33. Azoomee

Founders: Estelle Lloyd and Douglas Lloyd
Founded: September 2014 (launched April 2016)
Website: azoomee.com

As children increasingly look for entertainment and educational resources online, parents now find themselves contending with a myriad of safety and security concerns for their kids.

Parents Douglas and Estelle Lloyd faced this in a very real way when their children stumbled upon inappropriate content while doing their homework.

Frustrated, the couple decided that children should have a safe online space where there’d be no risk of accessing something – or someone – they shouldn’t.

The solution they came up with was Azoomee: a safe and secure entertainment subscription service which is packed with thousands of games, videos and activities for kids aged three to 11.

With parent-approved instant messaging and no ads or hidden costs, Azoomee aims to prepare children for the digital world through hand-picked content which teaches them to be smart, safe and kind online.

This unique approach to children’s entertainment has struck a chord across the UK and beyond: currently, a whopping 10,000 new children join Azoomee every week.

The start-up has also joined forces with huge brands and charities such as O2, Argos, easyJet and the NSPCC. In securing such international partnerships, Azoomee has gained access to more than four million families in the UK, 40 million in Europe and 100 million worldwide.

To date the business has attracted £5m in funding, and more recently Azoomee was selected for the prestigious Upscale 3.0 programme. A reflection of its growth, the business has climbed from 56th position in last year’s Startups 100 index to 33rd this year.

Now, Azoomee is developing new interactive tech so it can work on any platform in any language, and support futuristic features such as augmented reality

While digital giants haven’t necessarily always made safety and privacy their priority, Azoomee is “passionate about making a genuine positive impact on society globally to give every family the safe, fun and educational service they need”.