Founders: Geoff Watts and Julia Fowler
Founded: January 2010
Website: www.editd.com

The great merit of social media is that businesses can interact more directly with their customers and discover, in real time, what they want and how they feel. Now EDITD is going one step further, by scouring millions of interactions to discover which items consumers really like – and, more importantly, what they’ll buy. Carefully monitoring retail sites to discover which stock sells, at what price and when’s the right time to discount, EDITD prevents its over 400 subscribed retailers, suppliers and fashion labels from wasting resources by stocking the wrong thing.

Winner of Seedcamp 2010, EDITD has since secured more than £1m in a seed funding round led by Index Ventures (investor in Net-A-Porter and ASOS). If those firms’ track records are anything to go buy, EDITD is one to watch.

Founders: Vinay Gupta and Tom Wright
Founded: April 2010

Whipcar is one of those businesses whose genius lies in its simplicity. It is a marketplace that connects people who want to rent out their cars with drivers nearby who need to hire one. The service takes care of the admin – from screening drivers to insurance and breakdown cover – and already has a presence in more than 300 locations around the UK.

Although competitors to the brand do exist, Whipcar’s growth has so far left them in the shade. Wright has already tasted entrepreneurial success, having sold his social network for pregnant women gurgle.com to Mothercare and book recommendation service bookarmy.com to Harper Collins. He has since raised significant start-up capital for Whipcar from Delta Partners.

Founders: Samir Desai, James Meekings and Andrew Mullinger
Founded: August 2010
Website: www.fundingcircle.com

In a market “crying out” for disruption, Funding Circle offers cash-strapped entrepreneurs an alternative to the banks. The marketplace enables viable small companies to raise loans from private individuals, through a faster, more efficient service. Meanwhile, with interest rates at an all-time-low, it offers investors better returns than a savings account. The 29-year-old co-founders are clearly onto something. Funding Circle has now facilitated more than £30m worth of loans to over 700 small firms. Expect that figure to double by the end of 2012. The business takes 2-5% for its trouble, with investors paying a 1% annual fee, and a bidding model means the business gets the lowest interest rate possible.

Having raised £13.2m from top venture capital firms Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures, as well as prolific investor Jon Moulton, Betfair founder Ed Wray and Carphone Warehouse founder Sir Charles Dunstone, this growth shows no signs of abating.

Founders: Tom Valentine, Troy Collins and Alex Saint
Founded: January 2011
Website: www.secretescapes.com

In a recent blog post, we highlighted ‘curation’ as one of the hottest digital start-up trends to watch. Secret Escapes is a great example of this. The company negotiates exclusive discounts (up to 70% off) on boutique hotels and luxury resorts – all hand-picked by a team of travel experts. Founded by the team behind Dealchecker.co.uk and Tom Valentine (ex-eBay and Seatwave), Secret Escapes runs around 20 flash sales at any one time.

In just 18 months, it has attracted more than a million members, and sold thousands of rooms at carefully curated four or five-star establishments. Throw in funding from top venture capital firms, and investment from some of the UK’s leading digital entrepreneurs (including Andy McLoughlin, co-founder of former Startups 100 champion Huddle, and you’ve got one very promising start-up.

Founder: Jo Jenner
Founded: March 2011
Website: www.3blondebears.co.uk

Jo Jenner started 3 Blonde Bears with savings of just £5,000 – and 16 months later it is one of Notonthehighstreet.com’s top grossing partners. The Sussex-based manufacturer and online retailer, which was also crowned Notonthehighstreet.com’s ‘Partner of the Year’ at the marketplace’s 2012 Make Awards, boasts a customer database of more than 17,000, and is expecting to grow turnover by more than 50% in 2012. Jenner’s personalised product business has no doubt benefited from her background in buying and design (at Alexander McQueen, Laura Ashley and Warehouse, among others).

As a mother-of-three herself, she has an intuitive feel for how to target her ABC1, mother-and-child customers and, such has been its progress to date, that 3 Blonde Bears recently signed a lease for a 1,200-square foot premises. The future’s looking bright.

Founders: James Layfield and Steve Pette
Founded: May 2011
Website: www.centralworking.com

As a serial entrepreneur with five businesses under his belt, Layfield is well-placed to create the perfect environment for starting (and growing) a small business. As such, he has developed a membership-based club, which provides the space, systems and support entrepreneurs need when starting-up. Since launch, two spaces have already opened in central London locations, including Tottenham Court Road and Silicon Roundabout (the latter launched in conjunction with Google).

Within the next few months, five sites will be up and running, putting Central Working in place to work with over 500 start-ups. That’s small fry compared to its long-term goal though – Central Working aims to help 10,000 businesses start-up or grow over the next 10 years.

Founders: Michael Hayman and Nick Giles 
Founded: January 2010
Website: www.wearesevenhills.com

Seven Hills is not just a PR agency. The self-styled ‘campaigning communications firm’ is redefining UK entrepreneurship and establishing Great Britain as a global centre for enterprise. The co-founders are among the team behind StartUp Britain – a partnership between the government and private sector to stimulate UK entrepreneurship – and Hayman is chairman of MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival.

Named the UK’s fastest-growing PR consultancy by PR Week magazine, Seven Hills’ client list includes former Dragon Doug Richard, the Peter Jones Foundation and The Prince’s Youth Business International. In fact, just about the only name not on Seven Hills’ books is that of Sir Richard Branson. Something for 2013 then.

Founders: Christopher Baker-Brian, Mansoor Mohammad Hamayun and Laurent Van Houke
Founded: March 2010
Website: www.bboxx.co.uk

While not the only start-up looking to emerging markets for opportunity, BBOXX it is the only start-up we’ve seen with such enormous ambition – both in terms of business growth and social impact. The business develops portable solar products, which provide electricity to those in rural communities with no grid access. In the past couple of months, BBOXX launched in Sudan, having previously established a presence in Rwanda, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia and Ethiopia.

The founders grew the business as a spin-off from Imperial College charity e.quinox, which develops methods of distributing renewable energy in developing countries. BBOXX, as a for-profit enterprise, hopes to make an impact beyond the charity’s reach.

Founder: Emi Gal
Founded: 2009
Website: www.brainient.com

A few years ago, 24-year-old Emi Gal believed the online video market was set to grow and grow. The success of Brainient, the company he founded, has proved him right. With 72 hours of footage now being uploaded to YouTube every minute, the appetite for video content – and earning potential for those who find effective ways to monetise it – is immense. Gal’s brainchild helps advertisers, agencies and publishers increase the effectiveness of their video ads.Its interactive BrainRolls platform boosts clickthrough and engagement rates, he says, while video retargeting platform BrainAds is designed to help advertisers grow their post-click conversion rates.

Clients – across six countries – include Fox Networks, P&G, Canon, Volvo, Samsung, Reebok and Coca Cola. Having recently raised a cool $1.8m investment, the company is looking to expand to New York City within the next few months.