Founders: Paul Christensen, David Brown, Dr. Philipp Schoenbucher, Giulio Rossi, and Andre de Cavaignac
Founded: 2016
Website: www.previ.se

With experience across the financial sector – in everything from technology and risk-management, to payments and compliance – the four founders of Previse had a collective desire to “end the scourge of slow payments”.

Paul Christensen, David Brown, Dr. Philipp Schoenbucher, Giulio Rossi, and Andre de Cavaignac wanted a sustainable way to unlock the billions of dollars owed to small businesses from the supply chain to help the economy at large.

Founded in 2016, Previse uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create and share value from invoice data so multinational buyers can ensure even their smallest suppliers are paid instantly – unlike current trade finance programmes (which only focus on the largest suppliers and only help after the invoice has been approved).

Even the suppliers that can get credit are charged extortionate interest rates, which increases prices for buyers.

Previse claims there is a $2.4 trillion global market of small suppliers looking for credit to cover “short-term liquidity challenges”. Bringing the payment date forward can instantly unlock cash value from invoices benefitting everyone in the chain.

Instead of £95 in today’s money after waiting £100 for the settlement of a £100 invoice, they can be paid £98 instantly. That £2 discount is then split between Previse, the finance provider, and the buyer (for giving access to their data).

Previse was recently announced as the first company in Scotland to partner with Auticon, a UK social enterprise that exclusively hires autistic people and contracts them to businesses as consultants. It will now work with a number of consultants on security and test automation projects.

Backed by £2m in seed funding, the start-up will now focus on on-boarding more customers to invest in and grow the business so that it can continue to help more of the 60% of small businesses around the world that are paid late by corporates. This forces them to write off billions in unpaid bills and to risk closure.

In the UK alone, Previse says this could unlock £67bn that could then be invested in boosting productivity and growing the economy at large. But this problem isn’t limited to our shores, and the start-up thinks it could have a “world-first, unique solution to this huge, global issue”.

Founders: Christopher Moon
Founded: November 2015 (launched January 2016)
Website: www.jointhetribe.travel

Returning to the Startups 100 for the second year in a row is Tribe – the app helping a new generation of travellers to “plan, share, fund, book, live and re-live their travel goals”.

Founder Christopher Moon found travelling exciting but noticed that a lot of the associated organisations weren’t – too many middle men, too much fragmentation, poor insider knowledge and archaic procedures.

Moon and his team spent the first two years focusing on “getting nitty gritty in resorts” to build up the nubile brand’s trust. Then, in April 2017, Tribe won the Start-Up Series – the UK’s largest monthly seed funding competition – and secured £150,000 in equity investment from Worth Capital.

Alongside additional funding from Amersham Investments, this allowed the business to build out its technology offering, making 99% of its product digital. Today it offers trips to more than 60 festivals and destinations, from Barcelona, to Australia and Croatia.

Now, Tribe is building a loyal membership base of young travellers, who get access to unique travel experiences, special perks, and the chance to socialise with likeminded travellers from across the globe.

Its goal is to engage and monetise members across a 15-year lifecycle, offering rewards for community tasks such as creating a wish list or giving other members travel tips. In this way, they are constantly funnelled into planning, funding and sharing the next trip.

To date it has attracted more than 80,000 subscribers and sold more than 5,000 trips. It will now focus on encouraging more subscribers to book trips, targeting 15,000 bookings for 2019.

To this end, the next 12 months will see Tribe launch an app for its global user base with new innovative features that will help it deliver sales. If all goes to plan, Tribe has its sights set on becoming the number one destination for youth travellers globally. This young entrepreneur is shooting for the Moon!

Founders: Damien Lee
Founded: January 2017 (launched September 2017)
Website: www.mrleesnoodles.com

Damien Lee claims to have never had any experience in any sector he’s started up in.

Despite this, the former Australian special forces member has been behind a digital marketing agency, a financial recruitment company, oil trading, one of the world’s largest maritime communication companies, and numerous nightclubs, restaurants and bars across three different countries.

The next sector on his list to target? Noodles. With his healthy gourmet noodle start-up Mr Lee’s Noodles Company.

So why noodles? Well, there’s an inspiring story behind it.

Lee, a dad of two, was diagnosed with stage four cancer and given weeks to live. Whilst undergoing 16 rounds of aggressive chemotherapy, he found that craved instant noodles but the high content of nasty ingredients excluded them from the raw and clean diet he was pursuing to help battle cancer.

After beating cancer, Lee researched the noodle market and found that an estimated 100 billion instant noodles are eaten globally every year.

Recognising a gap in the market– Startups Awards-nominated Mr Lee’s Noodles was born. Unlike rival brands, Mr Lee’s is gourmet, gluten-free, and uses freeze-dried ingredients (instead of dehydrated) to maintain “the physical and nutritional integrity of the products”.

It claims to be one of the lowest in salt, sugar, calories, and fats on the market with no MSG’s, artificial preservatives, additives, flavouring, colouring or additives.

Rising from 90th position in the Startups 100 2017, Mr Lee’s is a brand on the move having slurped up a number of lucrative deals with Jetstar Airlines, South Western Railway, and East Midlands Trains, as well as many hotels and independents.

Across the next year, Lee will be rolling out the company’s innovative Noodle Kiosks in partnership with contract catering firm The Compass Group. It will also be launching in three supermarket chains in England, France and Australia.

Although going global is a key focus, Lee has a much more admirable goal in mind: to educate young people on the best ways to eat, and live, better.

Founders: Natasha Pilbrow & Jean-Michel Chalayer
Founded: June 2014 (Launched March 2015)
Website: www.lesalon.com

If you’ve ever wished that there was more time in the day to spend time pampering and looking after yourself then you’re not alone.

For former lawyer Natasha Pilbrow and international entrepreneur Jean-Michel Chalayer – who both love getting beauty treatments – the pair found they never had time for a spot of self-indulgence at the salon. Even finding a therapist for a home treatment proved difficult.

And so, they started LeSalon.

A luxury on-demand beauty provider delivering affordable beauty services across London, LeSalon’s services include manicures, pedicures, waxing for men and women, and eyelash extensions.

Every therapist on its platform is vetted, tested, trained, and matched with a customer using an algorithm to ensure a consistently high-quality service.

And, unlike platforms such as blow Ltd, LeSalon’s booking service is fully automated. You enter your ideal location, date, time, ratings and your preferences and LeSalon will match you with a therapist; Chalayer tell us it’s the only on-demand beauty company in Europe offering this service.

As well as convenience for its customers, the start-up is focused on helping its therapists make a comfortable living. Pilbrow and Chalayer explain that it’s not uncommon for many therapists to have previously been forced to work for minimum wage in exploitative salons, whereas LeSalon allows them to “take control of their life, work when and where they want, and earn more money”.

And the platform has been as much a hit with therapists as it has time-sparse Londoners. More than 10,000 busy professionals are currently using the service for home treatments.

With popularity growing in the capital, LeSalon is looking to raise a seed round to fuel UK-wide expansion before it sets its sights on growing internationally.

The investment will also help develop some “pretty cutting edge tech” for the therapist allocation using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

For Chalayer, a beauty treatment isn’t just about making you look good, it’s empowerment: “When you get a beauty service you feel more confident about yourself which allows you to achieve your dreams”. That’s why LeSalon is on a mission to “change the world one manicure at a time”

Founders: Asaf Navot and Nick Binnington
Founded: 2016
Website: www.home-made.com

“Extortionate fees, poor customer service, lack of transparency, and a misalignment of incentives.” These were the problems that Asaf Navot experienced whilst trying to let out his London property.

Navot didn’t think it was fair that the average London landlord pays £1,000 towards agency rent and so decided to do something about it.

After joining forces with co-founder Nick Binnington, the pair assembled a team from a cross-sector of industries including technology, property, medical products, charity, media, and even the military (Binnington served for 10 years) in an attempt to bring the best practices from these industries to an industry lacking in innovation.

The result was Home Made; which offers the premium service of a high-end estate agent without the sky-high fees.

Every landlord gets a dedicated account manager and tenants are able to view properties at a time that suits them, including late night viewings (10pm) and viewings on Sundays and bank holidays.

Home Made collects 80% of its revenue from landlords, collecting the remaining revenue from tenants, additional services and data. Fees start from just £948 plus VAT, which the start-up claims are 60-90% lower than the industry standard.

Additional services offered include professional photography and floor plans, marketing, independent referencing, contracting, payments and deposit handling.

Landlords who opt for its Premium Plus package (£1,498 plus VAT) also gain access to professional deep cleaning, inventory check-in report, gas safety certificate and energy performance certificate.

Hundreds of landlords and tenants have already used Home Made’s service and seem to be happy with the results: the start-up boast a 96% rating on Trustpilot.

Home Made will continue its focus on the local lettings market for the time being. But, with a large funding round anticipated for later in the year, it won’t be long before it starts exploring new services and locations.

Founders: Eric Craig and Brett Dawson
Founded: 2016 (launched 2017)
Website: www.free2cycle.com

A business that gives you a free bike, provided that you ride it.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Wrong – Free2Cycle lets you use a bike and it pays for itself!

Transforming wellbeing through cycling, Free2Cycle works in partnership with organisations and its supply-chain to enable and incentivise an increase in regular exercise and to improve our environment.

For instance, instead of a company having a cycle to work scheme in place it will introduce a Free2Cycle scheme for its employees.

The company will sponsor the employee to ride the bike, only paying for measurable results (whether the employee rode the bike to work and for how long), while the employee gets the bike for free if they stick to the agreed cycling KPIs (how long they’ll ride the bike for).

Offering organisations “considerable” CSR and financial benefits, Free2Cycle is a win-win for employers and employees alike.

Co-founder Craig came up with the idea for the business after his friend – a struggling bike shop owner – asked for some advice, commenting that “there are so many chubby people out there, it would be great if we could give them bikes for free and get them to ride them”.

As a former strategist, Craig saw the potential for this idea to be made into a scalable business model that could deliver real benefits to society.

With the next 12 months holding “substantial sales and marketing growth”, Craig is passionate for Free2Cycle to make a marked difference to people’s health and wellbeing.

And, while its only early days for the business now, longer-term he plans for Free2Cycle to have launched not only across the whole of the UK but in global destinations too.

Founder: James Harford-Tyrer
Founded: September 2015 (launched May 2017)
Website: www.cudoni.com

Cudoni is the easiest way for busy people to sell their pre-owned luxury and VIP goods.

The company was started by 26-year-old young entrepreneur to watch James Harford-Tyrer who rather ironically, set up the business with no money or savings; selling his car and most of his possessions to get his idea off the ground and to create an initial prototype.

Evidently, this was a risk worth taking.

Launched only in May last year, Cudoni’s private VIP service is now used by celebrities, high-net worth individuals, and professionals in the luxury goods space.

The start-up takes care of the whole sales process for them and this includes in-house collection by one of its representatives at a time and location of their choosing, through to professional photography, listing, customer handling and fulfilment.

Priding itself on providing a more personable and high-end service than anyone else in the market, Cudoni’s in-house technology allows it to extract the maximum value from each item that it sells. On average, the start-up sells items for 30% higher than if the individual were to sell the same item themselves.

Recently recognised as one of the best fashion resale sites by The Telegraph, alongside retail giants like eBay, Cudoni appears to have come a long way from Harford-Tyrer’s early start-up days.

While the business was started organically, today Cudoni has raised £575,000 in funding and its investors are equally as impressive; Capital One founder Matt Cooper and Vita Coco CEO Giles Brook have both invested in the business.

So, what does Harford-Tyrer have up his sleeves for Cudoni next? He asserts that his goal is clear:

“We’re looking to reshape the face of luxury goods resale, globally. We want to be the biggest player in a fiercely competitive market and have absolute belief that we’re going to succeed.”

Founders: Dan Faber and Alex Hamilton
Founded: March 2015 (Launched July 2016)
Website: www.doctap.co.uk

Alex Hamilton had experienced chronic back pain as a result of his time in the armed forces but found it extremely difficult to get an immediate appointment with a GP.

Research revealed it wasn’t just him.

In fact, over a million people in London and across the UK were struggling to access primary care when they needed it. And Hamilton found that it seemed to be only private GPs who could take on those in need immediately – yet felt going private was only really accessible to the wealthy.

Already keen to start his own business, a mutual friend introduced him to Dan Faber – a former accountant and self-taught coder – and DocTap was borne; an affordable same-day private GP service.

DocTap allows people to book a same day, face to face appointment with a GP from £29 to £44 depending on the time of day and how far in advance the booking is made. There are no additional charges for writing prescriptions, sick notes or referral letters.

Its 50 subcontracting doctors – who are all highly experienced and UK accredited – are able to see four patients in an hour in 15-minute slots in Central London clinics that are all run from a centralised admin office manned by virtual receptionists.

Patients are able to request a female or male doctor when they book an appointment and can choose to see the same doctor again.

Since starting two years ago, DocTap has treated more than 14,600 patients – 97% of whom it claims would recommend the service to their friends and family – with tourists and students accounting for a large proportion of its customer base.

DocTap is on track to hit £1.2m turnover in 2018 and the next 12 months will see the business consolidate its business in the capital before expanding to new cities and, eventually, countries…

Founders: Dr Neil Garner
Founded: March 2018
Website: www.thyngs.net

Dr Neil Garner claims to have pioneered mobile proximity marketing and mobile contactless payments for major brands as founder of Proxama.

Now he’s brought that technology to his new project Thyngs – the mobile technology platform that can turn any physical object into an unattended point of sale (POS) – connecting buyers, sellers, and brands.

The start-up’s hardware and software platform provides everything they need to add a QR/NFC sticker or Bluetooth low energy beacon to an object or location. Smartphone users can then tap, scan or go near the object to be linked directly to services or mobile content.

The brand just needs to log on to the secure, cloud-based management tool to configure the action, which could be taking payments, bringing packaging to life and getting consumers to engage with promotions.  This information can be measured to see how it drives customer acquisition, loyalty and sales.

Thyngs hybrid revenue model consists of a platform subscription, physical hardware products, transaction fees and professional services. It integrates with some of the major players in the space including PayPal, WorldPay, Stripe and NFC Products.

It all happened at a good time for the recently started business after Apple announced that it would support NFC reading in their phones, opening up 50% of the mobile phone market overnight.

The next year will see the start-up embark on a period of rapid growth by hiring talent, acquiring clients, driving revenue and product development marketing fuelled by a recent crowdfunding round.

Eventually it hopes to become the de facto method of making a mobile payment from any physical object.

Founders: Chris Forbes and Julie Chen
Founded: January 2016
Website: www.thecheekypanda.co.uk

Laying claim to being the first business of its kind in the UK, The Cheeky Panda has created a range of ultra-sustainable, low carbon and healthy bamboo tissue products.

But why bamboo? According to The Cheeky Panda’s website, it’s the fastest growing plant in the world – meaning it’s in plentiful supply. It’s also a softer and kinder substance for skin.

The founders of this unique enterprise are Chris Forbes and Julie Chen.

Chen had already run an online dance shoes retail business and has a background in eco products, whilst Forbes had run a global executive recruitment business that counted PwC, EY, Capgemini, and UBS as clients.

After running a Crowdfunder campaign which established there was a market for their product – and which helped to finance initial production – The Cheeky Panda’s bamboo-based toilet, kitchen and facial tissues can now be found in Ocado, Wholefoods, As Nature Intended, and has even been selected as an Amazon’s choice product.

It also sells business-to-business (B2B) to organisations including Lyreco, Jangro, Channel, Alexander McQueen, Standard Life, Treasury, Pinsent Masons, American Airline and British Airways.

The Cheeky Panda’s commitment to sustainability is not just a marketing ploy: for every pack of tissues bought it donates money into protecting the rainforests of Vietnam.

As it continues to educate the market about the environmental and health benefits of using bamboo tissue, the company intends to be stocked with major supermarkets in 2018 and will be launching into German and French Supermarkets and online in China.

“We are pioneers for green eco businesses”, say Forbes and Chen, “showing that you can make profitable high quality sustainable products that don’t cost the earth”.