3. Perkbox

Founders: Saurav Chopra and Chieu Cao
Founded: January 2015
Website: www.perkbox.co.uk

Our very respectable runner-up in last year’s Startups 100, thanks to its 300,000 paying members and multi-million revenues, employee benefits company Perkbox remains among our top 10 for continuing to fulfil its mission of increasing workplace happiness, engaging teams and boosting motivation.

Launched in January 2015 by Saurav Chopra and Chieu Cao, the company offers hundreds of rewards to small and medium-sized businesses to help them improve their teams’ productivity, fostering more attractive working environments and engaging their customers.

Pricing for the service is dependent on size, with a huge variety of rewards including everything from free mobile phone insurance and cinema discounts, to high street shopping vouchers and free coffees.

Major customers include British Gas, Holland & Barrett, WorldPay and AXA (although we can ensure AXA had no bearing on ranking!), with clients having boasted achievements such as a 100% increase in active users and a 50% reduction in staff turnover.

And for a company with a sole aim to help firms keep their employees happy, it’s hardly surprising that Perkbox was recently recognised in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for 2017 index.

In October last year, Perkbox was among a select number of start-ups to secure equity funding from tennis star Andy Murray OBE on crowdfunding site Seedrs and in the same month it secured a £2.5m funding round from Draper Esprit. On the back of this funding, the firm launched its second office in Sheffield in January this year and now has more than 135 employees, with ambitions to have 150 staff by the middle of 2017.

Perkbox has continued to post hugely impressive revenues and is continuing to invest in the development of its product and in ongoing growth – fully justifying its thoroughly deserved position in this year’s index.