49. HonestBrew

Founders: Andrew Reeve, Annabel Causer, Craig Willmott and Timothy Armstrong
Founded: November 2012 (launched January 2014)
Website: www.honestbrew.co.uk

One of a number of beer-based start-ups that hopped onto the scene a few years ago, HonestBrew’s online service is on a mission to “help people discover better beer” by buying craft and speciality beers in bulk from breweries around the world and delivering them direct to its customers.

A runner-up for the Startups Retail Business of the Year Award 2015, founders Andrew Reeve, Annabel Causer, Craig Willmott and Timothy Armstrong found that people were either often overwhelmed by the sheer variety of craft beer on the market, or could only find a very limited selection and set out to solve the problem. Two years later the service has an audience of over 50,000 followers, 2,000 long-term subscribers across the UK and more than 10,000 customers, offering beer from breweries across the UK, Europe, the US and Australasia.

Initially bootstrapped using £30,000 of the founders own money, HonestBrew closed an overfunded £400,000 Crowdcube campaign in October 2015 to enhance its global presence. The retailer plans to continue discovering new and exciting beers and launched a new product last month, The Howler: a shipping service that transports three cans of craft beer in an attractive (and easily portable) tube direct to your door.