1. Captify

Founders: Dominic Joseph and Adam Ludwin
Founded: July 2011
Website: www.captify.co.uk

Featured at number six in the Startups 100 2013, advertising innovator Captify has continued to accelerate growth over the last 12 months to clinch our extremely coveted number one spot; strengthening its position as Europe’s first and only digital advertising business to specialise in ‘search retargeting techniques’. Founded in 2011 by Young Gun pioneers Dominic Joseph and Adam Ludwin, the London-based advertising start-up uses its proprietary algorithm to display ads to users based on their search behaviour on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. This technology, which incorporates context, browsing activity, and social activity, has enabled it to create high performance targeting segments and obtain “industry leading results” which have not gone unnoticed by global brands; Warner Brothers, Peugeot, Tesco’s, and EA Games are just some of the firm’s biggest clients.

Now with a team of over 40 employees and 100 customers each month, the web advertising company shows no sign of slowing down and has further technology development and overseas expansion on the cards, starting with an office in Germany. Additional overseas offices are also in the pipeline which it will develop using the remaining funds from the £1.2m it raised in May 2013. Determined to add “as much value in the marketing chain through process, people and technology,” Captify’s meteoric rise has not been without its challenges; it has had to build new software to support its product and faces increased competition from heavily-backed US corporations. Yet the digital tech specialist remains ever confident of its growth potential and with revenue due to triple in 2014 – it’s no surprise that the young company feels it has the upper hand with its “true understanding of the European market”.