Founders: Matthew Munson and Robin Ellis
Founded: February 2014 (launched March 2015)
Website: www.cube52.com

In recent years there has been a shift in the way organisations are purchasing their IT, with many opting for cloud-based software and services on demand instead of ownership. Cube52 aims to capitalise on this trend by offering flexible hosting and cloud services but tailored to resell partners looking to offer white-labelled solutions. In essence, partners can use the Cube52 portal to create and configure their own solutions to sell to clients.

Founders Matthew Munson and Robin Ellis used their experience as data centre experts to form a company that would provide an affordable and less complex way for their customers to exploit the potential of modern computing. Just one year after launch, Cube52 is already partnered with Bytes, Westcoast and Inframon, and counts Oxford Computing Group and Nideo as customers – with a projected turnover of £1m for 2015.

With a wealth of experience between them – having previously built and sold data management company BlueSquare Data (the duo invested £3m from the sale into Cube52) – Ellis and Munson plan to use the next 12 months to plan more customer and partner acquisitions, as well as expanding their UK team and support centre.

Founders: Nancy Cruickshank, Kate Shapland, Rodrigo Dauster and Olivier Beau de Lomenie
Founded: May 2012
Website: www.myshowcase.com

After more than 10 years in the world of fashion and beauty, Nancy Cruickshank noticed there were many barriers, and far few opportunities for women between the ages of 25 and 55 who wanted to start a business. 

With the help of her long time industry friends she launched MyShowcase, which sells products from more than 30 independent beauty brands, online and through a network of female stylists. Described by Cruickshank as “Avon meets Space NK”, stylists are given the opportunity to start their own flexible business while the overarching company supports and promotes independent brands – an admirable proposition. The website generates revenue from a share of the sales, and spends its marketing budget by rewarding its nearly 400 personally trained stylists with commission from the products they sell. The business carefully selects the brands it wants to work with and has already amassed a database of more than 10,000 customers, growing at around 10% every month.

After bootstrapping for the first year to prove they were market fit, the team has raised just under £2m to scale over the coming year. With the right balance of entrepreneurial zeal, and the dedication it has to its brands and stylists, we think MyShowcase could just have what it takes to become a household name in the industry.

Founder: Nick Holzherr
Founded: June 2012 (launched January 2013)
Website: www.whisk.com

After feeling frustrated that he never had the time to food shop for exciting meals, Whisk.com founder Nick Holzherr wanted to give fellow time strapped foodies and home chefs an app that would mitigate the cumbersome process of in store and online ingredient shopping.

Whisk is a free app for consumers, saving them time by turning recipes into smart, digital shopping lists that map ingredients to items. It also benefits publishers, food brands and supermarkets by delivering WhiskAds, content-relevant in-app adverts which intelligently target consumers along the path to purchase – with industry names such as the Food Network, Ocado, Waitrose and Tesco already integrated.

After pitching the idea to Alan Sugar as a finalist on The Apprentice, Holzherr raised £1.2m funding from venture capital firms and grants to bring his idea to life – and three years later the app is really starting to snowball. The last 12 months have seen growth of five times the previous year, with over 30 million people viewing Whisk functionality on more than 300,000 publisher partner recipes each month.

Launched in eight countries and now available in six European languages, Holzherr has further ambitious international expansion plans for 2015 alongside improvements to existing technologies to offer more personalised reccomendations to users. With the same passion for making new businesses as he does making meals, this young entrepreneur looks to have a recipe for success.

Founder: Harriot Pleydell-Bouverie
Founded: May 2013 (launched November 2013)
Website: www.mallowandmarsh.com

Marshmallows have previously been confined to fireside camping, sleepovers and kids parties but confectionary start-up Mallow & Marsh is looking to change that with its gourmet luxury marshmallows fit for any occasion.

Stocked in leading supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Co-Op and Wholefoods, alongside farm shops, deli’s and 160 stores nationwide, the London-based food business is well on its way to becoming a retail success thanks to founder Harriot Pleydell-Bouverie’s innovative flavours combinations – matching marshmallows with yoghurt dips, peanut butter spreads, and even smoked chilli paste (yes really).

Having originally launched the business using £250 and “no sleep”, Mallow & Marsh was Pleydell-Bouverie’s second-time start-up – her first, a jewellery brand, struggled to take off – and start-up failure has served her well as she has effectively used her past experience to create a winning business model this time around.

Since featuring in the Startups 100 2014, the company has completed a manufacture shift to produce marshmallows on scale, closed deals with several major retailers and received coverage in major publications such as The Sunday Times, Time Out, Cosmopolitan and The Evening Standard. Brand exposure has also come in the form of an appearance on Dragons’ Den, which, despite an offer of investment, Pleydell-Bouverie decided to reject because it was “far more equity” than she “was willing to give away”.

With revenues set to break the £1m mark over the next year, the female entrepreneur has clearly identified a sweet spot in the confectionary market.

Founder: Jonny Rosenblatt
Founded: September 2012 (launched August 2013)
Website: www.headspacegroup.co.uk

Want to know where some of the UK’s most successful fast-growth young businesses live? Enter Headspace Group – the stylish Farringdon co-working space which has become the go-to office for the likes of Buzzfeed, Eventbrite, MOVE Guides and the London School of Photography.

Launched by commercial property entrepreneur Jonny Rosenblatt in the summer of 2013, Headspace is a start-up helping other start-ups – namely providing flexible serviced offices to enable businesses to grow – with around 25 companies among its current residents.

Boasting 100% occupancy and interest from major international firms such as Microsoft and Deloitte, when compared to other co-work offices in the capital, Headspace’s appeal is obvious. Alongside modern desk space and meeting rooms, its Hatton Garden site also operates its own “retro” games room, a barista coffee shop, and has an entire floor dedicated to events and networking.

It’s this niche proposition which has seen the company achieve impressive revenue growth; turnover for 2014 was £850,000 and 2015’s figures are set to hit £1.4m. The profitable company recently announced that it will be developing a further 4,000 square foot of office space at its current site to help support more start-ups; taking its total floor area to 16,000 square foot.

Providing an alternative to the “traditional, onerous leases, corporate feeling” serviced offices and co-working spaces, Headspace has successfully tapped into a booming market. If you’re looking for a trendy office for your start-up then Headspace is the place to be but, given occupancy rates, you’ll have to be quick!

Founders: Tina Mashaalahi and Mehdi Nayebi
Founded: December 2012
Website: www.kweekweek.com

Traditionally, promoting and managing events has involved an exhausting combination of multiple ticketing platforms, social networks, email marketing and analytics services. Founders of KweekWeek, Tina Mashaalahi and Mehdi Nayebi, saw an opportunity to offer all these tools in one, saving time and money for hosts.

The platform (and now app) is an events marketplace, helping organisers create customised events pages, manage sales and conduct marketing campaigns – while consumers have the advantage of one click/tap booking and the chance to follow promoters for the latest events news and deals. Organisers can pay a margin on their ticket sales, or opt for a more cost effective subscription package, paying a fixed fee regardless of revenue. More than 150,000 customers are currently signed up to the service, which features events from music festivals to art exhibitions and conferences.

Over the next year the company will capitalise on its UK success, expanding into European cities including Paris, Madrid and Barcelona – having already launched an operation in Istanbul. With the backing of £2.2m in angel funding, KweekWeek also plans to develop a more precise algorithm and hit 100,000 tickets sold per month by the end of 2015, taking turnover to an impressive £2.5m.

Founder: Dawn Farrow
Founded: March 2012
Website: www.booments.com

‘Pick ‘n’ mix’ traditional and digital marketing agency Boom ents modus operandi is simple, to “get bums on seats.”

Focusing on theatrical and entertainment shows, Dawn Farrow’s company provides its clients with a full service agency, and an alternative to the high budget marketing usually associated with large, live events. With international campaigns for some of the world’s biggest producers, including IMG and Sonia Friedman, already under her belt from her time working as a marketing director, Farrow used personal savings and her black book of contacts to set up her unique agency in early 2012.

As the only female running a marketing agency in the West End, Farrow spotted a gap in the market for an original approach – and it seems to be working.

Over the last three years, a comprehensive combination of creative and intelligent solutions and a savvy digital approach has helped secure impressive clients such as The Luna Cinema, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, and BBC worldwide as well as beating a number of competitors to secure the first ever contract tendered for The Lyric Theatre.

Over the next 12 months, Farrow hopes to apply the strategies that have brought her success in the theatrical district to sports, concerts and outdoor cinema – and with that same pioneering approach and passion, there’s no chance the curtains will be closing on this show any time soon.

Founders: Robert Ferris and Gemma Ferris
Founded: January 2012
Website: www.feritech.com  

A truly ‘Made in Britain’ start-up, Cornwall-based Feritech designs and manufactures innovative engineering solutions for the global offshore marine and energy market and, in a little over three years, has amassed a client base of key players from the renewable energy, oil and gas sectors.

The brainchild of husband-and-wife team Robert and Gemma Ferris, who have over 22 years’ worth of experience in the industry between them, the concept for Feritech originated from the duo’s desire to create “something better” than the “substandard” geographic survey products previously on the market. This concept then evolved into a service that would offer “superior products” with after sales support and, since turning this idea into a reality with a multi-stream revenue model, the Ferris’ have been on an upward journey to start-up success.

A finalist in the Startups Awards 2014, the company has recently moved to larger premises in order to grow with “greater speed and efficiency” as despite impressive revenues that are set to double this year, the profitable business has thus far maintained a lean approach with just four employees.

The next 12 months will see product development and further expansion, as well as a website re-launch which the company hopes will help to attract new clients within the UK and globally. Given its growth rate to date, if Feritech can emulate its UK success overseas – we predict very big things…  

Founders: Elizabetta Camilleri and Emilio Sanz
Founded: June 2011 (launched November 2012)
Website: www.salesgossip.co.uk

Tired of not knowing when their favourite shops had promotions on and missing all the best items, Elizabetta Camilleri and Emilio Sanz decided to create a platform that would aggregate all online and in-store fashion and beauty promotions.

SalesGossip collates promotions from across the UK in real time to help consumers find better deals without having to sign up to a plethora of newsletters – and retailers can attract online traffic and increase footfall to their stores. The company generates revenue through a combination of commission, advertising, custom marketing campaigns and data-mining and counts major names in the industry such as ASOS, John Lewis, Belstaff and Ted Baker as clients. It currently sees around 600,000 visitors monthly, nearly double since its appearance in the index last year, and is close to reaching an impressive one million active registered members.

Following a £600,000 follow-on funding round last year (taking total investment to £850,000), the fashion platform is intending to raise Series A funding to further accelerate growth in the UK and internationally and expects to report £1m turnover for 2015. Additionally, SalesGossip is aiming to expand its client base to other lifestyle brands, as well as extending its product portfolio with services for beauty and men to increase its audience reach.

Founders: Imogen Wethered and Fraser Hardy
Founded: June 2012 (launched March 2012)
Website: www.qudini.com

Winner of the 2012 Isobar Create London Hackathon – which challenged entrepreneurs to solve real world problems using near field communication (NFC) technology – Qudini is a cloud-based queue and appointment management system that allows its clients to effectively manage their customers’ in store journies.

Founders Imogen Wethered and Fraser Hardy’s system uses SMS and smartphone updates to give consumers information about waiting times and queue positions, helping customer retention, satisfaction and increasing spending and loyalty. The company charges a monthly licensing fee, which is dependent on usage. Qudini’s advantage is its ability to be deployed in store instantly over the cloud, and the ease with which it can be reconfigured store to store – a proposition which has impressed investors and stores alike.

The Wayra and angel backed-company is already in use in 200 stores having been adopted by O2, House of Fraser and Honest Burger amongst others, and is aiming to be in 800 stores by June. In the coming year the business hopes to expand internationally and grow its team of developers and sales operators, in a bid to significantly increase its client base and sales.