6. Climb Online

Founder: Mark Wright
Founded: June 2014 (launched January 2015)
Website: climb-online.co.uk

Making its third, and final, consecutive Startups 100 appearance is the now multi-million pound revenue business Climb Online.

Up six places from 2017,  Climb Online is the creation of Mark Wright – the self-taught digital marketing specialist and former BBC Apprentice winner – which, with backing from Lord Sugar, has become one of the UK’s fastest growing digital marketing agencies.

Working with brands to help them reach customers through campaigns utilising Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC), and social media, Climb Online launched in January 2015 and has seen its client base, and finances, skyrocket ever since.

The start-up now works with more than 400 businesses from across the UK and overseas, including well-known brands such as C.V. Library and Groupon, has a team of 45 staff, and is projecting turnover of £10m by the end of the 2018/2019 financial year.

Its strap-line ‘Do Digital Differently’ is something the business has been reflecting in the campaigns it creates and manages for its clients, and also in the alternative services it offers.

In January 2018, the start-up launched an online academy to help tackle the UK’s worsening skills gap. Offering digital marketing courses to help learners and professionals advance their careers, ‘Climb Academy’ will help candidates who complete the courses to access roles with businesses or agencies.

More recently, Climb Online added another string to its bow with the launch of ‘Crypto Climber’, a digital marketing solution for the cryptocurrency sector.

International expansion is still on the cards too. The Climb Online sales team have been pro-actively targeting Australian ba-based business owners for a number of months now, and expect to be ready to launch in the country by Autumn 2018.

While Wright proudly announces that the business has “exceeded growth objectives and so much more”, he won’t stop until  Climb Online is the largest provider of digital marketing solutions for UK businesses:

“We have a great team, great product and a booming industry. Nothing can stop us.”