40. Thriva

Founders: Hamish Grierson, Eliot Brooks and Tom Livesey
Founded: February 2016 (launched June 2016)
Website: thriva.co

At the age of 16, Elliot Brooks was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia – a genetic disorder characterised by high cholesterol that would require regular blood tests to monitor his health.

In the following years, Brooks became all too familiar with the inconvenience of booking doctor’s appointments and waiting weeks for the results.

Eventually, he asked to see his past results so he could plot his progress – and was shocked to learn that his cholesterol had been rising and a doctor hadn’t warned him.

It was then that Brooks had a lightbulb moment.

Inspired, he joined forces with Hamish Grierson and Tom Livesey to launch Thriva.

A home blood-testing subscription service, Thriva enables you to take your blood at home, send it to be tested and monitor your results – which are typically sent back to you within 48 hours – through an online dashboard.

Alongside convenience, Thriva’s offering can help you better understand how your lifestyle impacts your health so you can make positive changes (such as eating and exercising better) to improve your results.

Ultimately, Thriva’s goal is to be “the world’s first preventative healthcare service”. To this end, its results report on a specific set of “biomarkers” – such as cholesterol, iron, vitamin D levels and liver function.

The business has also started to offer access to health practitioners like dietitians through its Thriva for Specialists network, which currently has 500 professionals on board.

Today, less than two years after launch, Thriva has 20,000 subscribers across the UK and has raised £2.7m from angel investors including Indeed’s Paul Forester, TransferWise’s Taavet Hinrikus, LOVEFiLM’s Simon Franks and Zoopla’s Alex Chesterman.

In Autumn 2017, the trio were named among the Five to Watch in the Young Guns Class of 2017, and then went on to be shortlisted for Innovative Business of the Year at the Startups Awards 2017.

Next on its list on business conquests, Thriva plans to develop tests for saliva and urine, and try out alternative blood collection devices that will widen its usability.