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A ROUNDUP OF THE UK'S MOST PROMISING SCALE-UP BUSINESSES DESIGN & LAYOUT Sonia Caetano Top 100: Britain's Fastest- Growing Businesses December 2018 SyndicateRoom Thank you to everyone that contributed to this report. EDITING Ekaterina Bystrova RESEARCH Alex Quaye 04 Almost three-quarters of this year's Top 100 ranking is made up of businesses that excel at technology. From geolocation innovation to revolutionary femtech, tech startups are the future and they're nearly all in London. The UK's historical status as Europe's tech hub is based in part on the easy access London startups have to VC financing. The European Investment Bank (EIB), which promotes innovation and ensures growing businesses have access to finance when they need it most, has invested more than 117bn into British SMEs. Herein lies the problem: the EIB invests solely into European ventures. There's no getting away from the fact that EU venture funding is the single largest source of startup capital on the continent and with Brexit looming, UK early-stage finance is at risk of drying up. In 2016, the EIB invested 27% of its remit into UK businesses. In 2017, following the vote to leave, this figure fell to 8%. But the EIB's contribution doesn't start and end with the money it invests directly vitally, its support offers klout, spurring further funding from family offices, pension funds and those otherwise less willing to take a chance on younger ventures. Brexit is happening, and it's already affecting the status quo. If the UK wants to remain at the edge of innovation, we need to find a new way to collaborate. Francesca O'Brien HEAD OF PRIVATE MARKETS, SYNDICATEROOM 06 FOREWORD 04 THE TOP 100 COMPANIES 08 14 BULB 22 LYST 34 STREETBEES 42 GOUSTO 62 EXPEND 68 RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES 74 BLIPPAR 28 CMR SURGICAL 48 WHAT3WORDS 54 ELVIE 80 BY THE NUMBERS 90 METHODOLOGY INTERVIEWS 08 Rank Company // Multiple increase in valuation 201518 01 Bulb // 351.2 02 Lyst // 134.8 03 ReViral // 59.0 04 Perkbox // 52.3 05 Behavox // 51.2 06 CMR Surgical // 45.5 07 Improbable // 43.1 08 The Cotswolds Distillery // 41.9 09 SmartUp // 40.6 10 Black Sheep Coffee // 38.7 11 Push Doctor // 31.6 12 Sonovate // 30.0 13 Deliveroo // 29.9 14 Monzo // 27.0 15 Tantalum Corporation // 25.6 16 Chorus Intelligence // 25.5 17 Glider Yachts // 24.5 18 Streetbees // 24.0 19 Africa Mobile Networks // 23.6 20 Globe Business Media // 23.1 21 novastone // 22.7 22 Hostmaker // 22.0 23 Clippings // 21.3 24 HiLight Semiconductor // 21.1 25 Gousto // 20.8 26 Topia // 20.8 27 Nutmeg // 19.6 28 First Light Fusion // 19.4 29 Pots & Co // 19.2 30 Threads Styling // 19.0 31 Clinova // 18.8 32 Elevate Direct // 18.7 33 what3words // 18.3 34 Darktrace // 18.0 35 CensorNet // 17.1 36 Crowdstacker // 16.9 37 Paddle // 16.8 38 Perspectum Diagnostics // 15.8 39 BrewDog // 15.7 40 Elvie // 15.7 41 SilkFred // 15.7 42 The Ink Factory // 15.4 43 Zedsen // 15.3 44 Bink // 15.2 45 Healx // 14.9 46 The Hut Group // 14.3 47 Flyt // 13.9 48 Cytora // 13.8 49 Mastered // 13.8 50 Celixir // 13.7 10 76 Ogury // 9.9 77 Cydar // 9.8 78 SAM Labs // 9.7 79 Recycling Technologies // 9.7 80 Blippar // 9.5 81 Vantage Power // 9.5 82 BenevolentAI // 9.5 83 Oxehealth // 9.4 84 Mallzee // 9.4 85 Tokamak Energy // 9.4 86 Leon // 9.4 87 Workable // 9.3 88 toucanBox // 9.3 89 FATMAP // 9.2 90 Receipt Bank // 9.2 91 Veryan Medical // 9.2 92 Farmdrop // 9.2 93 fourex // 9.1 94 OxSyBio // 9.1 95 Seedrs // 9.0 96 Movidiam // 8.8 97 Rocco Forte Hotels // 8.8 98 M Restaurants // 8.7 99 Overleaf // 8.7 100 iwoca // 8.6 51 Duco // 13.1 52 Oxford Space Systems // 12.8 53 Old Northampton Group // 12.6 54 WeSwap // 12.6 55 Buddies Pet Insurance // 12.5 56 Sweatcoin // 12.5 57 Takumi // 12.4 58 Grind & Co // 12.3 59 Centtrip // 12.3 60 Enertechnos // 12.0 61 Sthaler // 11.5 62 Optalysys // 11.5 63 Quiqup // 11.4 64 SuperAwesome // 11.3 65 CloudMargin // 10.8 66 Telensa // 10.6 67 Inchora // 10.6 68 Signal // 10.6 69 Divido // 10.4 70 Expend // 10.3 71 Blu Wireless Technology // 10.3 72 dopay // 10.1 73 CrowdVision // 10.0 74 Poq // 10.0 75 Truman's Beer // 10.0 This Top 100 ranking of UK high-growth businesses was determined by Beauhurst, a research body for the UK's most ambitious startups, scale-ups and high-growth companies. The companies are ranked based on valuation increase between 2015 and 2018. For full methodology, turn to page 90. Rank Company // Multiple increase in valuation 201518 INTERVIEWS BULB LYST STREETBEES GOUSTO EXPEND RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES BLIPPAR CMR SURGICAL WHAT3WORDS ELVIE 12 The Top 100 registers some of the most promising scale-ups operating in the UK today, spanning sectors as diverse as transportation, professional services and supply chain management. We spoke with the entrepreneurs behind ten of these businesses to learn about their experience of raising finance, the biggest hurdles they've had to overcome on their journey and what investors have brought to the table beyond finance. Fixing the problems in energy seemed like an irresistible problem to us. We wanted to start something. Hayden Wood 14 CEO & CO-FOUNDER BULB Bulb is a newcomer shaking up the energy market. Set up in 2015 by friends Hayden Wood and Amit Gudka, Bulb aims to keep energy switching simple, cheap and green. To this aim, the company offers all its members a single energy tariff, which remains among the cheapest on the market despite raising prices over the past year. 100% of Bulb's electricity is renewable, coming from independent energy generators across the UK, and 10% of its gas is renewable. Rather than relying on traditional advertising efforts, Bulb's popularity has flourished through social media, word of mouth and its referral programme. In just three years, Bulb has signed up over 850,000 households across the UK and remains one of the most competitively priced energy providers on the market. 16 Making energy simpler, cheaper and greener. www.bulb.co.uk HAYDEN AND AMIT, THE FOUNDERS OF BULB 18 It was quite challenging, but we were fortunate in that we knew or had worked with many of our early-stage investors. This did make things easier it gave them the confidence to invest. In the end, we secured the funding relatively quickly and were able to get going. What do you look for in an investor? Without wanting to sound cheesy, we've always looked for investors who share our vision and mission. We look for people who share our belief that you can create a really big and successful business, and at the same time do some good. As an accredited B Corp, it's important that anyone investing in Bulb shares our view that as an organisation, we have a responsibility towards the planet and the people we work with and for, as well as to our shareholders. We also look for investors with the right experience for Bulb. We see investors as partners of Bulb and it's important to us that they can offer good advice as we build our company. Early on, it was great to secure investment from JamJar Investments, founded by the original Innocent Drinks founders. Innocent was a business I'd always respected. I'd read their book in the first few months of starting Bulb and found the story of what they'd done and how they'd done it very inspiring. Having their advice as investors was even better. More recently, we were pleased to secure investment from Magnetar and DST Global in our latest funding round. As one of the biggest investors in renewable energy in the UK, Magnetar brings invaluable sector experience to Bulb. Similarly, DST have backed some of the world's best tech companies and we're excited to learn from them over the coming months. SR: Was there a 'lightbulb moment' that led you to set up Bulb? Hayden: Not really. Both Amit and I used to work in the energy industry. We were the only ones that had corporate jobs amongst our friends, so whenever we would go to the pub or to parties, we'd always be in the corner talking about work. We saw firsthand how the energy market was broken. It was the same story at all the big providers poor service, high tariffs, inefficiency and little effort being made to champion renewables. Starting Bulb was an idea that grew out of this shared experience. If I was to say there was one 'moment' when it all began, it was when Amit and I were having lunch one day, talking energy as per usual. He was looking at building a wind turbine in East London. We realised that by building one wind turbine you'd have only a small impact on the overall picture, but creating a big energy supplier could really change things. Fixing the problems in energy seemed like an irresistible problem to us. We wanted to start something and that something became Bulb. What was your experience of raising early-stage investment? Our early-stage investment came from friends and family, as well as our own savings. The only thing we had to help us raise this money was an Excel model and a PowerPoint presentation. And we were looking to raise quite a lot of money for a startup (1.3m). Starting an energy company, by definition, is an expensive thing to do. There are many regulatory steps you need to complete before you can start providing electricity and gas. We couldn't take the typical startup route of raising a small amount of money and then raising another round once we'd proved things were working. We saw firsthand how the energy market was broken. Lastly, I'd add that the people are important too. We see our investors as part of the team and it's important they are a good fit culturally for Bulb. What are your plans for growth in 2019? We want to help as many people as we can switch to affordable, renewable energy. Our ambition is to add another million members to Bulb in 2019. This is really challenging no energy supplier has grown at that rate before. It'll be hard, but that's our ambition. We also want to increase our investment in new technology. For 2019, we're really excited about what we can do with smart meters. Smart meters will change our relationship with our members and make Bulb even more useful to them. They'll be instrumental in helping us achieve our mission of reducing carbon emissions and saving on bills for our members. What motivates you to make the company a success? The people we started the whole thing up for. For our members, because we want Bulb to be useful to them. For all the people working here, so we can do interesting, enjoyable work and make an impact in our careers. And for the planet making Bulb a success will have a positive impact on our environment too. It's also really fun. It's enjoyable to achieve things, to be building something in the world. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs that are just starting out? Don't underestimate how generous people are with advice. There's a whole startup community in London full of very generous people, people willing to share their experiences so you can fast-forward your learning. But let your eyes be your guide listen carefully to advice, but always make your own mind up. Stay true to some of your original principles. For Bulb, that means constantly thinking about your customer, constantly trying to solve a real problem they have. I always try to put myself in the shoes of our customers. And remember: data wins. Measuring stuff is really important. It helps you learn faster and helps the team organise itself. We've always had weekly KPIs and it's helped us be more responsive as things change. 20 Chris Morton Hire diverse people who are highly talented and fit your company culture. Invest in aligning them with the company strategy, then get out of their way. 22 CEO & CO-FOUNDER LYST Marketed as 'your global fashion search engine', Lyst partners with some of the world's greatest designers to bring together the world of fashion in one place. The business then uses its technology to curate a personal shopping experience for each and every Lyst user, while leveraging its reach to analyse product changes, user behaviour, sales and active browsing. Launched in London in 2010 by Sebastjan Trepca, Devin Hunt and Chris Morton, Lyst connects millions of shoppers globally with over 11,000 designers and stores, from Burberry, Valentino and Alexander McQueen to Lane Crawford, Saks Fifth Avenue and Harrods. It was the first fashion business to launch a universal cart, enabling shoppers to buy from multiple retailers in a single, unified checkout. Over 70 million people use Lyst every year. 24 Things are better when they're made just for you. www.lyst.co.uk SR: What inspired you to start Lyst? Chris: My dad is an engineering professor, so I grew up in many a 'lab environment' with engineers around me; culture of experimentation, testing and learning have always been in my blood. I wanted to start a company from the age of 16, but it wasn't until I was in my 20s, watching my housemates struggling to find clothes online, that I knew what it would be. How have you found the process of securing funding for Lyst so far? We've been fortunate so far in that raising rounds has been relatively straightforward. It's often a significant amount of work, but the investment of time has always paid off in terms of bringing new supportive investors around the table as well as additional cash to drive our strategy. Have you ever rejected an offer for funding? When we've raised funds, we've often had to make difficult choices between different investors wanting to lead the round. We've typically made those decisions based on chemistry and how we felt the investor could support us, rather than on things like valuation. What do you look for in an investor? Like a growing number of founders, I've spent time as an investor. In the worst examples, venture investors can destroy businesses and years of hard work. At the other extreme, they can provide transformative support, in addition to cash, which makes the difference between failure and success. We've been very fortunate with investors like this. It's like a marriage: when it works well, wonderful things can happen, so I make sure there's a strong connection. What motivates you to keep growing Lyst? When our customers find something that's perfectly right for them, it's often a deeply emotional moment. Our mission is to create as many of those moments as we can. We are constantly innovating to provide each customer with even better ways to find the fashion they want last year, we helped more than 70 million people. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs wanting to make it into next year's Top 100 list? It's all about the team. Hire diverse people who are highly talented and fit your company culture. Invest in aligning them with the company strategy, then get out of their way. 26 It's like a marriage: when it works well, wonderful things can happen. Martin Frost Be brave, aim high, believe in and unite behind your company purpose. If you have ambition and purpose, you can drive a successful business. 28 CEO CMR SURGICAL CMR Surgical is a British medical technology company based in Cambridge. Its next-generation robotic system, Versius, is designed to make robotic minimal access surgery universally accessible and affordable. SR: Was there a 'lightbulb moment' that led to CMR Surgical being founded? Martin: For patients and healthcare providers alike, the benefits of minimal access (or keyhole) surgery are as numerous as they are compelling. The promise of reduced trauma, faster recovery and improved clinical outcomes has been the driving force behind the development of surgical robotics for decades. However, what we saw in the real world was that, while robotically assisted surgery could deliver dramatic benefits in countless procedures, for millions around the world this kind of minimal access surgery is simply not accessible. To realise a genuine robotic revolution in surgery, a very different kind of robotic system would be required. Compact, manoeuvrable and versatile, it had to be cost-effective for hospitals to run and effortless for surgeons and surgical teams to work with. This realisation is what led us to form CMR Surgical in January 2014 and guided the creation of the Versius surgical robotic system. How have you found the process of securing funding for the company? We have found that our purpose to transform surgery has attracted significant attention from the investor community. We closed our Series B funding round raising $100m, Europe's largest medical device financing, which paved the way for the commercialisation of Versius, our next- generational surgical robot. 30 Transforming surgery. For good. www.cmrsurgical.com To date, we have raised $150m and expect to have a further significant financing round over the next year. The strong support from the financial community and the long-term commitment of our investors has helped to provide us with stability and really accelerate our growth. How have investors brought you additional value, beyond capital? We have been fortunate that our investors are in it for the long term and believe in the company's mission to transform surgery. This has brought the company a significant amount of stability, which has been pivotal as we commercialise our next-generation surgical robot, Versius, and accelerate our international expansion. In addition, having ZUIG in our Series B financing has given us a valuable window into the fast-growing Chinese healthcare market. What motivates you to make the company a success? We have one very clear purpose: to make sure millions of patients receive the right type of surgery. What has helped us as a company is being clear and unified behind this single vision, and making business decisions that support this overall aim. In addition to this, we are committed to building a global British medical devices company that can stand proud on the world VERSIUS SURGICAL ROBOTIC SYSTEM WITH SURGEON32 stage. We want to make a tangible, complex product that is good for patients, but also for British business. What are your plans for growth in 2019? 2019 is a very important year for CMR Surgical, with Versius expected to be in hospitals across Europe. As a business, we will focus on further international expansion, including into the US market. We are pleased that to accommodate our growth we have built a 55,000 sq ft global headquarters on the outskirts of Cambridge. From there we will design, conduct final testing and assemble Versius before shipping to customers around the world. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs that want to make it into next year's Top 100 list? Pick a large, global and growing market with a demonstrable unmet need. Be brave, aim high, believe in and unite behind your company purpose. If you have ambition and purpose, you can drive a successful business. Yes, you should listen to people who give you good advice. But you also need to be sure that you are on the right path and to keep going. 34 Tugce Bulut CEO & CO-FOUNDER STREETBEES 36 Streetbees is a global intelligence platform that reveals how people behave, and why, by analysing real-life moments collected from users worldwide. By gathering consumer data, photos and videos directly from their on-the-ground community in 87 countries, Streetbees helps brands get real insights into how people actually buy and use products. CEO Tugce Bulut founded Streetbees with her Co-founder, COO Oliver May, in 2015. What are the tea rituals across Asia? What tea is used and how is it brewed? What tea brands are in the kitchen cupboard? www.streetbees.com 38 SR: Was there a 'lightbulb moment' that led you to set up Streetbees? Tugce: My lightbulb moment came when I couldn't solve a problem: why can't we explain with any certainty why people around the world behave differently? As a consultant, I helped the world's largest companies launch new products in developing markets. One issue kept cropping up: we couldn't find data that we trusted. Existing market research solutions weren't good enough. Turns out, big corporates don't make billion-dollar decisions based on assumptions and guesswork. It resulted in massive launch campaigns being pulled. This situation didn't make sense. There were millions of people in these markets, all already interacting with goods and services, who would share information with us if we asked them to. Maybe they would even share photos and videos too, if we engaged with them and incentivised them. Then, we'd have a huge amount of rich data that would really allow us to understand how people lived and behaved, and we could make accurate decisions about what they'd buy. However, every research company we spoke to said the idea was either impossible or would cost a ridiculous amount. Instead, they suggested we rely on outdated, ineffective methods like surveys and panels which my clients had already tried and were sick to death of. So, in 2015, I started Streetbees with 5,000 of my own money, looking to create a solution that would collect real stories from people, including photo and video content, and let brands access the detail within people's lives. What motivates you to make the company a success? We're helping our customers understand different markets across the world, but also predict what happens in them creating the world's first real-time global consumer insights platform. We transform the data from our users, or 'bees', into actionable insights for brands, giving customers rich insights into communities about the everyday feelings, hopes, desires and frustrations of real people, anywhere in the world. We want to make that information accessible from anywhere so that companies can deeply understand new or unfamiliar markets and make informed decisions with confidence. Through this vision, we are creating a profitable business that helps both our customers and people across the world. I know from my development work that more business means wealth, and wealth means uplift for economies. By obtaining data and connecting it to where it's needed, we're growing economies. Fulfilling the potential of that vision is, as you can imagine, quite the motivating force! What have been some of your favourite Streetbees campaigns to date? There are so many. At the start of the company, we were able to show one of the largest consumer brands why people weren't drinking their tea in Central Asia, when until that point they hadn't been able to work it out. More recently, our AI has discovered an entirely new consumer category a large number of young people replacing their main meals with healthy snacks so they can keep playing online or on their phones without letting go of their controller or mobile device. Separately, one of the world's most forward-thinking brands has just launched a new product that essentially opens up an entirely new category, based on insights they uncovered through working with us and understanding how people nowadays feel about something that plays a huge role in their lives, but has previously gone undetected. Unfortunately, the nature of our work means I need to keep exactly what the product is to ourselves but it's a good feeling to know the part we played in its development. How have you found the process of securing funding for the company so far? I think the biggest challenge as a founder when you are fundraising is that it's your second job. And your full-time job is already doing 16 people's jobs anyway. So you suddenly find yourself in a place where you have 30 jobs to do. From our perspective, we have been lucky enough to have met the right people early on. My very first lead investor was Robin Klein from LocalGlobe, who has an enormous amount of experience in the space and is so well respected. He has become a big advocate for the business. Once you have that kind of support behind you, it becomes a lot easier to access other conversations. We had the luxury of choosing who we would like to work with, which I'm aware is a very rare situation to be in. What do you look for in an investor? Within the first 15 minutes of discussing a business with someone, you know whether or not it's a fit. The ones which aren't a fit start dragging your energy down the conversation doesn't flow and you feel stuck. Sometimes you end up walking out of the room feeling really bad about yourself and the business. There's no good reason for that no matter what the situation, you should never walk out of a room feeling bad about yourself. If that's the case, our strategy is to just finish the conversation and leave it at that. Sometimes they don't believe in you, but whatever their reasons, it's time to move on. On the other hand, other meetings have very good energy. You may still be answering difficult questions, but you're thinking together and bouncing ideas off each other you walk out of the room feeling like you got this! As a startup, this is what we look for. When we were having our group meetings with Atomico, who were the lead investor in our Series A, one thing they did very successfully from the beginning is have us meet the entire Atomico family. Over the course of two months, we had about six events in which we were talking to a lot of members of the team. These people come from different backgrounds and countries, gender diversity. It enriched the conversations we had and really helped us choose them. What are your plans for growth in 2019? We're developing our machine learning and natural language programming capabilities, and have just hired an amazing CTO, Sam Lowe, who is going to transform the impact of those technologies on what we can do with the amazing datasets we're already collecting. It's going to be a step change in terms of how we can help our consumers make connections and unearth new trends and demand spaces, and it will fire the growth of the company to the next level. I can't wait. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs that want to make it into next year's Top 100 list? Be true to your vision. There will be lots of people who tell you that you can't do something, or that what you want to do is impossible, or that it will fail. Yes, you should listen to people who give you good advice. But you also need to be sure that you are on the right path and to keep going. 40 Be true to your vision. Timo Boldt You need to hire people who are better than you as you scale. 42 CEO & CO-FOUNDER GOUSTO 44 Founded in 2012 by Timo Boldt and James Carter, Gousto is a meal-kit service that delivers 'quality ingredients, foolproof recipes and heaps of inspiration' to its subscribers. By allowing people to choose the meals they want to cook and delivering a box of carefully measured ingredients straight to their door, Gousto aims to help busy professionals eat nutritious, home-cooked meals, while reducing reliance on processed food and cutting food waste. The business delivers more than a million meals every month. SR: Was there a 'lightbulb moment' that led you to set up Gousto? Timo: I was working in finance, very busy but still loved home cooking and had a passion for cutting out food waste. I realised that there must be other people who needed a fresh and healthy but convenient home-cooking solution. So I left my job and started selling recipe boxes. Six years later, we're now at over 400 employees, with a fulfilment centre in Lincolnshire, and have just doubled our office space in Shepherd's Bush, London. How have investors brought you additional value, beyond capital? First of all, we're fortunate to have a highly experienced and supportive shareholder base. This means our investors are interested in all matters of the business and offer great counsel on a regular basis. Our investors also have great connections. At Gousto, we work hard to find better ways of doing things for our customers, from introducing more sustainable packaging to using advanced tech to quickly deliver our recipe boxes. Often this requires us to draw upon the expertise of like-minded businesses that share our passion for finding solutions. Our investors are the gatekeepers to an extensive network of contacts. Unbox possibility. www.gousto.co.uk 46 We focus relentlessly on our customers and making their lives better. What motivates you to grow the company and make Gousto a success? A passion for fresh food and reducing food waste. We send over a million meals to busy families across the UK each month and we're well on our way to helping the nation serve up 400 million home-cooked meals by 2025. How do you stay ahead of your competition? We focus relentlessly on our customers and making their lives better. We offer over 30 recipes a week with prices starting at 2.98 and our delivery is free seven days a week. As well as this, we offer variety with plant- based, gluten-free and vegetarian recipes as well as Fine Dine In, Family Favourites and Ten Minute meal ranges. We're constantly finding ways to improve the service we offer, with the use of AI and automation. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs? Hiring and empowering a strong team is the most important thing you can do. There's no way you can do everything yourself, so you need to hire people who are better than you as you scale. Have high standards, constantly raise the bar and encourage people to be their best. Chris Sheldrick Our goal is to change the way that people think about locations. 48 CEO & CO-FOUNDER WHAT3WORDS 50 what3words divides the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique three-word address. For example, the torch of the Statue of Liberty is located at 'toned.melt.ship'. It means anyone can accurately find any location and share it more quickly, easily and with less ambiguity than any other system. The service can be used via the free mobile app or online map. It can also be built into any other app, platform or website, with just a few lines of code. Over 650 businesses, government organisations and NGOs in over 170 countries use the service. what3words was founded by Chris Sheldrick, Jack Waley-Cohen, Mohan Ganesalingam and Michael Dent in July 2013. The simplest way to talk about location. www.what3words.com SR: Was there a 'lightbulb moment' that led you to set up what3words? Chris: I grew up on a farm and our postcode always pointed to the wrong place. I spent a lot of my childhood flagging down delivery vehicles in the middle of country roads. I also worked in the music business for ten years and actually, musicians spend an awful lot of time getting lost! You always have to find the back entrances of concert venues, or meet at a very specific location like Gate B56 at the O2 arena, or locate the entrance to a villa in rural Italy that's somewhere up a remote dirt road. I tried to get people to use latitude and longitude coordinates, but it's complicated and long-winded for people to type them into their sat navs. I knew there had to be a better way for thinking about the idea of 'location' that was more precise and simpler to communicate. What are your plans for growth in 2019? We are actively working on building a range of services across the world, where three-word addresses can be entered. We want to be in every car. We want to work with all of the voice assistants, navigation apps and ride- hailing apps. It's really about increasing our network of third parties who support three- word addresses. That's our mission for 2019. What do you look for in an investor? We want to work with people who share our vision of making what3words a global standard. We want the ambitious innovators. We're focused on making three-word addresses something you'll see adopted everywhere travel guides, websites, email signatures so that you know when you see it that it's an address. Our goal is to change the way that people think about locations. 52 What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are just starting out? I believe it's important to think globally during the initial stages of setting up your business. For us, having a global product that was able to integrate with global companies gave us enormous reach once we leveraged the consumer base of our customers. It's been crucial and allowed us to partner with the biggest companies in our target sectors around the world. It's important to think globally during the initial stages of setting up your business. Tania Boler You have to be able to take rejection, and keep pushing through. 54 CEO & CO-FOUNDER ELVIE Elvie's mission is to improve women's lives through smarter technology with a goal to bring women's technology 'out of the dark ages'. To do this, Elvie approaches problems as women and solves them as engineers, scientists and designers, starting with a real need and innovating around it. Founded in 2013, Elvie's first product was the Elvie Trainer an award-winning device to guide women through Kegel exercises. It has since released Elvie Pump, the world's first silent wearable breast pump, and has bright plans for the future of femtech. 56 Here's the thing. Women shouldn't have to make do with shoddy design or pink spin-offs when there are self-driving cars in the world. www.elvie.com SR: Was there a 'lightbulb moment' that led you to set up Elvie? Tania: I had this idea in my head for a long time. The thing that really encouraged me to take the jump was that I won 100,000 in a business innovation competition run by the government, and that was enough to really validate my idea. Up until then I thought, 'I have this crazy idea, and I'm not sure if it has a depth to it or not'. Innovate UK does a great job of validating ideas because they're reviewed by a group of experts. What was your experience of raising early- stage investment? We raised our first 2m from high-net-worth angel investors, and they've all been huge Elvie evangelists. Ultimately, we're developing technology for women, so a lot of investors four years ago didn't necessarily understand the opportunity, in which case they didn't take the meetings. But it's quite binary, and by the time we took meetings with angel investors they knew what we were about and were interested enough to talk to us. I've found that when you're raising angel investment, you need to bring in a great lead investor, and that can help encourage others who still might have questions to come along. Our investor base has been hugely influential, both in terms of bringing onboard other investors and also opening up a lot of doors for us. Our first angel round was led by Lars Rasmussen, Founder of Google Maps, who brought in a lot of his network from Silicon California. Our second round was led by Michael Spencer, the Founder of ICAP. How was the product received by investors when you pitched to them? As a femtech startup, our products are all targeted at women, and the majority of angel investors are men. But ultimately, as with any investment pitch, it doesn't matter who your consumer is: you have to use numbers and show that there is a demand. Maybe we had to hold ourselves to a slightly higher bar than other startups, but I think that's not just because we're focused on female consumers. It's also because we're in the hardware space. There was a lot of excitement around 'the hardware revolution' about four or five years ago, but most startups hadn't got the unit economics quite right. That's something we put a lot of focus on getting right to make the business attractive to potential investors. What do you look for in an investor? We're in the connected devices space, and hardware startups are very different from digital-only, so it's important to find investors who appreciate how they're different. For example, hardware is more cash intensive, but the returns can be much more exciting for investors in the mid-term. 58 I always look for patient capital. Our network of investors has always been great at opening doors to new investment, particularly retail, which was invaluable when we launched. What motivates you? I feel a deep sense of anger that women's issues have been neglected for so long, and there's such an incredible opportunity for technology to solve problems at a mass scale really quickly. What do you see as being the next innovations within femtech? We've just launched our second product, which is a breast pump. The future is huge if you look at all areas of womanhood, be it menstruation, pregnancy, post-natal menopause they've all been completely ignored by technology. Looking at the female consumer within the household, her power over decision-making has also been neglected. Women account for 80% of healthcare decision-making, both for themselves, their children and the elderly, so it's all about designing technology for the female consumer. What are your plans for growth in 2019? 2019 is a year of rapid expansion for Elvie. We've proved that we can create and launch a market-disrupting product, so we're raising as Series B round in Q1 of 2019, which we'll use to accelerate our growth worldwide. Our goal is to have several product lines launching in parallel. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are just starting out? Perseverance is crucial, even when everybody is telling you it's not a good idea. You have to be able to take rejection, and keep pushing through. Women's issues have been neglected for so long. Johnny Vowles Make sure you surround yourself with good people, employees and investors. 62 CEO & CO-FOUNDER EXPEND 64 Expend let's people easily automate business expenses and turn end-of-the-month admin into a few minutes' work through the combined offering of a payment card, phone app and browser dashboard. Founded by Johnny Vowles (CEO) and Rudolph van Graan (CTO) in 2014, Expend is an award- winning expense management solution and company payment card that provides real-time business expenses automation. By integrating all these elements, the business aims to reduce admin, data entry and uncertainty. SR: What inspired you to start Expend? Johnny: Expend started because both Rudolph and I share a real dislike of doing our expenses. Our model is focused on tackling the problem of business expenses head-on by automating the process and giving companies complete control over their finances. This goes above simply scanning receipts we also offer our own payments infrastructure, expense products and management tools, saving people time and removing the need to use multiple services. Expend helps companies to gain complete oversight and authority of the expenses process, allowing them to qualify the parameters of expenses or authorise individual expense claims from a PC, tablet or The tools you need to automate business expenses and take back control. expend.io mobile app. Our platform provides customers a big efficiency boost. How have you found the process of securing funding for Expend so far? It is hard work with many meetings, calls, emails and presentations. Every potential investor has their own ideas and requirements to consider. It's a busy and exciting experience! What do you look for in an investor? Investors that understand the huge market potential for Expend and are impressed by what we've achieved so far is a good start. Investors who can also help to open doors to our target customers and partnership opportunities is a big bonus. Ultimately, though, they need to be a good cultural fit. Have you ever rejected an offer for funding? Yes, multiple times. You have to kiss a lot of frogs, and whilst I've not actually kissed any of our current investors, all of them have been great because they understand what we are trying to achieve and the route we have to take to get there. Many investors have been supportive in other ways beyond simply a funding perspective. 66 Be prepared to work harder and longer than you could ever imagine. What motivates you to keep growing Expend? We believe in what we are doing, and the feedback we get from our customers keeps pushing us on. I also have a young family that I obviously want to provide for, and an extended family in Expend who share our vision. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs that want to make it into next year's Top 100 list? Keep trying, keep listening to your customers and be prepared to make bold choices to seize the opportunities for growth. Be prepared to work harder and longer than you could ever imagine. The last one is somewhat of a clich, but it's true: make sure you surround yourself with good people, employees and investors. Adrian Griffiths We sat down and asked, how hard can it be to do better? 68 CEO RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES Recycling Technologies is tackling one of the planet's most pressing environmental problems waste plastic. Globally, just 10% of plastic waste is recycled, over one-third leaks into the environment and the rest is landfilled or incinerated. Recycling Technologies' chemical process integrates with traditional mechanical recycling activities to tackle hard-to-recycle plastic waste. The combination of mechanical and feedstock recycling systems can increase current recycling rates up to 90%. SR: Was there a 'lightbulb moment' that led you to set up Recycling Technologies? Adrian: That just 10% of plastic packaging was is being recycled mechanically, leaving 90% of this amazing material to be burned, buried or lost into the environment. We sat down and asked, 'how hard can it be to do better?' The fundamental technologies were there, it just needed a re-think, a way of packaging up the technical solution in a way that also made financial sense. Shrinking an oil refinery into just six ISO shipping frames that can be mass produced and shipped to waste centres around the world, turning waste plastic into a valuable oil, was our 'eureka' moment. What motivates you to make the company a success? In a word, people. There are lots of people who have invested in the company. We are grateful for this and feel very responsible to provide a solid return. There are other people that have staked their careers on this, joining the company to make a difference. Ensuring they achieve their personal goals gets you out of bed in the morning. Then there are people that see plastic in their village, their river, their oceans every day; we can and will help them to turn this global plastic waste problem around. 70 Turning the tide on plastic waste. www.recyclingtechnologies.co.uk How have you found the process of securing funding for the company so far? It is rewarding that so many individuals want to invest because they believe in what we're doing. It's equally frustrating that so many large companies and organisations that could invest significant amounts and really accelerate the progress wait until the risks have all but gone and the probability of success is very high. The vision of institutional investors in the UK is too dependent on the financial lens, which highlights perceived risk. More needs to be done to help people understand the real risks, many of which can be mitigated by more investment earlier. What do you look for in an investor? Some of our individual investors are passive, and that's fine. Some want to provide advice and put some time in to help, which is of course welcome. We are grateful for both. However, as we approach institutional investors, we want to see organisations that share our goals and values, and ideally have specific technical and market knowledge to help accelerate our progress. What are your plans for growth in 2019? This is a pivotal year for us as we establish our assembly line to produce the RT7000 machine, which recycles virtually any plastic back into oil, from which more plastic can then be made. The first machine will be going to a site in Scotland. As soon as we are comfortable with it, we will start ramping the assembly line up to 200 machines per year during 2020/21. This will add 1.4Mt of recycling capacity into the plastic recycling system each year; putting this in context, there is currently just 4Mt of capacity across the EU. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs that want to make it into next year's Top 100 list? Follow your vision and keep going. It takes time, but in the words of Churchill, 'never, never, never give up!' 72 Follow your vision and keep going. Ambarish Mitra Surround yourself with talented people, keep your product relevant and be persistent. 74 CEO & CO-FOUNDER BLIPPAR 76 Blippar is a leading technology company specialising in augmented reality (AR) and computer vision. Blippar aims to enhance everyday life and give you more from the world you see more entertainment, more information, more value. Founded in 2011, Blipper has worked with world-leading brands such as PepsiCo, Porsche, Nestl, L'Oral, GSK, General Mills and Procter & Gamble to create exciting and award-winning experiences across the consumer journey to deepen customer engagement, drive footfall and increase sales. SR: Was there a 'lightbulb moment' that led you to set up Blippar? Ambarish: The idea for Blippar came from an evening at a pub with one of my friends. I joked that it would be easier to get the bartender's attention if the queen could pop out of the 20 note and ask him herself. Omar (one of my co-founders) made that joke a reality a couple of weeks later with a prototype. We realised that everything around us is an image, so if this works on a 20 note it can work on anything. Blippar was born. When we started the company, the AR market was nowhere near where it is today and not many people knew about this technology, so we started by building experience in our app. What motivates you to make the company a success? My co-founders and the team at Blippar imagined a future a future where every place and object has the potential to tell a story directly when seen through a camera- based device. We have slowly seen that future become present; our drive is to be present in that future. Ready to augment your own reality? www.blippar.com 78 What have been some of your favourite Blippar campaigns so far? There are many, but one product I am particularly excited about is our AR creation tool, Blippbuilder, which is like the Wordpress of augmented reality. It allows anybody with digital literacy to create AR content without requiring knowledge of coding or other creative tools. The second project I am proud of and excited by is our visual positioning, which allows us to map large-scale indoor and outdoor spaces, and help users navigate them without the need for GPS. What are your plans for growth in 2019? 2019 will be an interesting year for augmented reality as we will see some more large-scale use cases for the technology and so more people will want to use it. However, not everyone who wants to create AR has the coding skills to do it, and to fill that gap we have built our own drag-and-drop AR creation and publishing tool, Blippbuilder. I expect Blippbuilder will grow more and more as we integrate new technologies into it and increase the capabilities for the tool. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs that want to make it into next year's Top 100 list? Learn to master your instinct. Nobody knows nothing, so you'll have to learn with some bumps along the way. Surround yourself with talented people, keep your product relevant and be persistent. Learn to master your instinct. 80 This section pulls together data points from the Top 100 cohort to identify trends in sector distribution, gender balance and geography not only to highlight what works, but also to discover what doesn't. For the full methodology, see page 90. BY THE NUMBERS Psst! Want to see last year's figures? You can download our 2017 report at www.syndicateroom.com/top100 82 This year's Top 100 list is made up of 53 venture-stage businesses, 44 growth-stage and three seed. On the whole, it is more diverse, geographically spread out and inclusive than last year's but only just; if you're heading up one of these high-growth businesses, chances are your company is tech-based, your HQ's in London and your first name is Chris. There is also some crossover with last year's Top 100, with the 2018 list featuring reappearances from 14 companies. The three showing greatest multiple increase in valuation are First Light Fusion (from 12.4x to 19.4x), Perspectum Diagnostics (8.3x to 15.8x) and BrewDog (8.7x to 15.7x). OVERVIEW CURRENT STAGE Venture | 53 Growth | 44 Seed | 3 > 84 Almost three-quarters (73%) of the Top 100 fall into the category of technology/IP-based businesses, up from just 44 in 2017. Little surprise the UK tech startup scene is the fastest- growing in Europe, according to payment service provider Paymentsense, whose research shows that 392,627 new tech startups were launched in the UK over the past five years. In 2017, the number of new tech businesses being set up in the UK rose by near 60%. But it's not just the rest of Europe being left in the dust, it's other sectors. Tech is expanding 2.6x faster than the rest of the UK economy, according to data from Tech Nation's 2018 report. The tech/IP-based businesses category includes clean energy, security services, fintech, mobile apps and medtech, among others. THE UK TECHSPLOSION TECH/IP-BASED BUSINESSES 2018 | 73 2017 | 44 > 86 Last year, just seven Top 100 businesses were led by a woman. This year, the figures are beginning to head towards inclusivity, with the number of female-led businesses broaching double digits but there's still a long way to go. Female entrepreneurs continue to face many barriers when launching a business, from unconscious bias when pitching to rooms of male investors, to a lack of supportive business networks. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data shows that in 2016, there were 47 female entrepreneurs for every 100 male entrepreneurs in the UK the lowest ratio since 2009. This figure also falls short of the European average of 59 female to 100 male entrepreneurs (52:100 in 2009). Looking further, according to an ongoing study by Crunchbase, 15.8% of global companies that raised initial funding in 200917 had at least one female founder. FEMALE FOUNDERS ON THE RISE 'GENDER' OF FOUNDER Male | 88% Female | 12% > 88 While London remains the UK's entrepreneurial stalwart, with 67 of the Top 100 companies founded there, the spread has diversified a bit since last year. Notably, East of Scotland, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humberside have all gone from zero to one. After London, the next biggest hubs are the nearby South East region and East of England, each originating ten of the Top 100. Even with cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow being heralded as flourishing startup ecosystems, the data suggests London remains central for businesses looking to grow. FLYING SOUTH 67% London 10% South East 10% East of England 3% East Midlands 2% North West 2% South West 1% East of Scotland 1% West Midlands 1% Yorkshire & Humberside 1% Wales Beauhurst examined the valuation of all companies tracked in the cohort of companies that had raised at least one round of equity funding before 30/6/15 and at least one round of equity funding after 1/7/15. This cohort comprises UK private companies only; no sectoral or geographic filters have been applied. However, the companies in the cohort had to currently be at the seed, venture or growth stage; that is, any dead, dying or exited companies were excluded (this left a cohort of 1,479 companies). We applied further filters to exclude companies that had raised in total less than 25,000, had a pre- money valuation of less than 1m in 2015, or who gave away a majority stake in their pre- 30/6/15 equity transaction. To determine the valuation growth we compared each company's pre-money valuation at two points in time: 1. For the starting valuation, we looked at each company's valuation on 30 June 2015, i.e. the company's fair value at that point in time. Fair value means that the company's valuation is assumed to be the same as at the most recent valuation event (in this case the most recent fundraising). If the valuation for any fundraising could not be confidently calculated because of the use of preference/ deferred shares, or inaccurate documentation of the round, the company was excluded from the cohort. 2. For the end valuation, we looked at each company's valuation on 30 June 2018, i.e. the company's fair value at that point in time. If the valuation for any fundraising could not be confidently calculated because of the use of preference/deferred shares, or inaccurate documentation of the round, the company was excluded from the cohort. The growth in valuation was calculated by finding the multiple of the starting valuation that the end valuation represents (e.g. a company with a pre-money valuation of 1m on 30/6/15 and a pre-money of 10m on 30/6/18 would have 10x multiple). 90 METHODOLOGY Beauhurst's valuation data has identified the UK's fastest-growing companies and it's very pleasing to see such a diverse range of sectors represented. It's not just software companies that are powering the UK's economy and delivering value for shareholders. From energy to food and drink, the UK's entrepreneurs are creating the world-leading businesses that our economy needs in the uncertainty ahead. Henry Whorwood HEAD OF RESEARCH & CONSULTANCY, BEAUHURST These materials are written and provided for general information purposes only. The content is solely the opinion of SyndicateRoom and/or other contributors and research from third parties. It should not therefore be relied upon in making any investment decisions. You should not invest in any investment product unless you understand the nature of it, along with the extent of your exposure to risk. You should be satisfied that any product or service is suitable for you given your financial position and investment objectives. Where appropriate, you should seek advice from a financial advisor in advance of making investment decisions. Tax relief depends on an individual's circumstances and may change in the future. In addition, the availability of tax relief depends on the company invested in maintaining its qualifying status. SyndicateRoom is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No.613021) registered in England and Wales (No. 07696935). LEGAL Published December 2018 01223 478558 The Pitt Building Trumpington Street Cambridge CB2 1SR www.syndicateroom.com @SyndicateRoom
