Founders: Jon Smith, Henry Smith, Simon Blower and Tom Garbutt
Founded: February 2013
Website: www.pobble.com

While Henry Smith was teaching his year five class about the Romans, one child raised their hand and asked: “Mr. Smith, can I see an example of what you want us to write?” Unfortunately, the only example was a model text written by a 40 year-old author. “What if there was a database of real examples of children’s writing that teachers could use in their classroom?” he thought.

Started by Jon Smith, Henry Smith, Simon Blower and Tom Garbutt, Startups 100 2015-featured Pobble’s noble ambition is to create a more literate world by helping teachers inspire young writers and give them a worldwide audience. Today, the site has more than 50,000 pieces of handwritten work available to access and view from anywhere in the world for free, with the audience able to share comments and feedback to help encourage their peers. Operating on a freemium model, Pobble generates revenue through an annual subscription portfolio which is a unique customisable page for a class’s writing. So far, 350 schools are paying to use the service.

Following an early crowdfunding round, the business recently closed £900,000 through a number of significant angels in the education industry. Set to turnover £1.2m in 2016, Pobble plans to use the next year to build additional features and lock in partnerships – a national competition in partnership with publisher Penguin generated thousands of entries when it launched last year. A fast-growing enterprise with a truly admirable social goal, what’s not to love?

Founders: Gem Misa and Jamie Harris
Founded: October 2013 (Launched September 2015)
Website: www.caulirice.com

While many like the idea of cutting down on carbs, it can be difficult to exorcise such a Western staple from our dinner plates. Enter faux carbs: first it was the courgetti craze, and now health conscious Brits are discovering the wonders of cauliflower rice.

After making the product for themselves, husband-and-wife team Gem Misa and Jamie Harris spotted the growing market and set about developing a ready to heat retail version. Their company Cauli Rice now produces four flavours of microwaveable, vegan, gluten and preservative free cauliflower rice, containing up to 75% fewer calories than white rice with a 12-month shelf life.

The range, which includes lemongrass and chili, Mediterranean and Indian pilau, is available in 1,500 supermarkets across the UK including Tesco, ASDA, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Wholefoods and a range of independent stores – and claims to be the only low-calorie alternative to rice.

The next year will see Cauli Rice – which raised an impressive £1m on Crowdcube last November – push its product into international markets, as well as other verticals outside retail. The business made revenues of £700,000 in its first six months of trading alone and is on track to more than double revenues to £2m for 2016. Not bad for a lean product business with just two employees currently.

Founders: Christian Lane
Founded: July 2013 (Launched June 2014)
Website: www.smarter.am

Imagine being able to turn your kettle on from anywhere in your home. After arguing with his family about whose turn it was to turn the kettle on, Christian Lane saw the potential for this to become a reality.

Three years later, Smarter Applications sells two connected appliances for the home – the iKettle and a smart grind and brew coffee maker, enabling users to pre-boil water or make a fresh coffee from an app on their smartphone. Retailing in Amazon, Currys and John Lewis, Smarter received over 1,000 orders in less than two hours and went on to sell more than £200,000 worth of kettles in the first few weeks of trading.

Today it has a community of 100,000 daily users. And tea and coffee is just the beginning: the company is currently in the process of developing a range of products for the connected home including a low-cost connected fridge so you can see a snapshot of its content when out shopping, and a food wastage solution.

This isn’t the first venture for Lane who started his first stationary business at 18, which he grew with Theo Paphitis after securing funding on Dragons’ Den. Set to turnover £5m in 2016 and with a host of exciting developments in the pipeline, this is a business with big potential.

Founder: Pip Murray
Founded: January 2013 (launched January 2015)
Website: www.pipandnut.com

What started as a pre or post-training snack for keen runner Pip Murray soon blossomed into a business when she spotted a gap in the nut butter market, with many brands containing unhealthy palm oils and refined sugars and their healthy counterparts sacrificing good branding.

Her solution was Startups Awards Crowdfunded Business of the Year nominee Pip & Nut – a range of all natural nut butters including peanut, almond, coconut almond and honey and cinnamon cashew, that come in jars or on-the-go squeezy pouches. From the beginnings of an idea working out of a garden shed (Murray won a competition to escape the city and launch her dream business), in just 15 months, the brand has seen itself stocked in 2,300 stores across the UK and Ireland. Current stockists include high end stores like Selfridges and Wholefoods to Sainsbury’s, Holland and Barrett, Virgin Active and Gymbox.

And Pip & Nut has big ambitions for the coming months with the launch of two new flavours and a target of increasing the range in Sainsbury’s from four products in 473 stores to 11 in more than 600 by June 2016 – a deal it claims could pull in £2.5m annually. In the second half of the year the brand is looking to start exporting to some European territories, which should see it reach a total of £3.3m in turnover by the end of 2016.

Founders: James Exton, Tom Exton, Max Bridger, Lloyd Bridger and Simon Burden
Founded: February 2013
Website: www.ldnmuscle.com

A truly fraternal operation, the Exton twins and the Bridger brothers had worked and trained together for a number of years at a leisure centre. Frequently asked for fitness advice and guidance, colleague, personal trainer (and ultimately co-founder) Simon Burden suggested they set up a blog to answer people’s questions.

Initially offering free advice, the blog snowballed through social media and in February 2013 the brothers took the decision to monetise LDN Muscle and turn it into a fully-fledged business. Today, the site offers digital training and nutrition plans, as well as a range of exercise apparel and industry approved educational courses and qualifications. Having juggled busy professional and social lives around their training, the team built their ‘transformation guides’ to help men and women with equally hectic schedules reach their goals.

In just three years, LDN Muscle has had 100,000 downloads and counting worldwide – all of which has been achieved with a grand total of £50 initial expenditure to pay for the design of their ‘Big Ben’ logo.

The brothers are keeping their future plans under wraps for the moment, but say that there are “some seriously, seriously exciting announcements to come”. If their gym routine is anything to go by, the team are sure to work hard and hit their goals – with £1m in turnover and very impressive profits in their sights for 2016. With a recent cover page feature in Men’s Fitness, you can expect to see a lot more of LDN Muscle!

Founders: Andrew Reeve, Annabel Causer, Craig Willmott and Timothy Armstrong
Founded: November 2012 (launched January 2014)
Website: www.honestbrew.co.uk

One of a number of beer-based start-ups that hopped onto the scene a few years ago, HonestBrew’s online service is on a mission to “help people discover better beer” by buying craft and speciality beers in bulk from breweries around the world and delivering them direct to its customers.

A runner-up for the Startups Retail Business of the Year Award 2015, founders Andrew Reeve, Annabel Causer, Craig Willmott and Timothy Armstrong found that people were either often overwhelmed by the sheer variety of craft beer on the market, or could only find a very limited selection and set out to solve the problem. Two years later the service has an audience of over 50,000 followers, 2,000 long-term subscribers across the UK and more than 10,000 customers, offering beer from breweries across the UK, Europe, the US and Australasia.

Initially bootstrapped using £30,000 of the founders own money, HonestBrew closed an overfunded £400,000 Crowdcube campaign in October 2015 to enhance its global presence. The retailer plans to continue discovering new and exciting beers and launched a new product last month, The Howler: a shipping service that transports three cans of craft beer in an attractive (and easily portable) tube direct to your door.

Founders: Tamara and Ben Arbib
Founded: January 2014
Website: www.rebel-kitchen.com

Having founded The A Team Foundation in 2010, a charitable foundation aimed at revolutionising the UK’s approach to food, health and sustainability, Tamara Arbib – Startups Awards Mumpreneur of the Year – realised that while charity was doing its best to push a positive agenda, food corporations were still only fixated on profit.

In January 2014, alongside her husband Ben (who previously had spent 15 years in private equity), she launched Startups 100 2015-featured Rebel Kitchen, a range of ‘mylk’ drinks made from a base of “ethically sourced” coconut. Blending the coconut with Somerset water – the drinks also include natural ingredients such as fairtrade cacao, date nectar, Brazilian oranges and bananas. The company claims its products are all lactose-free, suitable for vegans and contain no additives, preservatives or refined sugars. For adults, Rebel kitchen also produces chocolate, matcha green tea, chai and coffee. Clearly creating somewhat of a winning formula, within its first year of trading, the brand secured listings in Waitrose, Ocado, Tesco, Wholefoods Market and has already expanded into 20 global territories. It is continuing to expand distribution in the US; recently gaining listings in the Wholefoods Market Northern California region.

With prices starting at 99p per carton, Rebel Kitchen strives to maintain a competitive price point in a market that often tries to charge a premium for ‘healthier’ products. Having acquired Unoco raw coconut water at the start of 2016, the business plans to accelerate its growth within the UK coconut space. Now with coconut water and yoghurts within its portfolio, it will also continue to grow its mylk range and expand distribution in the US. Look like a busy 12 months.

Founders: Martin and Claire Murray
Founded: July 2013 (launched August 2014)
Website: www.dunnetbaydistillers.co.uk

After HMRC relaxed its minimum production volume threshold for distillers, Martin Murray decided it was time to leave his job of 10 years in the oil and gas industry and indulge his passion for brewing and distilling full-time.

Now with the market open for smaller batch distillers, Murray, alongside partner Claire Murray, launched Dunnet Bay Distillers in the most northerly county of mainland Scotland. Using local botanical, berries and fruit, the duo make handcrafted gin and vodka using traditional equipment and processes.

And it seems they were onto something: the business pre-sold its first batch of 750 bottles in less than 40 hours through social media (with an 800 bottle waiting list!) before selling more than their entire year’s forecast between September and December. Less than a couple of years on, Dunnet Bay does most of its business through wholesale to its network of retailers including House of Bruar, Fortnum & Mason and Harvey Nichols, as well as still settling online and from its own distillery shop.

The next 12 month looks to be an exciting year for the distillery with seasonal variations on its spirits in the pipeline, investing in new equipment and expanding its onsite shop. Having outgrown its business plan in the final quarter of last year and its warehouse fit to bursting, Dunnet Bay’s upwards trajectory in the craft spirits market looks unstoppable. A good problem to have.

Founders: Daniel van Binsbergen and Chris O’Sullivan
Founded: February 2014
Website: www.lexoo.co.uk

Frequently asked by friends whether they were being charged a fair price for legal advice, international lawyer Daniel van Binsbergen saw an opportunity to introduce some transparency to the market.

Alongside web expert and co-founder Chris O-Sullivan, he launched Startups 100 2015-featured Lexoo, an online service that helps businesses get fixed fee quotes from specialist lawyers within 24 hours. Our second law-focused entry on this year’s list, the start-up puts lawyers in direct competition with each other,  and claims that by doing so it encourages them to give their best price upfront. Lexoo doesn’t just use any lawyers, it specialises in finding those who’ve trained at larger firms but now work at, or have started, a smaller firm and are able to offer the same expertise at “half the rate”. To date, around 6,000 businesses, mostly start-ups, have benefited from the service (a growth of 5,000 new customers on last year), but larger firms have also used it to complement their own in-house lawyers.

Free-to-use, the service charges the lawyers a marketing fee upon payment by the client. Having raised £1.1m to date, most recently with a $1.3m funding round led by Forward Partners, Lexoo is preparing for a Series A in the Autumn to consolidate its UK market position before taking on Europe with its first launch on the continent.

Founders: Tim Antos and Richard Hall
Founded: October 2013 (launched July 2015)
Website: www.kokoon.io

With stress affecting his quality of sleep, Tim Antos attended a clinic and discovered the effectiveness of audio to help him fall asleep. Unfortunately, he found normal headphones were either too bulky and uncomfortable or would dislodge in the night.

After a year of research, he developed what is thought to be the “world’s first” sleep-sensing, smart headphones – designed to mould to the contours of the user’s head as well as tracking and measure your sleep to identify bad habits. Kokoon’s mobile app provides a limited range of free audio content, as well as a monthly subscription service unlocking unlimited content.

Following a stint at the world’s leading hardware accelerator, HAX, based in Shenzhen, China in 2015 the company launched a Kickstarter campaign with a target of $100,000. Going on to raise 19 times that amount, Kokoon pre-sold 10,000 units to stressed and sleep deprived adults and frequent travellers thanks to the exposure it gained from the campaign. Currently still at pre-launch stage but now with 12 full-time employees, the next year will see Kokoon fulfil its first headphone shipments and then commence on an aggressive marketing strategy.

Having just been accepted in the latest cohort of Breed Reply – the advanced Internet of Things accelerator – the duo have plans to increase the business’ market share and hit the ambitious target of selling 4,600 units a month. Also in the pipeline are plans to explore other uses for the headphones, several new hires and a Series A funding round.