Beer52 toasts its triumph at the Startups Awards as winners are revealed

The winners of the Startups Awards 2014 have been announced this afternoon at a prestigious awards ceremony held at the Kensington Roof Gardens, sponsored by Simply Business and organised by Startups.co.uk.

Selected from 35 outstanding start-up finalists, Edinburgh-based craft beer club Beer52 took the top prize of Simply Business Startups Business of the Year – selected from the winners of all the other categories – having grown to £1m turnover just one year after launch with £100,000 Angels Den investment set to fuel further growth.

Aged just 24, Beer52 founder James Brown also took home the award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year having rapidly scaled his idea to bring together the “best beers in the planet”.

Now in its 11th year, the annual Startups Awards looks to celebrate and recognise the UK’s most exciting, innovative new businesses launched in the last three years and has amassed a reputation for unearthing the “next big things” in start-up talent.

On the back of hundreds of entries, 14 other category winners were named at the ceremony with education platform LendMeYourLiteracy awarded the People’s Champion title – voted for by the public and open to all 50 shortlisted business – having secured thousands of votes from Startups readers and peers.

The winners were chosen by a judging panel of 22 business leaders including Mumsnet co-founder Justine Roberts, Dale Murray CBE, Jojo Maman Bébé founder Laura Tenison MBE and Roast restaurant founder Iqbal Wahhab OBE, alongside enterprise experts and journalists.

This year’s crop of success stories will follow in the footsteps of past winners such as Notonthehighstreet.com, The Cambridge Satchel Company, Ella’s Kitchen which was acquired by US health giant Hain Celestial last year, and 2013 Simply Business Startups Business of the Year YPlan which announced a £15.3m follow-up round of funding this week to continue its international growth.

The Startups Awards 2014 winners are:

Crowdfunded Business of the Year: LOVESPACE
Finalists: Seedrs, F-Board

Franchisee of the Year: Vance Parsons, Driver Hire (Hereford & Worcester)
Finalists: Julian Westwood; Diamond Logistics (Birmingham), Nick Blake; Jasper’s (Warrington)

Home-based Business of the Year: Meredith Bespoke
Finalists: Lime Lace, Towers Design

Independent Shop of the Year: Seriously Sofas
Finalists: Cocoba, The iOutlet

Innovative Business of the Year: Cambridge Intelligence
Finalists: 4eco, Captive Media

Mumpreneur of the Year: Tamara Arbib, Rebel Kitchen
Finalists: Cordelia Meacher, Fieldhouse Associates; Samantha King, Lime Lace

Product Business of the Year: Eyespace (sponsored by All Response Media)
Finalists: Gousto, Lost My Name

Restaurant of the Year: The Yorkshire Meatball Company
Finalists: Sugar Supper Club, Sosban & The Old Butchers

Service Business of the Year: CommuterClub (sponsored by Big Red Cloud)
Finalists: BIZZBY, Darmouth Partners

Tech Business of the Year: Centtrip Card (sponsored by .uk)
Finalists: Flubit, Powerlinks Media

Venture Funded Business of the Year: Currency Cloud (sponsored by haysmacintyre)
Finalists: Gousto, Pact Coffee

Women in Business Award: Jodi Huggett, 4eco
Finalists: Julie and Jayne Abel, Eyespace; Gemma Ferris, Feritech

Young Entrepreneur of the Year: James Brown, Beer52 (sponsored by Made Simple Group)
Finalists: e-finity Leads, GPS Locums

People’s Champion Award: Lend Me Your Literacy

Simply Business Startups Business of the Year: Beer52

Presented by renowned public speaker David McQueen, the awards was attended by over 100 entrepreneurs and leading business names including Ella’s Kitchen founder and former winner Paul Lindley, TechHub’s Elizabeth Varley, and Crowdcube co-founder Luke Lang.

Commenting on the achievements of the 2014 Startups Awards winners, Startups.co.uk founder David Lester said:

“We have undoubtedly seen some of the brands of the future today and some of the most talented entrepreneurs in the country.

“Congratulations to all the winners and especially to Beer52, winners of the Simply Business Startups Business of the Year. The judges were hugely impressed by Beer52’s entry which showed evidence of enviable growth and a tremendous entrepreneurial zeal from young founder James Brown.

“But the afternoon wasn’t only about the winners. This year there were a record number of entries to the Startups Awards and the standard was the highest we have seen. All 50 finalists can be very proud of their businesses; and it really does augur well for the UK economy that so many high-quality and innovative start-ups are out there and ready to make their mark.”