Top 10 startups of 2017 you won't want to miss
The list, published by startups.co.uk, takes into account factors such as funding, employee numbers, customer base, growth potential as well as product ingenuity
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Your support makes all the difference.Hipster darts, personalised dog food and the world’s most comfortable mattress are among the UK’s top 100 startups of 2017, according to independent advice site startups.co.uk. Combine the three and you have yourself the perfect night out.
Startups 100 has been running since 2008 and claims to be the longest-running ranked index that details the UK’s hottest startups. The list, published on Monday by startups.co.uk, takes into account factors such as funding, employee numbers, customer base, growth potential as well as product ingenuity. To figure on the index, the startup must be UK-based, privately owned and have started trading on or after January 2014.
Here are the top 10 to keep your eye on.
10. Cornerstone
Founded by 28-year-old Oliver Bridge in 2014, Cornerstone is an online subscription service for shaving products and toiletries. Customers choose from a range of products, including Cornerstone own-brand, and tailor their delivery schedule to match their personal shaving routine.
“I want to completely destroy the men’s aisle at Boots and have every man in the UK getting their toiletries from Cornerstone over the web,” Mr Bridge told startups.co.uk.
“My ambition is to sell the business for £100m by 2020.”
Cornerstone now has more than 110,000 customers in the UK.
9. Social Chain
Founded by Steve Bartlett and Dominic McGregor in 2014, Social Chain is a social media marketing agency that runs campaigns for the likes of Disney and the BBC. The startup owns world-renowned media brands such as Sporf, Student Problems and Love Food and enjoyed viral success with its ‘Manchester: Welcome to Zlatan’ advertising campaign.
No member of the team is a day older than 26, which has helped them to connect with a younger generation through their emotionally driven campaigns.
Social Chain has recently set up offices in New York and Berlin.
8. LeadStream UK
Launched in 2014 by Matthew Milnes and Michael Hubbard, LeadStream UK specialises in online customer acquisition for financial services companies, connecting brokers to customers who actually want a quote for their product.
LeadStream attracts around 1,700 customer enquiries per day and has 92 brokers, finance companies and other intermediaries on its books.
7. Bulb
A 100 per cent renewable energy supplier that claims to be 20 per cent cheaper than ‘the Big Six’, Bulb serves around 30,000 customers with an annual growth rate of 400 per cent.
“We want to have democratised renewable energy, be helping people reduce their usage by enabling new technologies like electric cars and domestic solar,” Hayden Wood and Amit Gudka, Bulb’s founders, told startups.co.uk.
6. Housekeep
Founded by Avin Rahberu, a former venture capitalist with investments in over 40 high-growth companies, Housekeep allows you to order a cleaner to your London home with the tap of a button.
It currently has 20,000 customer accounts with 1,000 recurring subscription contracts and is preparing to expand its business across the UK.
5. Simba Sleep
Launched just over a year ago by James Cox and Steve Reid, SIMBA Sleep has entered an increasingly competitive market claiming to offer “the most advanced mattress in the world”.
Its technology combines a layer of foam and springs, which SIMBA says moulds itself around their sleepers.
Backed by £17.5m in funding, the company will attempt to triple its output over the coming year and expand across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
4. Tails.com
Launched by a team of dog lovers in 2014, tails.com is a tailor-made dog food subscription service with a modest mission: “to change the world of pet food for good”.
Its moral crusade operates by providing individualised dog food to hungry canines across the UK based on their weight, age, gender and breed, to calculate particular dietary requirements.
Tails.com has 65,000 regular customers and has set itself a goal of making £20m turnover by the end of the year.
3. Perkbox
Perkbox aims to do away with David Brent world of the dull and dreary small business with its mission to increase workplace happiness and motivation through the provision of perks.
The service offers rewards such as free mobile phone insurance and cinema discounts to help companies improve their team’s productivity, with major customers including British Gas and Holland & Barrett.
In October last year, Perkbox was among a number of startups to secure backing from Sir Andy Murray.
2. Flight Club
Ally Pally it is not, but a Shoreditch venue with a capacity of 390 is home to a startup that is revolutionising the image of darts.
Founded by Steve Moore and Paul Barham in 2014, Flight Club aims to bring the sport into the 21st century through electronic scoreboards, fast-moving multiplayer games, 100+ tournaments and one-on-one showdowns, while retaining the one essential ingredient of darts pubbing roots: beer.
“We know people get bored easily, so we are in a state of almost constant product development. We are conscious of not getting complacent of the success we have had so far,” the founders told startups.co.uk, who are looking to take the business to its second location on Oxford Street imminently.
By design or coincidence, Flight Club has a team of 180 staff.
1. eve Sleep
The first direct to consumer mattress company in the UK, eve Sleep has emerged triumphant from ‘the battle of the beds’, having announced its IPO earlier this month while boasting 355 per cent revenue growth – £2.6m to £12m – since 2016.
Aided by investment of £17m, eve Sleep is trading in 10 countries and is now aiming to expand its product range beyond mattresses to other bedroom wares.
“We’ve had people who’ve not seen the potential of the brand and how far it can take us,” Jas Bagniewski, the co-founder told startups.co.uk. “We’ve come across plenty of non-believers when we’ve said we’ll make the mattress industry cool. But that hasn’t fazed us, it’s just meant we’ve had to work harder when pitching the idea.”
At least he can be assured of a good night’s sleep after a hard day’s graft.
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