Founders: Ryan Shaw, Paul Tarr and Andrew Kirby
Founded: August 2014
Website: www.vapeshoreditch.com

Frustrated at being unable to find quality vaping e-liquid, former interest rate options broker Ryan Shaw, consultancy entrepreneur Paul Tarr and graphic designer Andrew Kirby came together and decided to it was time to capitalise on the emerging market.

The trio decided to solve the distribution problem with the launch of what it claims to be the only flexible subscription service delivering own brand quality e-liquid to customers’ letterboxes every month.

Customers are able to adjust flavours, quantity, strengths of liquid, add additional hardware, change their delivery date and re-order at their leisure. Shoreditch also sells a variety of vape kits, batteries, tanks, chargers and coils from leading brands including Kangertech, Aspire, Innokin and Smok to name a few.

Already, the company has amassed more than 6,500 active subscribers and over 40 vape stores, helping it generate £1.4m in revenue for 2016 and project upwards of £2.7m for the coming year.

Now backed by £435,000, including a £235,000 seed round in January 2016, Shoreditch has some major plans in the pipeline for the coming year: as well as raising a seven figure Series A, the company is aiming to reach 15,000 active subscribers across the UK, Germany and France, launch 400 vape stores across five European countries and more than double the size of its team.

This is one business that is unlikely to disappear in a puff of smoke!

Founder: Ken Leren
Founded: July 2014
Website: tech-essence.com

Believing the industry to be “highly fragmented” in Europe and the United States, marketing technology-focused Tech Essence seeks to help businesses make informed decisions on measuring and optimising their multi-channel marketing campaigns.

Founded by Ken Leren, the 31-year-old has worked across various multi-channel marketing campaigns over the past decade, before being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

Taking out a personal loan, before later receiving investment, the entrepreneur admits to being a “one man show” at the beginning and oversaw all aspects of the business including technical development, marketing, sales, finance, and contract agreements.

Tech Essence’s main product, Marketing Town, which has been billed as “the next generation of campaign management, tracking and analytics technology” helps advertisers and agencies improve their campaigns by use of state of the art reporting.

Achieving rapid growth, the London-based start-up has already increased its headcount to seven and currently serves 32 clients – including the likes of Amazon, Dennis Publishing, Financial Times and Play Tech, while its exclusive network has grown to just under 1,000 leading marketing partners.

Implementing a three-fold revenue model, Tech Essence charges clients a pre-determined fee per month, while also offering support services and payment management.

Having raised £255,000 in finance via angel investors since inception, Tech Essence expects to turn over an equally impressive £2.5m in 2017.

So, what’s next for Tech Essence? Well, the next 12 months will see the start-up focusing on expanding overseas, improving Marketing Town’s interface as well as the introduction of new features.

Founder: Aamar Aslam
Founded: October 2015 (January 2016)
Website: fundinginvoice.com

A genuine struggle for thousands of small businesses across the UK, late payments is a problem for even the most ambitious, and fast-growing companies.

Having run his own chauffeur and limo service where he supplied cars to corporate companies, while juggling his studies at the University of Warwick, then 19 year-old Aamar Aslam found he was waiting up to 90 days for payment from clients – and was struggling to pay his staff as a result.

To resolve his cashflow issues at the time, the young entrepreneur to watch sought to secure a six-figure bank loan – only to be laughed out the door when he met with the bank manager.

After eventually raising finance via a private investor and repaying this finance as his invoices came through, Aslam began to wonder how many other small businesses would benefit from a similar system. With this lightbulb moment, Funding Invoice was born.

Launching the business after he graduated University, Aslam’s fintech start-up Funding Invoice aims to be faster, more flexible, more affordable and more transparent than traditional lenders and high street banks.

Competing with the likes of Startups 100 alumni MarketInvoice, the start-up allows businesses to borrow money against their invoices on “favourable terms”, taking a small percentage fee from each funded invoice – a tempting proposition for the cash strapped businesses of Britain.

Today, the 23 year-old’s business has facilitated £6m funding to small firms and now employs eight members of staff. Aslam is confident he can growth both numbers to £25m and 12 respectively in the coming months.

A business bore out of a burden faced by too many start-ups across the country, Funding Invoice is a welcome addition to our Startups 100 2017 index.

Founder: Chika Russell
Founded: June 2014
Website: chikas.co.uk

Chika Russell only launched her African-inspired snack food business Chika’s in 2014 but her determination and enterprising drive has been evident for some time.

Holding down her first job at 14 ironing shirts, Russell went on to continue to work while studying and at age 22 she graduated from the University of Westminster with an economics degree.

Spending the next eight years working for BT, Russell took maternity leave to have her second child and it was during this time that she decided she didn’t want to work for anyone else ever again.

Drawing on her African roots and love of cooking – but with no previous experience in the food industry – Russell decided to launch her eponymous business Chika’s and she is now enjoying the fruits of her labour.

A range of West African gluten-free and vegan-friendly snacks, including plantain and chickpea crisps and hand toasted peanuts, Chika’s is now stocked with Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Holland & Barrett, and Whole Foods.

The business also boasts an impressive list of commercial clients; sold to the likes of Google, Bloomberg, JetStar and CityJet.

Having raised £800,000 worth of external finance, Chika’s list of investors is almost as impressive as its customers and includes United Biscuits CEO Jeff van der Eems, Lastminute.com CEO Marco Corradini, and former SOHO House chairman Robert Devereux.

In fact, the snacks have proved so popular that a Dragons’ Den appearance in 2015 saw all five Dragon investors put offers on the table.

With projections to hit £10m revenue by the end of 2019, and eight more products being rolled out in 1,200 Sainsbury’s store, the inspiring story of Chika’s has only just begun.

Founder: Andrew Needham
Founded: April 2015 (Launched October 2015)
Website: www.headbox.com

Celebrating its second appearance in the Startups 100 index, HeadBox is “unlocking” creative, inspiring and spectacular spaces across the UK, whether for a meeting, workshop or big event.

Founded by Andrew Needham, a former Startups.co.uk columnist, in 2015, HeadBox allows you to book a hand-picked collection of more than 4,500 spaces. These spaces are spread across five UK cities from London to Liverpool, Bristol to Birmingham and Manchester, as well as a range of grand country escapes.

Headbox claims to be the first platform in the UK to launch a booking and payment system that allows guests to book a space online using a debit/ credit card or Paypal – and this month it’s set to launch a payment by invoice service.

For hosts using the service, HeadBox recently introduced dynamic pricing which allows them to list more than 150 price type combinations, with full control over five price types applied to different slots every seven days of the week.

Headbox hosts can also access a bespoke package, which provides a tailored event quote to a specific guest that can be booked via the platform.

Since featuring in 2016, HeadBox has doubled the size of its team and is now backed by £1.4m in funding.

The platform is on its way to becoming the go-to global marketplace for hiring out amazing underused spaces.

Founder: Simon Douglass
Founded:  July 2014
Website: curated-digital.com

A former stand-up comedian, Simon Douglass’ decision to start his own business was no laughing matter.

The ex-Google employee invested his life savings of £25,000 to start a business, in the belief that his digital marketing firm could offer things that others in the industry couldn’t – and nearly three years later, it seems he was right.

Aiming to offer complete transparency to clients from the get-go, Douglass says that his business’ open and honest style of communication helps build trusting relationships between his team and clients; which drives them to work even harder.

With expertise in organic search, content marketing, paid advertising, and social media marketing, the Shoreditch-based business refuses to work in silo and insists the team come together to work towards a common goal.

With a strong emphasis on content Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Curated Digital has more recently added a PR department and has also expanded from written content into video production – with 65% of the start-up’s revenue now coming from content.

With clients including Travis Perkins, Marie Curie, Healthspan and Ingenium Academy, Curated Digital charges a retainer fee for hours spend and media costs if needs be.

Previously taking year out to pursue his dream and tour as a stand-up comedian, Douglass expects his start-up to turnover more than £1m in 2017 – not a bad day job if you ask us!

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

Making its second appearance in the Startups 100, Cauli Rice is the carb substitute founded by husband and wife team Gem Misa and Jamie Harris which is designed to help dieters and fitness fans reduce their carb intake but still feel full.

Tired of making their own cauliflower rice from scratch, Misa and Harris sought to find convenient, ready-made cauliflower rice in the supermarkets but were surprised to find nothing of the sort. This led to the realisation that there was a gap in the market for a brand new ‘rice’ product.

In 2015, after three years of development and three rounds of crowdfunding, the pair launched Cauli Rice – microwaveable, low-carb, vegan, gluten-free, preservative-free rice substitute. As well as containing vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre, the rice is ready in two and half minutes, contains 75% fewer calories than regular rice and stays fresh for 12 months.

Stocked with Tesco, ASDA, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Wholefoods and a range of independent stores, the product comes in a range of flavours including original, Mediterranean, Indian Pilau and Spicy Chicken.

Cauli Rice has also now launched a subscription offering; allowing customers to sign up to receive eight 200 gram packets delivered either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

In its first year of trading, Cauli Rice turned over an impressive £1.5m, selling its products to more than 350,000 households. And, after securing listings in major supermarket chains across the US and Europe, the company is hoping to hit £2.2m in revenue for 2017.

As the faux-carbohydrate craze continues to thrive, this London start-up is making big waves in the global market and is thought to be the fastest growing brand in the rice sector.

Founder: Daniel Hegarty
Founded: January 2015 (Launched April 2016)
Website: www.habito.com

The continued rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) has opened the doors for innovation across a whole range of industries – and proptech is no different.

With the likes of Property Partner, Settled and Purplebricks all gracing our Startups 100 profile pages in recent years, 2017 bears witness to habito’s first appearance in the list.

Targeted at helping Brits find a mortgage that’s best for them, habito believes the mortgage application process should be entirely automated – from sourcing to AIPs, all the way to completion.

Using a chatbot called the “Digital Mortgage Adviser”, the start-ups’ AI tech analyses all aspects of a user’s financial life (employment, attitude to risk, and personal life plans) and is then able to assess what type of mortgage would be the right fit for them.

Asking users only relevant questions, the algorithm also uses real-time market rates to calculate a likely monthly payment amount, based on a user’s circumstances and preferences.

Available 24/7 and free to users – it takes a payment from lenders for each mortgage processed – the app seeks to provide an alternative to what Hegarty refers to as a “drawn-out and anxious mortgage approval process”.

Operating in a £95bn industry, it’s hardly surprising that habito has grown 30% month-on-month since launch, completing over £70m worth of applications to date.

Applying the latest in tech to a previously undisturbed industry, and having assisted more than 25,000 people in their search for a mortgage, you can expect to hear a lot more about habito over the next 12 months.

Founders: Romi Savova and Jonathan Lister
Founded: December 2014 (launched January 2016)
Website: www.pensionbee.com

Anyone who has tried to move old pensions to a new provider will know that the process can be a painful one, riddled with endless phone calls, paperwork and complicated offerings.

Deciding that there should be a simpler solution, former Goldman Sachs analyst Romi Savova came up with her start-up idea: an online pension manager to consolidate old pensions into one single plan. With the help of digital consultancy owner Jonathan Lister, PensionBee launched in January 2016.

Giving savers a clear overview of their retirement funds, PensionBee enables users to view their combined balance, make online contributions and plan their savings. PensionBee says that the three plans it offers – managed by top financial managers BlackRock and State Street – are competitively priced, with no hidden fees.

So far the start-up has attracted 23,000 sign ups and, though pensions are historically synonymous with planning for retirement, many of its customers are young. In fact, PensionBee asserts that it uses transparent, jargon-free communication and social media to appeal to the younger market, who would usually be neglect to think about their pension because of the complicated products on the market.

This disruptive approach saw the business recognised at the 2016 Startups Awards, where it won Innovative Business of the Year.

Touted as “the UK’s most loved pension brand”, PensionBee’s founders say the positive feedback they receive makes them “happy and proud”. Building on this, the start-up aims to have helped 20,000 people combine their pensions over the next year and is keen to introduce new plans and tap into the self-employed market with tailored offerings.

Get ready, PensionBee is well on its way to shaking up a “dusty old industry”.

Founders: Dr. Leo Evans, Richard Evans and Rory Curnock Cook
Founded: September 2014
Website: www.theprofs.co.uk

Former lecturer Dr. Leo Evans believed the lecture-based structure of university education didn’t do its learners justice, targeting the average student and leaving those who are less able or more capable feeling isolated and unfulfilled.

To solve this, he teamed up with his brother, professional tutor Richard Evans, and operations manager Rory Curnock Cook to found edtech start-up The Profs, an online platform connecting students with peer-to-peer tutoring services.

Built on the principle that one-to-one teaching is the best way for students to fulfil their potential, The Profs manages a network of over 400 qualified educators – ranked internally by the start-up’s own algorithms – and also offers an online “virtual classroom” in BitPaper.

Using BitPaper’s “collaborative whiteboard”, tutors and students are able to share learning resources and record tutorials. With this innovative online tool The Profs has been able to reach every continent, tutoring students in 52 countries across the globe.

Over 2,000 university students have now signed up to The Profs, along with several hundred school pupils and young professionals. Impressively, BitPaper’s 2016 beta phase alone saw it teach 30,000 hours of classes across the world – the equivalent of three and a half years of teaching. And astonishingly, these hours amassed without The Profs marketing the platform at all.

Having hit a huge £1.1m turnover in 2016, the start-up is projecting over £2m for this year; numbers that reflect the business’ rapid growth, which it has achieved through reinvesting £400,000 income rather than raising any finance.

While The Profs currently serves students already in higher education, it has lofty ambitions to one day replace the lecture-based model with its own peer-to-peer online university.

For now though, the start-up is planning to further its international expansion and launch its own courses. Having launched BitPaper to 30,000 UK tutors through a partnership with Startups 100 alumni Tutor Cruncher, The Profs aims to attract over 10,000 users to the service.