Startups 100 2016: UK’s best and brightest new businesses revealed!

Startups.co.uk has today unveiled the annual Startups 100 2016; the only index of its kind which ranks the UK’s 100 fast-growth potential, most exciting new businesses launched in the last three years.

Now in its seventh year, the Startups 100 celebrates privately-owned UK companies launched on or after 1 January 2013 which demonstrate innovation, solid financials, economic impact and the ability to scale.

Featuring 100 start-ups, 201 founders, and with 68 new entries this year, the Startups 100 2016 index showcases the best and brightest of the UK’s flourishing start-up community; collectively the index boasts average annual turnover of £1.54m and a team of 20 staff!

Taking the number one spot in the index is peer-to-peer (P2P) property lender LendInvest; a brand new entry for 2016 which matches investors looking for prime retail opportunities with property entrepreneurs looking for short-term mortgage finance.

LendInvest impressed the judges for having attracted £22m investment, revenues of over £15m, and 90 employees just three years into trading and follows fellow proptech start-up Purplebricks’ reign at the top of the Startups 100 2015.

The company, along with this year’s winners, joins an exclusive club of alumni companies which includes Notonthehighstreet.com, Zoopla, Captify, YPlan, Hello Fresh, and many more esteemed businesses.

Competition this year was tougher than ever with hundreds of entries from entrepreneurs across the country, among the winning businesses in the index:

• Businesses have raised combined funding of over £213m
• Proptech, food and drink, fintech, and retail are among the fastest-growing start-up sectors
• 31% of companies founded outside of London, with South East and West Midlands becoming popular start-up destinations
• 32% of businesses started by female founders or co-founders

From the world’s first mobile-bank, to gourmet sausages, and an e-commerce business that specialises in helping cancer patients, the 2016 index is as varied as ever. Alongside marked growth in proptech, it showcases several evolving markets including edtech, fintech, subscription services, and marketplaces focused on used cars to unique venue spaces.

Startups.co.uk editor, Lucy Wayment, commented: “The average turnover of the start-up businesses in this index is £1.54m, nearly £400,000 more than in 2014, which is a good indicator that the UK’s start-up businesses are thriving and are only set to scale further in the coming months.

“Year-on-year, the Startups 100 index celebrates the fast-growth potential of UK start-ups and shines a light on the game-changing new businesses helping to drive the economy.

“It will be interesting to see how each of the businesses – and trends – progress over the next 12 months, but there’s no denying we have 100 very exciting, ambitious and disruptive start-ups.”

You can view the Startups 100 2016 list in full here.

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