24. Seenit

Founder: Emily Forbes
Founded: January 2014
Website: www.seenit.io

The media business has climbed steadily from 94th in the 2015 Startups 100 to 64th in 2016 and it now lays its final claim in the Startups 100 in 24th. It has also been named a finalist in the Startups Awards two years running and won the highly coveted Disrupt Cup at TechCrunch’s 2016’s Startup Battlefield.

Forbes was inspired to launch Seenit while making a documentary about an anti-rhino poaching protest and she came to realise the power a crowd of smartphone-owners could have in capturing a wealth of great footage.

Today, Seenit enables brands and organisations to turn employees, fans and influencers into their own mobile phone crew. The platform works on a pay-as-you-go and subscription basis, charging organisations on how many projects they run, as well as add-ons such as data analytics.

Seenit is used by a roster of global brands which is too big to list in full but includes Adidas, Bacardi, Heineken, Puma, Vodafone, BBC Worldwide, Coca Cola and O2.

The last year has seen the platform expand stateside after winning its first four US clients, while its content has been broadcast across BT Sport, NBC Universal and the BBC. This has coincided with a 112% increase in revenues and the growth of its team from 10 to 25.

Forbes says the industry is now “really starting to wake up” to the power of user generated content, and as brands come to realise its potential, so too will they come to want to work with Seenit.