Founder: David George
Founded: September 2014
Website: https://bikmoplus.com

After originally launching cycling comparison marketplace Bikmo for bike enthusiasts, an approach from Hiscox insurance led to a rather dramatic pivot for the young business – but one which appears to be paying off handsomely. With no experience in the insurance sector, self-proclaimed bike nut David George drew on his bike, development and marketing background to create a completely different model of cycling insurance to existing products.

Describing itself as “easy, simple, brilliant cycle insurance”, Bikmo Plus offers travel, competition, breakdown and multi-bike insurance, generating commission through every policy sold. George stresses that the product’s popularity to date stems from the business taking influence from the cycling community rather than existing brands, processes or technology within the insurance sector – allowing him and the team to make business decisions and branding choices that resonate with the cycling market.

As the company moves into other sectors – a strategy that will help accelerate growth further – it will take a similar approach, tailoring its model to its target customers. With £200,000 investment behind it, the next year will see Bikmo Plus put major growth ambitions into motion, either through acquisitions or organically, as part of its plans to become the dominant player in active lifestyle insurance.

Founders: Carl Dawson and Krishan Meetoo
Founded: November 2013 (launched January 2014)
Website: www.proversity.org

With 13 years of experience in human resources, Carl Dawson was frustrated by the gap between education and employment. To fill the widening hole in today’s job market, he created digital university Proversity – offering online educational programmes to equip graduates with the skills needed by today’s employers.

Proversity partners with companies to digitise their educational programmes and connects learners to job opportunities, with a revenue model based on the delivery of B2B sales of its course production and hosting. For example, the lowest fee is £15,000 for three months hosting and two modules, and the highest is £100,000 for 12 months and 25 modules.

Launched just over a year ago, this relatively young company has already delivered courses for prestigious names such as Network Rail and Magnox and is currently in production with a host of names including Lloyd’s Bank, the Bank of England and the Royal Artillery.

Buoyed by this success, Proversity hopes to expand internationally and work with some of the world’s leading organisations over the next year, forecasting sustainable growth that will lead to an estimated 1,000 people into jobs, 100,000 CPD (continuing professional development) learners and one million learner hours. Ambitious aims, but achievable given its projected £2m turnover this year.

Founder: Darren Litton
Founded: November 2013
Website: www.cocobachocolate.com

Hoping to bring a taste of the café culture, and the delicious, real hot chocolate his Grandfather had made in his native Australia, to UK shores, founder Darren Litton combined his love of coffee, chocolate and business to open his Cocoba chocolate café in late 2013.

Proving that chocolate can be far more versatile than you ever imagined, Cocoba has more than 50 products including high quality Belgian chocolate bars, nuts and truffles and even chocolate pizza. If you’re not a chocaholic the café also sells a range paninis, pastries and soups made fresh in store every morning, as well as its own coffee. Alongside it’s bricks and mortar base, many of its chocolate products and even branded mugs can be bought on the café’s online shop alongside listings in Harrods and Selfridges.

Currently based at one location in Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent, Cocoba is working on consolidating its reputation, with sales in the café growing thanks to word of mouth, social media and repeat custom. Litton says that once things at the café are running smoothly he’ll be able to switch focus to “driving wholesales” and “finding locations for future stores.” With a clear passion for the product, and a business dream rooted in the nostalgia of his Grandfather’s delicious hot chocolate, the Startups Awards finalist looks set for sweet success.

Founders: Gordon Macsween, Mark Melford and James Borrett
Founded: January 2012
Website: www.captive-media.co.uk

Describing itself as a washroom-based interactive media system, Captive Media is a truly unique proposition. A finalist in the Startups Awards Innovative Business of the Year category, the company installs a screen above urinals featuring games that are controlled by, well, urinating – with digital adverts appearing in the games.

Born from the realisation that ‘generation Y consumers’ were filtering out traditional advertising, founders Gordon Macsween, Mark Melford and James Borrett saw an opportunity to harness the estimated three billion minutes of undivided male attention spent at urinals in the UK every year. With deals in place with 200 establishments across the country so far, the company primarily drives revenue through selling in-game advertising space. Clients to-date include drinks brands Captain Morgan and Guinness, electronics giant Beats by Dre, and charities Drinkaware and Comic Relief.

Captive Media has closed three successful funding rounds, with the latest securing $1m in February 2015, to aid the completion of its nationwide 200 screen network. Already available in 12 countries, the company will embark on its largest ever stage of international expansion in the US over the next year and hopes to break even in 2015. With no direct competitors and unrivalled potential, global men’s toilet habits could become one of the biggest advertising markets in the world.

Founder: Patrick Dudley-Williams
Founded: March 2013 (launched in August 2013)
Website: http://reefknots.com/

After perseverant founder Patrick Dudley-Williams was made redundant from his stock market job (two days before his wife had twins); he took a gamble and the budding entrepreneur used all his personal savings to launch the business he had always dreamed of – producing and selling beautiful, personal and inspiring handmade ties.

Dudley-Williams’ business concept began out of an aspiration to allow “confined” professionals to add a small piece of summer inspiration to their suits through classic, largely ocean-inspired designs (the business donates 10% of its profits towards ocean-saving Blue Marine Foundation). After impressive organic growth since launch in 2013 – the business has never taken on investment, owing its ability to grow the way it wanted to its expansion into corporate, customised, gifting partnerships – the business boasts impressive financials from multiple revenue streams. Alongside gifting partnerships with major finance companies and luxury brands, the start-up sells through its busy e-commerce site and leading retailers.

The made-in-Britain fashion firm, which counts public figures such as Boris Johnson, Mike Tindall and even Richard Branson (who famously is adverse to ties but made an exception to support Reef Knots) as fans, has an exciting year ahead. The next 12 months will see new product ranges and, in partnership with once iconic suit firm Morrows, the launch of its first store in the historic Leadenhall Market.

Founders: Matt Fox and Dan Harrison
Founded: December 2013 (launched May 2014)
Website: www.snaptrip.com

After identifying that one of the biggest problems for holiday let owners is “empty weeks in their calendar”, founders Matt Fox and Dan Harrison (both with backgrounds in the travel industry) realised that the UK’s self-catering holiday market was in need of its own lastminute.com.

Launching a year ago on the back of £35,000 from venture capital group Forward Partners, the business, which claims to be the only last minute holiday deal site of its kind, has used the finance to secure numerous property owner and agency partnerships, and to create its easy-to-use website. The online platform gives signed-up users access to flash deals and offers travel inspiration though useful categories such as ‘pet friendly,’ ‘beach’ and ‘popular destinations’ – all of which makes the process of booking a trip away more convenient and tempting.

By appealing to property owners plagued by seasonal gaps and holidaymakers struggling to find an accessible and inexpensive way to book a self-catering location, the tech start-up is gathering attention from investors (the business has since raised £700,000) and the media, featuring in The Sunday Times and The Independent. After an impressive first year, the holiday broker has big plans for the next 12 months with aggressive growth targets in place as well as product and market expansion.

Founders: Lorna Charlish and Renaye Edwards
Founded: April 2013 (launched November 2013)
Website: www.digitalradish.co.uk

Taking its name from the world’s “fastest growing vegetable”, Digital Radish is a business-to-business (B2B) marketing agency with a focus on digital and events.

After working client side in B2B for many years, founders Lorna Charlish and Renaye Edwards found they often didn’t get adequate support from their agencies, as they didn’t fully understand their business or market. After being approached by a contact who asked for help with his marketing strategy, the duo realised they enjoyed helping him “more than their day jobs”. Buoyed to launch their own venture, the pair used their understanding of what its like to be the client to launch Digital Radish, the kind of strategic marketing company Charlish and Edwards had always hoped for while working client side. Charging a retainer based on “value delivered rather than time”, the business has secured clients including Unity, FutureLearn and Acision.

Having completely self-funded the operation to-date, retaining a full 100% of the company between them, Charlish and Edwards will use the next year to put into motion ambitious growth plans, help their clients grow in new markets and recruit employees. The company is aiming to hit £2m revenue in three years, and with a unique insight into its clients needs, Digital Radish looks to have what it takes to be a major contender in the digital marketing space.

Founders: Emily Forbes and Max Werner
Founded: January 2014 (launched April 2014)
Website: www.seenit.io

While making a documentary about rhino poaching in South Africa, producer Emily Forbes attended a protest and realised the entire crowd were already documenting everything they saw on their smartphones. She saw the potential for organisations to harness this wealth of “real, personal, opinionated” footage and, with the help of co-founder Max Werner, Seenit was born.

The first of a couple of videotech businesses in the list, the collaboration platform allows brands to co-create videos with employees, consumers, experts and journalists, effectively turning them into a highly mobile film crew. Content is owned by the brands and can be carefully curated with time limits on shots and the ability to upload scripts. The company works on a pay-as-you-go subscription model, with add on options such as data analytics and visualisation. Seenit has worked with an impressive roster of organisations since launch including The BBC, STA Travel, Bacardi and Manchester City Football Club.

Having closed a follow-on funding round in January, bringing its total investment to £360,000 to date, the company is expanding its team and investing in tech and sales. The next year will also see the release of a self-serve model to push the platform out to start-ups and small businesses. The Startups team could be operating its own mobile film team in no time…

Founders: Ben Brown and Julian Polzella
Founded: November 2013
Website: www.getshopwave.com

Although many companies have offered software as a service point of sale (PoS) systems, Ben Brown and Julian Polzella realised there weren’t any systems combining all the functionality a retailer might need – from sales and stock management to marketing and data analytics.

Spotting a market ripe for disruption and using their experience building multi-channel voucher and deals network VouChaCha, the duo created Shopwave; an omni-channel, cloud based PoS. The system integrates payments, loyalty and data analytics to allow retailers to focus on customer service. Unlike its outdated predecessors, Shopwave runs on iOS on an iPad, allowing for greater mobility and a tidier counter space.

Currently most of the firm’s 100 customers are London-based independents including Timberyard UK, Street Kitchen and Arancini Brothers, but with £490,000 raised to date, talks are already underway to trial the product nationally with an ambitious £8m annual sales target by the end of 2016. The entrepreneurs sold their previous venture, VouChaCha, as part of Markcomedia in a £55m deal to Monitise PLC, and with Shopwave projecting £2m turnover for 2015 – this fintech disrupter is clearly one to watch.

Founders: Melanie Goldsmith and Emile Bernard
Founded: January 2014
Website: www.smithandsinclair.co.uk

A chef’s innate curiosity, a lifelong sweet tooth and some impressive early pop-up success (£3,000 worth of sales in just three weeks) all led to the launch of Smith & Sinclair’s cocktail confectionary business. The sweet start-up, which creates its alcoholic pastilles using a combination of traditional cocktails mixed with unique flavours, claims to be the world’s first cocktail sweet. And its original take on confectionary is proving to be a hit with retail stores and leading brands alike – the business currently boasts an impressive client list that includes Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Harrods, as well as globally recognised events London Fashion Week and the GQ Awards.

Since launching in 2014 the business, founded by Emile Bernard and Melanie Goldsmith, has expanded its revenue streams from exclusively retailing its core range of six signature flavour pastilles, to white label products (creating bespoke flavours for B2B and weddings) and partnerships with leading alcoholic brands (which includes selling to and providing consultancy). Alongside hitting revenue targets of half a million, Smith & Sinclair has plans to break into the travel industry, with one hotel group already secured, increase its alcoholic brand partnerships and grow the company by an ambitious 500%.