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
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Published December 2018
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