79. Grabble

Founders: Joel Freeman, Daniel Murray and Rob Durkin
Founded: February 2013 (launched October 2013)
Website: www.grabble.com

Inspired by the rising trend of social commerce, young entrepreneurs Joel Freeman, Daniel Murray and Rob Durkin set out to create a business that could bring burgeoning fashion brands and designers to an engaged market. Experimenting with the notion of a ‘grab’ button, after some positive market testing, the idea quickly flourished into Grabble – a multi-device fashion commerce app.   

The free app enables savvy consumers to swipe through millions of products from well-known brands and retailers allowing them to ‘grab’ (save) their favourites, with individual users feeds becoming more personalised as it learns their preferences. Retailers sign up and concede a 5-15% commission for every item sold, with opportunities to create brand awareness through the platform.

One of the youngest businesses on our list last year, the company is now starting to gain real traction. Some of the UK’s biggest on and offline retailers are signed up to the service including Selfridges, Topshop and ASOS and over 100,000 users (double that of last year) have made over 100 million swipes. In the next 12 months, the London-based company hopes to complete a unified in-app checkout,  expand to the US and grow its user base to an ambitious one million. Having raised a £1.2m seed round and with turnover estimated between £500,000 and £1m this year, a Series A round is also on the cards to continue to accelerate growth.