Winning this competition is a huge milestone, not just for me personally, but for everything we're working towards. Having our vision recognised by experienced technology and business leaders gives us even greater momentum."

The competition, organised by TC Group, brought together innovative businesses and entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to a panel of industry experts.

With growing technical partnerships, an ambitious development programme and a clear vision for change, Pets 2 Places is positioning itself to help shape the future of pet transport safety.

From Milton Keynes to potentially influencing pet travel safety worldwide, this is a local success story with ambitions far beyond the city.