Founders: Dr. Adam Joyce, Dr. James Smith and Dr. Tom Robinson
Founded: October 2013 (Launched January 2014)
Website: www.elliptic.co

Alongside the rapid evolution of digital currencies, Dr. Adam Joyce, Dr. James Smith and Dr. Tom Robinson saw the enormous role blockchain technology had to play in helping institutions identify illicit activities. A blockchain is the permanent public ledger of bitcoin transactions.

The three entrepreneurs founded Elliptic to give financial institutions and law enforcement confidence to enter into the relatively unknown world of digital currency transactions – enabling them to understand who their counterparty is, that they are protected from fraud and that they are complying with anti-money laundering laws. Elliptic sells its product directly to customers as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, as well as working on a consultancy basis.

Having recently closed a $5m Series A funding round led by Paladin Capital Group, Elliptic has embarked on a campaign of product and service development and expansion across the US. Providing an essential service in a still young market, the London-based company hopes to become the global benchmark in blockchain technology.

Founders: Alastair Campbell, Stuart Noad and Mark Smithson
Founded: November 2014 (Launched May 2015)
Website: www.carsnip.com

The first of a number of ‘car-focused’ marketplaces in the list this year, Alastair Campbell, Stuart Noad and Mark Smithson founded Carsnip to fill a gap in the car search marketplace. Research showed them that every year, over four billion car buyers view adverts on untrustworthy aggregator ‘classified-ad’ type sites rather than car dealer websites. This led to wasted time, effort and most importantly money for both consumers and dealers.

Carsnip’s search engine directly connects active and qualified buyers to a dealer that works for them rather than keeping them on a website crowded with adverts. Car dealers choose to advertise their cars on a pay-per-click basis, which uses a relevance score so only cars that are relevant to the buyer are advertised, with Carsnip receiving a referral fee from its partners for services such as buying, warranties and finance. After finding success with the model in the UK, the website is now indexing cars across more than 20 countries including Russia, Brazil and South Africa.

Currently live in beta mode, the site already has 100 dealers pre-registered and has ambitions to have 25% of the UK’s 10,000 dealers signed up by the end of 2016. After a formal launch on 24 May, Carsnip will focus on expanding into new territories and building new tools for its customers. Backed by $1m in angel funding, the company is meeting a growing need in an increasingly murky market.

Founders: Jon Hulme and John Burke
Founded: January 2015
Website: www.craftginclub.co.uk

Recently identified as one of the hottest business opportunities of 2016, the gin industry is flourishing with a number of start-ups muscling in on the trend – the Craft Gin Club being one of them.

Launched in January 2015 by Jon Hulme and John Burke, Craft Gin Club enables home drinkers to discover the best craft gin producers from around the world through its membership-based subscription boxes which deliver one bottle of the finest quality gin a month.

Hulme and Burke decided to embark on the venture after noticing the explosion of craft alcohol producers and the need for a service that would enable “gin lovers to discover the best”.

Using their backgrounds in media, marketing and events, the duo have driven demand for the service by combining content marketing with active engagement on social media and it’s a strategy that’s working. Less than 18 months since launch, the start-up has secured over 3,300 paying members and amassed a community of fans with 50,000 newsletter sign-ups and over 105,000 Facebook likes.

Having scaled with no external funding and just one employee to date, Hulme and Burke are now looking to raise investment to accelerate growth by hiring staff and investing in IT. The alcohol entrepreneurs are also keen to branch out into new areas and have just launched their second vertical, the Bubble Club. Targeted at ‘lovers of all things fizz’, the Bubble Club will operate under a similar subscription model whereby members receive two bottles of fizz and “surprise tasty treats” every month. Bottoms, or rather bottles, up!

Founder: Darren Thomas
Founded: June 2014 (launched August 2014)
Website: www.pedalcover.co.uk

Keen cyclist Darren Thomas had always struggled to find adequate insurance for his bikes when competing in Ironman’s and pro-am cycling events internationally, with insurance providers failing to meet the needs of triathletes or cyclists who often use multiple bikes and equipment.

The cycling and triathlon markets are becoming big business in the UK: triathlon expenditure is now worth over £363m a year according to the Triathlon Industry Association (TIA), and the average British Cycling member spends £1,000 a year on cycling. Using his 30 years experience in insurance, Thomas started insurance company Pedalcover, providing insurance specifically tailored for this growing market. As well as a “unique”, combined home and bike insurance policy, the AXA-backed provider offers travel, healthcare and excess protection.

And it seems the triathlon community is responding. Having secured Helen Jenkins, two times world champion triathlete, as the face of Pedalcover, the young brand has garnered impressive PR coverage which has opened doors to partnerships with organisations such as the Welsh Triathlon – who endorse the product to all their members.

Since launch, Pedalcover has written 1,485 home and bike insurance policies, cross sold with 1,200 excess protect policies, with more than 20% also taking out travel insurance. This is just the tip of the iceberg, with huge scope for the business to grow in line with the industry it serves. By March next year, Thomas expects to hit £1m in turnover.

Founder: Adria Wu
Founded: December 2014 (launched March 2015)
Website: https://mapleandfitz.com/

Eat. Juice. Be Happy – This is the message of Maple & Fitz, the healthy eatery in the heart of London’s Fitzrovia which specialises in salads, grain bowls, and cold-pressed juices. Launched last year by Adria Wu, Maple & Fitz promises to provide food that will leave your body and taste buds “energised and happy” and customers would seem to agree with 20,000 people having sampled the café’s delights to date.

After studying culinary arts at Le Cordon Blue and nutrition at the UK College of Nutrition and Health, Wu, with the help of a top chef originally from New York, has created food that is healthy, fun and exciting. And big brands want in.

In the last 12 months, Wu has catered for co-branded events with companies such as French Connection, Urban Outfitters, and Boohoo.com, and has delivered food to the offices of Apple and Lulu Lemon. Her range also retails at spinning class studio Psycle Spin.

With six employees and a funding round underway to open a second café, Wu is keen to share her “love of healthy food and wholesome ingredients” with Londoners far and wide and intends to do this by embracing local communities. So, while the Fitzrovia site is called Maple & Fitz, she intends for future outlets to take the names of their local neighbourhoods so for instance Maple & Primrose or Maple & City for example.

With Startups.co.uk based in Borough, here’s hoping for the launch of Maple & Borough sometime soon!

Founders: Stephen Voller, Tim Walder, Dr Jonathan Tuck and Dr Marappa Rajendran
Founded: September 2013 (Launched February 2016)
Website: www.zapandgocharger.com

Technology has transformed all our lives in the last few decades, but no matter how advanced it gets, it’s useless when the battery runs out and you don’t have time to charge it.

As a regular business traveller, Stephen Voller was utterly dependent on his mobile phone but became exasperated with the amount of time he spent sitting on airport floors waiting for his phone to recharge. This fuelled the development of Zap&Go, a graphene supercapacitor-based charger that claims to be able to recharge mobile phones, laptops, cordless appliances and even electric vehicles in five minutes or less.

Due for launch this summer, the product has already pre-sold to customers in 70 countries – currently retailing at a price of $149. While there are other supercapacitors on the market, they typically operate at a voltage of 2.7v, whereas the Zap&Go boasts 6V – actually giving it five times the capacity of competitors.

The business is currently in the process of raising a Series A round of $20m, with plans to launch a sales office in the US and a joint venture company in China, as well as investing in its research and development facilities in Oxford. Ambitious seems almost an understatement. Ultimately, Zap&Go’s aim is for its supercapacitor to replace the lithium-ion battery inside mobile phones.

Founders: Roddy Campbell, William Sieghart and Sophie Neary
Founded: May 2014 (Launched January 2015)
Website: www.vrumi.com

Roddy Campbell’s journey towards Vrumi started 20 years ago. His neighbour left for work every morning and then a piano teacher would come in and give lessons using his piano. While receiving physiotherapy in his sitting room in 2014, he realised that there were idle tables and sitting rooms all over the country that could be used as workspace.

With the help of William Sieghart and Sophie Neary, he launched Vrumi, an online platform that opens up homes as workspace, enabling householders to earn money from their unused space and guests to meet and work in unique environments. Listing on the site is free, with both hosts and guests paying a commission for each booking. Vrumi currently features 650 spaces across London including houses, flats, work sheds and even boats. Around 40% of guests use the spaces for meetings, with the remaining 60% divided into activities such as photo shoots, therapy, tutoring and other services.

As well as the launch of a new and improved website, the next 12 months will see Vrumi expand across the UK, with an international launch slated for later in 2016. A number of companies have popped up to disrupt the office space market in recent years, such as fellow Startups 100 business HeadBox, but with the appetite for the sharing economy showing no signs of abating, and consumers becoming increasingly aware of alternative venues to book for work and play, Vrumi’s novel take on the market is one with plenty of potential.

Founders: Darren and Hollie Sassienie
Founded: November 2013
Website: www.sassybloom.com

At 21 weeks pregnant, Hollie Sassienie discovered she had a rare, incurable and life threatening progressive lung and heart disease. She was given a 50% chance of survival. At times it was touch-and-go in the hospital but eventually both mother and baby pulled through and Hollie received a gift box of specially selected goodies for her new baby from her close friends. Wanting other new parents to enjoy the experience of receiving such a box, she and her husband Darren launched Sassy Bloom.

The company delivers monthly care packages to new parents and their babies, with each box handpicked and tailored to your baby’s age, stage of development and gender. Starting from just £23 a month, Sassy Bloom claims each of its boxes have a retail value of between £40 and £70 and also include personalised items and bonus gifts for mums.

After some early exposure on Dragons’ Den, the business has gone on to achieve fantastic PR, 16 awards and impressive revenue growth, with £1.5m projected for 2016.

Not content with being a successful business in its own right, the service is also aiming to raise £100,000 for a number of charities including the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, the UK charity helping Hollie deal with her life changing disease.

Sassy Bloom is keeping tight-lipped about his plans for the next 12 months but promises some “very exciting times” on the horizon: “You should definitely watch this space”.

Founder: Andy Stephenson
Founded: April 2013
Website: www.weekendboxclub.com

The idea for Weekend Box Club stemmed from boredom. At 24, software engineering graduate Andy Stephenson was bored – so he quit his job at a tech start-up and started his own project. Yes really.

Inspired by his niece and nephew’s birthdays, he turned his bedroom into a craft hub, distribution centre and customer service point all rolled into one, making and selling an early version of Weekend Box. Three years later, this project has evolved into an activity box membership for children, designed to help parents improve the time they have with their offspring at the weekend through a number of themes: make, bake, explore and more.

The boxes, which include materials and instructions needed for themed activities, as well as collectible stickers for each of the characters, are available for £4.95 for a fortnightly mini box, or £7.50 for a fortnightly or monthly bumper box. Weekend Box Club claims to already be delivering 10’s of thousands of boxes every month and graduated from Stephenson’s bedroom to a warehouse, and then to an even bigger warehouse in just two weeks.

Over the next year the entrepreneur is targeting rapid growth across the UK, with the somewhat abstract, but nevertheless noble, ambition of delivering one million hours of quality time to children and parents by the end of the year.

Founders: Lauren Stevenson and Virginia Norris
Founded: June 2014
Website: www.aisle8.com

After years working in PR, Lauren Stevenson and Virginia Norris noticed a gap in the market for an agency that bridged the gap between traditional PR and digital marketing. Experience told them that regardless of industry or category, all brands are ultimately trying to target young, fashion-conscious consumers with a disposable income.

They launched Aisle 8, a digital PR marketing agency, made up of experts in a number of PR and social media disciplines that, in their words, puts “the brand through a fashion filter”. After securing the account for Ferrari just six months after launch, the female duo knew they had found a niche with real potential. Billing their clients by the hour, as well as for campaign or event costs, the company now provides services to a host of illustrious names from around the world alongside Ferrari, including STYLEBOP.com, One for the Boys and MANU Atelier to name a few.

Over the next year, Aisle 8 will continue to bolster its fashion, lifestyle and beauty arms as it looks to build a reputation as a market leader within the digital communications sector. Still 100% owned by its founders, the self-funded and profitable business is on track for a stellar 2016 with its fresh, fashion-conscious approach to an antiquated industry.