Startups 100 2019: 46 to 50

Startups 100 Ranking: 46
Company name: Fat Llama
Founded: 2016
Website: https://fatllama.com/

Endorsing a sharing economy, Fat Llama offers peer-to-peer rentals across a variety of categories

According to Fat Llama, renting instead of buying is the future. This start-up provides an online platform for users to lend, borrow, buy and sell their belongings with popular catefories including drones and DJ equipment as well as film and photography equipment.

Not only does Fat Llama allow customers to save money through renting rather than buying outright, it also helps to reduce unnecessary purchases, decreasing the need for carbon-intensive manufacturing processes and cutting CO2 emissions by a considerable amount. If this green approach wasn’t enough, it also serves as a social platform, bringing people with similar interests together through their lending transactions.

Setting it apart from other rental marketplaces, Fat Llama is unique for being truly cross-category and provides a space for a variety of customers to make money. It also ensures that clients are protected by offering an insurance-backed Lender Guarantee so that all items are covered up to £25,000.

Having already attracted banking from high-profile investors such as Greylock Partners and Y Combinator, Fat Llama is taking the peer-to-peer rental market by storm, strengthening its service with financial, ethical and social benefits for users.

Love the sharing economy. Fat Llama features in our Sharing Economy Startups 100 Trends page.

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Startups 100 Ranking: 47
Company name: By Miles
Founded: 2017
Website: https://www.bymiles.co.uk

An innovative insurance company, By Miles provides policies which allow customers to pay by the mile

Car insurance, although necessary, can be a painful ordeal. By Miles is turning this on its head and simplifying things. It does exactly what it says: selling insurance where customers can pay by the mile.

Operating on a ‘drive less, pay less’ rule, By Miles offers clients policies that better fit the way they live, providing an attractive alternative to insurance that doesn’t always make sense if individuals don’t drive much. This straightforward start-up ensures that customers pay for what they use whilst being covered by a fully comprehensive insurance policy.

Coordinated by an easy-to-use app, customers are sent a Miles Tracker which can be plugged under their dashboards This tracks journeys and syncs with the app or online platform, enabling customers to automatically see the cost of drives. The digital dashboard also allows clients to stay in control with helpful features such as simple bills and reminders.

Receiving a quote from this innovative insurance company takes less than a minute and can save customer’s money with its precise miles tracker. It’s simple, it’s fairer and it just makes sense.

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Startups 100 Ranking: 48
Company name: The Cheeky Panda
Founded: 2016
Website: www.thecheekypanda.co.uk

Saying no to single-use plastic, The Cheeky Panda produces sustainable, plastic-free tissue products

In a society fighting to cut down on plastic usage, alternative products such as those from The Cheeky Panda are popular ways to live an eco-friendlier life. The Cheeky Panda produces sustainable tissue products made from 100% bamboo.

Bamboo is a natural choice for this kind of product, being hypoallergenic and kind to sensitive skin. Its status as the world’s fastest growing plant means that it is a sustainable alternative to current materials. Because of this, The Cheeky Panda has used it to produce an ethically responsible product that has already attracted the attention of celebrity fans such as Joanna Lumley and Judi Dench.

Stocked in a variety of high street stores such as Tesco, Aldi and Boots, as well as being picked as Amazon’s Choice, The Cheeky Panda currently sells its products in over 15 countries and have achieved a valuation of £25m in just three years.

Busy developing new products all the time, its current range includes kitchen towels, napkins, flushable hand towels and baby wipes made from a mixture of water and fruit. In addition, all of its packaging is biodegradable, recyclable or plastic-free, showing single-use plastic a big thumbs down in all areas of the business.

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Startups 100 Ranking: 49
Company name: Countingup
Founded: 2017
Website: www.countinup.com

Countingupp is the business account that does customers’ books for them

Running a small business can be a tricky learning curve, with larger accounting companies charging unaffordable amounts for their services. Countingup agrees, which is why its formulated an efficient bookkeeping platform, making success easier for entrepreneurs while saving precious time.

Automated bookkeeping happens the moment incomings or outgoings reach the business account-the shoe-box full of receipts is a thing of the past. Depositing cash can be done at any Post Office or Paypoint location using the Countingup card. The app works like any other banking app, providing pin access and the ability to freeze or unfreeze cards, meaning that business banking is fast, simple and mobile.

Customers can open their account in just a few minutes rather than a few weeks, unlike other banks, saving a lot of hassle. In addition, it makes sure to keep costs low so that new business owners don’t have to spend large amounts of money on complicated banking software.

Aiming to expand its app to help businesses do their taxes, Countingup is changing the accounting landscape for new entrepreneurs. There are no complicated graphs or silly jargon to decipher. Instead, Countingup offers simple, easy banking that works for small businesses and their owners.

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Startups 100 Ranking: 50
Company name: Mayku
Founded: 2015
Website: www.mayku.me

Using innovative table-top machines, Mayku is giving everyday makers the power to create prototypes in their own homes

Mayku believes that everyone should be able to harness the power of making. As a result of this, its developed the FormBox, a vacuum-forming machine which gives everyday makers the creative ability to make anything from lampshades to jello moulds in the comfort of their own homes.

Determined to democratise making, Mayku is wresting control from big corporate manufacturers. Its aim is to empower ordinary people with the ability to make anything they want using efficient table-top machines, helping them to save thousands of pounds compared to outsourcing production. Through using the FormBox, customers no longer need to wait for factories but can make product prototypes in their homes in seconds at a fraction of the cost.

Mayku currently has 3500 customers in 74 countries, attracting clients in a variety of different industries from chocolatiers to Nasa engineers, building a global distribution network. However, this is just the beginning for this creative start-up. Expanding production, Mayku aims to develop a whole fleet of tabletop machines, beginning a creative revolution of makers across the globe.