5. Adzuna

Founders: Doug Munro and Andrew Hunter
Founded: July 2011
Website: www.adzuna.co.uk

When we featured Adzuna as part of our Startups 100 list in 2013 – for the second time in a row – founders Doug Munro and Andrew Hunter predicted that the all-in-one classifieds search engine was destined to become the biggest and best of its kind not just in the UK, but globally. This is a dream that is coming ever closer to fruition; the service is now operational in 11 different markets across the globe, and the founders have been working hard to ensure true integration in these international locations, hiring ‘rock star’ employees who are native speakers of the local language in each of their markets.

With the network’s userbase having quadrupled to four million visitors a month – a figure that increases by the day – Adzuna is surely on the path to becoming a truly global web phenomenon in 2014. Not bad for a business that was originally hatched on the back of an envelope in a London pub.