52. ChargedUp

Founders: Hugo Tilmouth, Hakeem Buge, and Charlie Baron
Founded: 2017
Website: www.chargedup.green

Hugo Tilmouth was at Lord’s Cricket Ground, expecting a phone call for an important job interview – but his phone was dying.

After buying a portable charger from a cornershop, he decided he didn’t need that new job. Instead, the then-23-year-old started ChargedUp, which provides portable charging packs to anyone with a smartphone.

All you need to do is download the app, see which of the company’s locations is nearest you, scan a QR code, and then you’re free to take a battery pack for £1 per hour, or £3 for the day. Just drop it off at a different ChargedUp station when you’re done.

The company – which now has more than 2,000 locations in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands – compares the idea to the rentable bicycles you can find all over London.

This sums up the innovative aspect of ChargedUp: you can take the charging pack with you. No longer will you have to wait impatiently at a charging port. Just pick it up and go.

And since the charging packs are powered by Octopus Energy, ChargedUp is able to supply users with 100% green power.

The company has also joined the fight against COVID-19, creating a company called CleanedUp that has supplied more than 3,000 hand sanitising stations to places across the UK, from the London Underground to Costa and NHS buildings.

With their product range expanding, revenue coming in from battery rental, sponsorship from large corporates, and advertising, ChargedUp’s model seems pretty secure. After all, everyone needs power.