31. Bark.com

Founders: Kai Feller and Andrew Michael
Founded: 2015
Website: www.bark.com

Bark.com is an online service marketplace connecting both businesses and consumers to the right professional for their needs. There are currently over 1 million professionals ready to help across 1,000 unique categories, from accountancy services to zumba classes. The process of finding suitable professionals is as simple as a Google search.

Founders Kai Feller and Andrew Michael haven’t pursued any funding from investors. They say their decision to remain self-funded motivates the company to be innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial, a spirit which has carried them far: Bark.com has achieved 471% growth over the last three years, a level that it is looking to maintain over the next few years.

Bark.com is guided by a commitment to empowering small businesses and self-employed workers, and it offers plenty of digital skills training and mentoring to businesses that use the platform. Businesses and professionals on Bark.com receive leads for free, and they then pay a fee to Bark.com if they’d like to get in touch with the customer. The fee charged depends on the potential value of the job.

Bark.com is helping service businesses digitise, a move that’s quickly becoming not just profitable but inevitable. As the internet becomes the first port of call for anyone needing specific help, the appetite for a global, on-demand services platform is rapidly increasing.

Bark.com currently operates in seven other markets aside from the UK, and is committed to expanding even further to non-English speaking markets in the next few years. This company is one to watch, they are all bark, and all bite.