Founder: Oliver Bridge
Founded: January 2013 (launched July 2014)
Website: www.cornerstone.co.uk

A self-confessed hatred of shaving, skin rash and shopping for toiletries was what led to 27 year-old Oliver Bridge’s “eureka moment” while queuing to buy some over-priced razors in Boots. “Couldn’t I do this better,” he thought – and the idea for Cornerstone was born.

The online service sells and delivers men’s razors and shaving products over the internet on a flexible subscription model, allowing customers to choose a combination of products and a delivery schedule that matches their routine. Flexible is the key word: Cornerstone prides itself on allowing customers to cancel, pause, or change their deliveries at any time. And despite competition from some major international rivals, it seems UK men are responding to this new way of doing things, with 37,500 having signed up so far – growing 5% week-on-week.

Cornerstone was named People’s Champion at the 2015 Startups Awards – voted for by Startups readers – and in July last year raised an impressive £900,000 from the crowd in an oversubscribed campaign on Crowdcube, so the business is clearly doing something right. Bridge – who started his first e-commerce business selling large shoes at just 15 – has ambitious plans for the young start-up, with hopes to hit 100,000 customers this year, expand internationally and launch a new razor based on features recommended by his customers. Watch this space.

Founders: Alain Falys and Michael Rolph
Founded: May 2013 (Launched January 2014)
Website: www.yoyowallet.com

Returning for the second year in a row is Startups 100 2015 company Yoyo Wallet. Founders Alain Falys and Michael Rolph are aiming to finally realise the full potential of mobile as a means of payment – a format that has seen a rocky road to mass market use.

To achieve this they’ve created a platform that’s more than just payments, Yoyo is a mobile-first personalised market integrating payment, loyalty rewards and marketing for retailers, brands and consumers. The service’s tools help businesses target their customers with tailored rewards, offers and incentives based on their profile and purchase history. Consumers can pay, receive digital receipts, collect points and pre-order all from their phone, negating the need to stuff their wallet full of loyalty cards.

Since launch, Yoyo has secured more than 100 clients including universities, caterers, corporates and retailers, totaling 600 individual outlets, and has gone from processing 150,000 transactions this time last year to around 400,000 a month at present. In February, the company acquired fellow Startups 100-featured Q App, an app that helps people avoid queues by pre-ordering from their phones.

Backed by $10m in Series A funding, Yoyo plans to embark on a campaign of expansion across the UK and the US, as well as focus on getting its platform into a number of high street retail chains.

Founder: Will Neale
Founded: July 2013 (launched September 2013)
Website: http://about.grabyo.com/

Social video is a fast-growth industry and one that London start-up Grabyo has been at the forefront of since its launch in September 2013. Created by founder Will Neale, Grabyo – which also appeared in the Startups 100 index in 2015 – offers a suite of social video production and publishing tools which can be used in real-time by digital businesses.

Using Grabyo, companies can share moments from live feeds for instant distribution across social media; think share replays of football goals or behind-the-scenes action shoots.

Neale, who has 15 years’ experience working in digital and tech, started the business after noticing how viewing consumption habits were shifting to mobile and his idea has rapidly taken off. In November 2014, high-profile sports stars including Cesc Fàbregas, Thierry Henry, Robin van Persie, and NBA star Tony Parker invested $2m and, more recently, Facebook has shown its support.

In April 2016, Facebook unveiled Graybo as the official streaming partner of its Facebook Live service. The major deal will give media publishers the ability to stream live broadcasts directly to Facebook and post instant highlights natively on Facebook throughout the live broadcast.

With its technology, impressive backing, and a 23-strong team, Grabyo has amassed a portfolio of over 60 clients across Europe, Asia, and the US in sports, news, music and entertainment.

So what’s next? Neale says he wants to continue to evolve the platform with the vision to enable publishers to connect with millions of consumers around the globe on mobile devices. The trick will be providing the right content, in the right format, at the right time…

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

Marking its third appearance in the Startups 100 index is Headspace, the fast-growing provider of inspiring office spaces, meeting rooms, and event space.

With start-up businesses and creative companies continuing to scale at speed, the traditional office rental model of a five-year lease is losing its appeal – which is where Headspace comes in.

Combining a range of “beautiful working environments” on short-term leases from co-work space, private offices for up to 20 people, and entire floors of its Farringdon and Marylebone buildings, Headspace seeks to “take on the headaches of running an office so that businesses can focus on what really matters”.

The brainchild of property entrepreneur Jonny Rosenblatt, the start-up launched in 2013 and has become the go-to office provider for some of the country’s top creative and technology businesses with tenants including Eventbrite and the London School of Photography. Its larger spaces have also become popular with major international businesses such as Microsoft, BuzzFeed, and Deloitte.

Now home to 400 resident tenants across 25,000 square ft., the company achieved turnover of £1.4m and profits of £600,000 last year. Revenues are expected to increase to £2m this year with plans underway for the opening of a third site.

In growing the business, Rosenblatt has taken a lean start-up approach with no external investment and the help of just 10 employees. So what, then, is his winning business formula?

Rosenblatt tells us it’s a combination of “providing an aesthetically pleasing environment with a heavy focus on community”. With an onsite barista coffee shop, retro games room and more, he says Headspace helps “promote a culture of collaboration, rather than [being] just an office space.”

Founders: Andy Logan and Amar El-zayat
Founded: March 2013 (launched May 2013)
Website: www.vapeemporium.com

Predicting the huge future market of vaping, Andy Logan and Amar El-zayat got into the game early with Vape Emporium, a multi-channel retailer selling everything from vaping devices to e-liquids from its Hampstead and Richmond sites, as well as online, via wholesale and through third party events.

This is the second appearance in the Startups 100 for the vaping brand which now sells to thousands of customers every month around the world. Vape Emporium takes vaping seriously: their customer-focused approach includes in-shop ‘Vape Consultants’, to help people buy the product that meets their requirements, as well as a testing station and bar allowing customers to sample the dizzying array of flavoured e-liquids such as strawberry sundae, cappuccino and chocolate and mint.

As well as the opening of several new shops in the UK, Vape Emporium is currently in talks with foreign partners about the possibility of supplying or opening international stores. The young business is also in the process of developing and manufacturing five new products alongside a big push to drive its wholesale arm forwards.

Having turned over an impressive £550,000 in 2015, the brand is already on track to more than double that this year, with revenue projected to hit £1.2m for 2016.

With e-cigarettes constantly in the news at the moment, it will certainly be an interesting 12 months for the start-up…

Founders: Matt Fox and Dan Harrison
Founded: January 2014
Website: www.snaptrip.com

Having worked in the holiday rental sector for a number of years Matt Fox and Dan Harrison were well aware that home owners would be more than happy to offer significant discounts on the price of their properties for late bookings (rather than leave them empty).

With holidaymakers always keen to snag a good deal, they knew they could connect the two together and set about launching last year’s Startups 100-listed Snaptrip, which placed 92^nd in the index. The online marketplace enables users to book spontaneous, last-minute getaways to more than 40,000 self-catering properties in the UK for up to 50% off the original price. Results can be filtered by destination, amenities and whether they allow pets or not, so holidaymakers can find something that exactly suits their needs.

The company takes a commission on the value of every sale, which is structured so that the closer the booking is to departure the greater the commission. Snaptrip says it has secured partnerships with some of the biggest management agencies in the sector and offers exclusive pricing on half of the properties in its portfolio to make sure its users get a good deal.

Fuelled by £2.2m in equity funding and with very impressive revenue projections for this year, Snaptrip has big plans for the next 12 months. Through the addition of more properties, ramping up marketing and investing in its website the founders are looking not only for further growth but to reach profitability by 2017.

Founder: Sami McCabe
Founded: November 2012 (launched April 2013)
Website: http://clarity.pr/ 

Despite London’s technology start-up community thriving in “an otherwise bleak economy”, Sami McCabe noticed there wasn’t anybody delivering quality PR services specifically targeted to young and fast-growing tech start-ups.

Having previously worked for a small tech PR agency when studying for his masters, McCabe realised he could use that experience to launch his own and plug the gap. Set up with just £50,000 of bank debt, Clarity PR differentiates itself from competitors thanks to its team of ex-journalists – who know how to deliver a strong editorial angle – and overseas reach. The business has bases in London, New York and Berlin, delivering projects and campaigns for high-growth tech companies as well as a few bigger brands with global exposure from day one.

This is the company’s second appearance in the Startups 100 thanks to its continued growth, with 42 clients now on its impressive roster. Clarity PR also plans to expand its international reach further in the coming months with a San Francisco office opening shortly and planned launches in Singapore, Paris and Stockholm.

Alongside physical expansion into new offices, Clarity PR’s growth strategy also includes plans to launch into a new service territory by offering social, digital and content marketing. On target to turnover £3m in 2016, this 30-strong team has what it takes to succeed in global PR with its focused and experienced offering.

Founders: Joshua Magidson, and Mark Schlagman
Founded: January 2013 (launched May 2013)
Website: www.zing-zing.co.uk

The Chinese takeaway is big business in the UK, ubiquitous on the high street and with a reported market value of £1.4bn. Despite this Joshua Magdison noticed a general substandard of food and service across the industry.

Determined to rectify this, he joined forces with Mark Schlagman, a man with 20 years experience in retail and restaurant management, and Jeremy Pang, a Cordon Bleu-trained expert in oriental cooking. Together, they launched Zing Zing: a takeaway service delivering high quality Chinese meals “with a modern and healthy twist”.

The business delivers within a two-mile radius of its Kentish Town and Finsbury Park locations, to a database of 40,000 customers, claiming an average delivery time of 33 minutes. 170,000 orders have been placed since launch in May 2013.

Aiming high with the ambition of becoming the “largest and best regarded Chinese food delivery brand in the UK”, Zing Zing plans to open another three London stores in the coming months as it embarks on an aggressive roll out across the capital. And thanks to a recent crowdfunding campaign that saw the eatery raise £1.6m in a 457% overfunded round – it looks like there’ll be no stopping them.

Magidson has history in the sector, having successfully set up online food ordering platform and Startups 100-featured Eatstudent.co.uk, which he sold to Just Eat in 2010 – a good omen for the future success of his current venture.

Founder: Avin Rabheru
Founded: October 2013 (launched January 2014)
Website: www.housekeep.com

This is the third appearance in the Startups 100 for the online cleaning service, which set out to disrupt the estimated $4bn home cleaning market by enabling time-poor Londoners to book professional, insured home cleaners at an affordable rate.

Former angel investor Avin Rabheru founded the business with £10,000 of his own money after he identified the commonalities between his most successful investments: a big market, a fragmented existing supplier base and one in which technology can disrupt the industry. Not afraid to get his hands dirty, the entrepreneur spent two months cleaning with cleaners to better understand the market and how to improve it.

And it’s certainly paid off: Housekeep has grown its ‘clean volumes’ 12-fold and is on track to secure 10,000 subscription customers by the end of 2016. The service has also branched out into other services such as ironing, laundry, oven cleaning, fridge cleaning and window cleaning.

A People’s Champion Finalist at the 2015 Startups Awards, Housekeep has now raised $2m and plans to continue its streak of rapid growth by doubling revenue and being profitable by mid-year. The second half of the year could also see the service expand beyond its current remit of residential cleaning in London…

Founder: Suzanne Brock
Founded: June 2013
Website: www.nutriment.co

Surrey-based Nutriment believes that pets deserve good quality, nutritious food, but more than that, they think they should be served food of the same quality as their owners! Returning for the second year to the Startups 100, the brand produces biologically-approved pet food, made from ‘human-grade’ meat, vegetables and superfoods such as coconut, salmon oil and spirulina.

Targeting vets, ‘in-the-know’ breeders and independent pet stores, Nutriment’s meals are all raw, meaning they retain far more natural goodness than their over-cooked, over-processed rivals – cats and dogs were once wild carnivores after all. With Brock claiming other raw pet ranges were either “dowdy and crude or flouncy and hippyish”, Nutriment aims to bring the sector back to life as a premium product.

Launched with no external finance and after being let down by the bank at the eleventh hour, founder Suzanne Brock – who’s eclectic background includes stints as an army officer, a city operative and a project manager – deservedly took home the prestigious Lean Start-up of the Year at the Startups Awards 2015.

And the business is now really flying. With 40 employees, January 2016 saw the opening of a second factory to enable the business to keep up with thriving demand, which is now hitting an impressive 2,000 tonnes a month. In the coming months, Nutriment will release a new organic and free range dog food in partnership with Laverstock Farm – which will help turnover for 2016 reach £4.5m.