Introducing Tribela: Winners of the New Business Award at the 2026 OXBAs

On Friday 12th of June, we were proud to be in attendance of the Oxfordshire Business Awards (OXBAs) 2026 as the sponsor of the New Business Award – surrounded by the best of the county’s businesses, business leaders and entrepreneurs.

With three well-deserving finalists in the running, it was social media platform Tribela who ultimately took home the New Business Award, having effectively showcased their ambitions in setting up the business, demonstrated how they have gained and utilised support to launch – and highlighted their strength and stability having begun operating.

Another area of criteria winners of the category had to demonstrate was their vision and strategy for building on the success of the business, including workforce development and opportunities for young people – something Tribela has considered in its entirety.

With a youth board featuring members as young as 12, expert mentors and a small team of highly qualified co-founders – Tribela have set out to create a social platform that does not compete or aim to breed competition – with the whole ethos centring around creating a means of connection, without the addictive algorithm.

With an impressive media and business background, including producing for CBC, Netflix, Amazon, HGTV, the Food Network, directing for feature documentaries and franchise films, running a globally recognised restaurant – as well as being named in Vancouver’s 40 Under 40 – Founder and CEO Natalie Boll created Tribela because ‘she could not, in good conscience, hand her kids the internet she helped build’.

Natalie entered into Oxford’s Advanced Management & Leadership Programme, the Women’s Leadership Programme, Harvard Business School Online, Yale’s Science of Well-Being for Teens, the Center for Humane Technology’s Foundations of Humane Technology, CS50 (Harvard’s programming course) – before going on to create Tribela.

Incubated at Oxford University Innovation, key features of Tribela Social include: a model not built on advertising, with a small subscription fee (with 20% of every membership pooled into a ‘Creator Fund’ – supporting those shaping a ‘calmer, more inspiring internet’), a customisable experience for users to build a feed around their interests and connections, and key safety features preventing bots, as well as ensuring all content is moderated before making it to the feed.

With last week’s announcement that the UK Government plans to ban major social media platforms for under-16s, following a similar lead from Australia, the development of platforms such a Tribela offers an opportunity to tackle the main issues with social media as we know it and support its evolution into the safe and calm means of connection it always should have been.

Tribela is available on iOS now and is set to launch on Android shortly.

The full list of winners at this year’s OXBAs are as follows:

New Business Award – Sponsored by Enterprise Oxfordshire

Winner: Tribela
Finalists: Kickstand, Tradecert

Innovation Award – Sponsored by The Oxford Science Park

Winner: Greencore Homes
Finalists: Scancell, SpecialEffect

Young Business Person of the Year Award – Sponsored by Mathews Comfort Financial Planning

Winner: Ben Thompson, Thompson & Terry Recruitment
Finalist: Aaron Posey, Oxford Event Hire

Charity & Community Award – Sponsored by Greatest Hits Radio

Winner: Style Acre
Finalists: Home-Start Oxford, Sobell House Hospice

Technology Excellence Award – Sponsored by Gravita

Winner: U-Ploid Biotechnologies
Finalists: After Cloud, Versantus

Employer of the Year Award – Sponsored by Hays

Winner: Valda Energy
Finalists: Airbus Helicopters UK, Response

SME of the Year Award – Sponsored by Oxfordshire Advanced Skills

Winner: Dr Cassie & Associates
Finalists: Boardman Hawkins & Osborne LLP, JT Interiors

Large Business Award – Sponsored by Howden

Winner: Greencore Homes
Finalists: Bicester Motion, Thame Cars

Business Person of the Year Award – Sponsored By Oxfordshire Business Awards

Winner: Edgar Rayner, LTi Metaltech
Finalists: Cathy Dunbabin, Opendoorz and Darren Aston, Aston & James

Business of the Year Award – Sponsored by Oxford Brookes University

Winner: Bicester Motion

Find out more about Tribela
Find out more about the Oxfordshire Business Awards 2026