Founders: Daniel Price and Jonny Sitton
Founded: January 2010
Website: www.my1styears.com

Combining products with the ‘aww’ factor and hard-headed business acumen are 24-year-olds Daniel Price and Jonny Sitton. Displaying a knowledge of the babywear sector you may not expect from a couple of grads in their early twenties, the duo’s personalised baby gifts have become huge hits with customers, including Elton John and Danni Minogue.

Founded in 2010, the business’ turnover is already predicted to reach £1m this year, predominately through online sales: their website is now taking orders from around 2,000 customers per month, a number which continues to rise. However, a breakthrough came recently when 10 John Lewis stores started stocking their products, making the customer base look set to rocket. With this under their belts, expansion into the European market is now around the corner.

Founders: Ry Morgan and Antony Ganjou
Founded: October 2010 (launched November 2011) 
Website: www.pleasecycle.com

Earlier this year we named cycling as one of the most promising start-up opportunities of 2012. There is no better example of this than PleaseCycle, which helps employers incentivise cycling to work, and reap the benefits of a healthier workforce. Its innovative ‘Bike Miles’ scheme rewards workers for every mile they cycle (with discounts at their local coffee shop or additional holiday time), and encourages co-workers to compete to top their office leader board for miles cycled.

One corporate brand has already signed up and the UK’s leading cycle-to-work scheme provider is about to integrate BikeMiles into their network of 23,000 clients. With plans to franchise the business worldwide, PleaseCycle is proving that, sometimes, two wheels are better than four.

Founders: Nitzan Yudan and Tomer Kalish
Founded: June 2010 (launched November 2010)
Website: www.flat-club.com

Despite university students and alumni increasingly inhabiting a transient world in which they pursue internships, exchanges, relocation, projects and travel, the accommodation solution was lacking. Coupled with a need for additional income, London Business School MBAs Nitzan Yudan and Tomer Kalish, both 33, hit upon their idea for Flat-Club, a marketplace that leverages social networks to find spare rooms and flats at up to 80% cheaper than hotels for the alumni and students of top universities.

The London-based company is generating good – but undisclosed – income from its commission charged on top of each transaction (a figure that depends on the length of stay). Flat-Club beat 650 global start-ups to the title of TechCrunch’s 2012 Pitching Challenge and the founders, who have successful careers in tourism, IT, finance and real estate between them, hope to replicate the model in major cities throughout the world.

Founder: Oliver Morgan
Founded: September 2009
Website: www.universalfuels.co.uk

Eschewing traditional forms of financing, oil supplier Universal Fuels secured £100,000 from crowdfunding website Crowdcube at the start of this year. Investors saw potential in the company, founded by 20-year-old Oliver Morgan, which delivers diesel, petrol and kerosene – as well as its own brand ‘universal lubricants’ in bulk across the country.

Growth potential is significant, with the company planning to enter the gas and electricity market in the next 12 months, as well as continuing to expand quickly in oil. While Oliver believes the recession has hindered growth, he still believes the company can achieve its goal of reaching £100m in revenues in the next four years.

Founders: Eben Upton (pictured), Jack Lang, Robert Mullins, David Braben, Alan Mycroft and Pete Lomas
Founded: December 2008 (launched February 2012)
Website: www.raspberrypi.org

It’s rare to find a start-up that’s as pioneering in its technological development as it is in its humanitarian aims, but that’s exactly what Raspberry Pi is. Eben Upton and his Cambridge University colleagues noticed a steady decline in applications to study computer science and set themselves a mission to make programming tools more readily available.

Investing £150,000 in the challenge, they designed a credit-card sized device, which, when plugged into a television and keyboard, can be used in much the same way as a desktop PC. Winning the praise of the tech world, the team have successfully driven down costs to retail the computer from just £15 – ensuring developing nations don’t miss out on the global technological revolution.

Founders: Naomi Kibble and Helen McAvoy
Founded: September 2010 (launched July 2011)

To have two start-ups under your belt by the age of 24 is impressive – but to squeeze in a degree and a corporate career as well is something really to be celebrated. It’s all in a day’s work for ambitious entrepreneurs Kibble and McAvoy, who spotted a gap in the market for their high quality, off-the-shelf, frozen cocktails.

With more people than ever staying in to drink (thanks to the downturn), Rocktails has tapped into a momentous global market, currently valued at £15bn. In doing so, they are attempting to raise standards in the alcohol industry – which doesn’t require brands to label their nutritionals or (often dubious) ingredients. Rocktails list both on every one of their foil-fresh cocktail pouches.

Founders: Imran and Emma Hassan
Founded: February 2009
Website: www.lillyandsid.com

A finalist at the Fast Growth Business Awards (run by Growing Business) last year, it’s hard to believe Lilly+Sid’s co-founders run the business in between holding down two full-time jobs and raising three young children. Frustrated at being unable to find affordable, well-made and stylish clothes for their own babies, the husband and wife team started their own production line – with the debut collection receiving orders from Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.

Now stocked in 200 stores around the UK and 20 countries worldwide, Lilly+Sid has attracted customers with its high quality, unisex designs, which can be passed down to younger siblings. On the brink of expanding into childrenswear, Lilly+Sid is about to get a whole lot bigger.

Founder: Shazia Awan
Founded: June 2009
Website: www.peachy-pink.com

It may have started with a pair of pants, but since appearing on 2010’s Startups 100 list Peachy Pink has grown into a unique retail brand – boasting more than 100 shapewear products, from jeans to active wear. Awan’s signature product though remains her cellulite-busting pants, which put the ‘magic’ in magic knickers by massaging green tea, caffeine and peach extract into the skin as the wearer moves.

With her products sold in more than 35 countries worldwide, last year Awan was honoured in Management Today’s ’35 women under 35′ list of Britain’s female high fliers – as well as winning an army of celebrity admirers. Peter Andre is a fan of the Max Core posture control t-shirts and there are even rumours that Beyoncé wears Peachy Pinks.

Founders: Peter McCormack, Toby Austin, Oliver Morrison and Jay Bayley
Founded: May 2010
Website: www.bantr.tv

Armchair pundits rejoice: Bantr is specifically designed to let football fans comment, opine and vent to their heart’s content, making watching a match an inherently social experience. The founders saw that people were discussing live football on social networks – whether watching matches at home or from the stands – but that conversations about non-football related matters were getting in the way. Bantr’s solution enables fans to ‘check-in’ to a match, then discuss and vote on the action with other fans.

With more than 10,000 users registered on the beta site, the business is due to start testing four revenue models – social gaming, advertising, in game-betting and location services. Android and iPhone apps have recently been launched.

Founder: Adam Soliman
Founded: October 2009
Website: www.charbrew.com

Like many others, 24-year-old Adam Soliman struggled to find a job after graduating. Unlike many others, he founded a successful business in the tea industry as a result. Charbrew tea has made waves already in its young life, being sold in 408 Sainsbury’s stores so far, as well as other stockists spanning supermarkets, hotel chains and gyms. It has also just launched with Ocado and a leading UK airline.

Competing with the likes of Twinings has been a challenge, admits Adam, who creates the recipes himself, but turnover last year was a solid £110,000, and he’s projecting this to grow to £350,000 for 2012. With a focus on the freshest, finest ingredients from around the world, Charbrew also holds its environmental credentials dear.