Founders: Alok Mathur and Melvin D’Souza
Founded: April 2009 (launched January 2011)
Website: www.soultreewine.co.uk 

India has a plethora of attributes, but its wine, it’s safe to say, isn’t one of them. Until now, at least, as Soul Tree Wines is on a mission to change that. Co-founders and MBA graduates Mathur and D’Souza are determined to make Indian wine mainstream, and create a globally recognisable brand in the process. Big ambitions, but since launch last year there are already nearly 300 Indian restaurants listing the wine, with 20-25 being added each month.

With more than 10,000 Indian restaurants operating in the UK, serving £180m of wine a year, the potential is clear. In addition, the wine is now being distributed in France and Ireland, and talks are on with potential distributors in Spain. This all bodes well for the founders’ goal: to become the obvious choice of wine to drink with Indian cuisine.

Founders: Christian Hartmann, Martin McLaughlin and Poppaloppadingdong (previously known as Tom Callard)
Founded: August 2010
Website: www.lovedawebsite.com

Few will forget Love Da Pop’s colourful turn on Dragons’ Den. Presenting their candy-striped paper bags of home-baked, flavoured popcorn, the creative co-founders’ business plan may have been lacking but their innovation was evident – prompting Peter Jones to invest £70,000.

Fast-forward 11 months and the updated Love Da Pop range is about to launch in Waitrose; one third of the team has left their jobs at Saatchi & Saatchi and they are also looking to grow the events wing of the business (selling corn at pop-up cinemas and similar). With Branson-esque ambitions to extend the brand onto other projects (think Love Da Milkshake, Love Da Airline), no doubt this won’t be the last we see of these energetic entrepreneurs.

Founders: Gary Bassett, Sharon Bassett, Kevin Key, Caroline Key, Alister Ramm and Lorna Ramm (pictured)
Founded: November 2011 
Website:www.a-starsports.co.uk

This is a good year for sport, thanks to the UK’s hosting of the Olympics, but the co-founders of A-Star Sports, coaches all, are interested in the idea of ‘sport for life’. Their franchise business is designed to make sport fun and accessible for children, and to this end its advisory team includes PE specialists and teachers, child psychologists and authorities in child behaviour management. Its peer-reviewed programme includes weekly classes, parties and holiday club places, as well as regular sessions in nurseries, playgroups and schools, which are attracting more than 3,000 attendees per week.

The business is part way through the accreditation process with the British Franchise Association, and the co-founders are focusing on building brand awareness through sport and health-based partnerships and high-profile charity links.

Founder: Fiona Wood
Founded: July 2010 (launched March 2011)
Website: www.naturallycoolkids.com

The green, natural credentials of Naturally Cool Kids’ skincare products, plus the imaginative, child-friendly packaging, appealed to John Lewis to the extent that the brand is now stocked in more than 20 of its stores. This despite the fact the products were only launched in 2011. With two sons, Fiona Wood was very aware of the importance of skincare products such as sunscreen – but didn’t want to use anything laden with chemicals.

Naturally Cool Kids was established for parents looking for more natural and greener products for their children. Winning the Barclays Take One Small Step new business idea competition meant Fiona had £50,000 with which to start, and today the one-man-band is exporting to Sweden, Malta, South Africa and Australia, among other countries.

Founder: Rachel Ducker
Founded: April 2009
Website: www.apparitiondesigns.co.uk

A one-stop shop for creative marketing, East Anglia-based Apparition Marketing & Design was launched when founder Rachel Ducker was just 23. Offering PR, design, website and print services, the company has worked with more than 500 clients over the last three years, including University College London: not bad for a start-up which started life in a bedroom at Rachel’s parents’ house.

Just seven months after launch, Rachel – who had eschewed university for real-world experience in the creative industries – won the East of England Young Businesswoman of the Year award, the first in a handful of business awards successes. Today, Apparition Marketing & Design has grown to a team of 20, and is expanding rapidly, with healthy profitability.

Founders: Alistair and Sandra Patterson
Founded: July 2010 (launched April 2011)
Website: www.kidsbeehappy.co.uk

With a vast range of community-based start-ups behind them (plus one courier company, sold to a US firm in 2010), serial entrepreneurs Alistair and Sandra Patterson have a keen eye for a business opportunity. When their children took part in a ‘magic sand painting’ craft activity while holidaying abroad, where most parents might have seen five minutes’ peace, this husband-and-wife team saw the potential for a low-cost franchise.

Introducing the activity to the UK last year, they have sold more than 20 of their events franchises within 12 months of trading – and expect to hit 50 before the year is out. Having successfully closed two rounds of angel investment, the business is now about to expand into retail products.

Founder: Lily Jones
Founded: January 2009
Website: www.lilyvanilli.com

We might have chosen Jones’ eponymous start-up after The Independent named her one of Britain’s brightest new food talents. Or because she catered for Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara Ball. The truth is, we were spoilt for choice! Recently named a ‘food heroine’, alongside Delia and Nigella, by Stylist, Jones has utterly spellbound the critics with her unconventional cake sculptures, which have been exhibited in the V&A.

One of the highest-ranking entrepreneurs in Courvoisier’s Future 500 (2009), Jones’ debut cookery book sold more than 80,000 copies and is on its fifth reprint. She has been awarded control of the main food tent at Bestival this year (formerly always Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s) and is about to take over a new bakery in Suffolk, boasting a staff of 20.

Founder: Mark Gibson
Founded: March 2010
Website: www.imagematch.co.uk

The 2011 Startups Awards Social Enterprise of the Year provides vocational training alongside personalised guidance to the long-term unemployed, while matching the individual’s interests to employer needs raises the chances of the individual staying in the job. Since launch more than 200 candidates have been placed, with 80% securing ongoing employment, training or qualifications. Founder Mark Gibson, 45, who started life in a foster home in Liverpool, was inspired by seeing and anticipating the likely effect of the economic downturn. Imagematch has already proved successful, breaking £1m in turnover last year.

The company generates funding from a number of contracts, with the likes of the Department of Work & Pensions, (DWP), European Social Fund and Skills Funding Agency, alongside its use of grants and awards aimed at reducing worklessness. Between 75 and 100 businesses are on its roster of employers, and Gibson says expansion through partnership is likely.

Founder: Kate Finch
Founded: March 2011 (launched March 2012)
Website: www.juniorspantry.co.uk

It may be just three months old, but Junior’s Pantry is no baby brand. On the contrary, it fills the gap where microwave meals for babies end, and adult-size ready meals for grown-ups begin. Former City director (and Cordon Bleu-trained chef) Finch’s one-pot meals save time in the schedule of school-age children, who have to squeeze in swimming lessons, homework and dinner, all before an early bedtime.

They also make it easy for single dads and grandparents to provide a simple, healthy meal when they assist with childcare. Furthermore, each meal is designed to introduce young diners to new flavours (chicken and prawn paella is a bestseller). Launching straight onto Ocado, Junior’s Pantry has all the hallmarks of a megabrand.

Founder: James Wood
Founded: April 2011 
Website: www.pagehub.co.uk

While working in a marketing agency running promotions on Facebook for clients, James Wood realised that it was too complicated for brands to evaluate, and therefore get the most out of, their campaigns. The 25-year-old decided to set up an online service to rectify this. Using PageHub, brands can easily manage their Facebook marketing activity without using an agency, and use instant customer insights to improve their campaigns as they are running. Several high street brands are already using the platform, including Monsoon Accessorize, The Open University, RSPCA, Lucky Voice, Heinz and Majestic Wines.

The business, which is one of just 11 UK companies to be recognised as a ‘Preferred Marketing Developer’ by Facebook itself, is now planning to launch several new products, as well as working on a tablet version of PageHub.