Apply to the Startups 100 2025

The Startups 100, the definitive list of the UK’s 100 most promising new companies, is back and applications are now open for 2025.

The Startups 100 is curated each year by the Startups team, in collaboration with a panel of expert guest judges, to showcase exceptional startups to investors, potential clients, and new customers, as the ones-to-watch.

As always, the Startups 100 is completely free to enter. Unlike other awards, we won’t ask you for any money even if you feature in the top 100.

On this page you’ll find everything you need to know to submit an application, including what the Startups 100 is, key dates, eligibility, and our tips on how to turbocharge your entry.

What is the Startups 100 Index?

The Startups 100 is the UK’s longest-running index of the best businesses founded in the last five years. Now in its seventeenth year, we have helped thousands of fledgling new businesses by offering them a vital early platform to kick start their growth stories.

Some of the many  movers and shakers we have identified since 2008 include household names such as Revolut, Monzo, and Deliveroo. Despite this, we remain completely free, and dedicated to our core mission  of supporting and uplifting UK startups.

This purpose has never felt more important than for the 2025 Startups 100.. In a troubling economy, with trading down, we want to celebrate the creativity and agility of UK startups, and highlight the inspiring entrepreneurs who are using small ideas to fix giant problems.

Who can apply?

To apply to the Startups 100 Index 2025, your business must:

• Be headquartered in the UK
• Be registered with Companies House
• Have been incorporated after 1 January 2019

That’s all we ask! As long as they fulfil the above criteria, our top 100 startups can be based in any industry and anywhere in the UK. And, excitingly, you don’t need to be over 18 to apply; we welcome applications from founders of any age or background.

How to apply

Applying for the Startups 100 is easy and entirely free. We are proud to be one of the few business awards that does not charge any entry fees.

Before you fill out our online entry form, you’ll need to gather all the necessary information that we’ll need to judge your application. That includes:

• Basic business and founder details 
• Your Companies House number
• The story of your business journey 
• Partner, client, and investor information
• Funding information (all financial data will be kept confidential)
• Growth statistics 
• Social impact (data on sustainability, DEI, CSR)
• Founder image of at LEAST 1MB

Once you’ve submitted your form, your application is complete. We’ll store your submission away until it’s time to begin judging in October 2024.

“The Startups 100 is a noteworthy accolade and we were delighted to win. We got a flurry of inbound messages from potential partners and lots of traffic to the site!” – Sai Lakshmi, founder of Startups 100 2023 winner, Caura

How we choose

Our online form will ask you to provide us with clear facts and figures that give us evidence of your company’s growth story, ranging from financial details to five-year vision.

Once the judging process begins, we then use this data to assign weighted scores to every business entrant based on five key areas of analysis:

• Amount of funding raised
• External validation (eg. customer testimonials, industry awards, audience size)
• Size of opportunity (could you/how do you plan to scale-up?)
• Strength of concept (is your idea unique?)
• Innovation (how is your idea disrupting the market?)

When finalising the top 100, our judges look for impressive ideas with lots of growth potential – but don’t feel intimidated if you haven’t got big funding figures to advertise or a well-known partner. More important is your business journey and the passion you have for your mission.

“The way you tell the story is important. Get quotes from all angles, from your team to your partners and suppliers, to demonstrate your impact in an emotive way.” – Finn Lagun, founder of triple-Startups 100 alum, Pasta Evangelists.

Deadline and key dates

Entries for the Startups 100 2025 will close on 4 October 2025 at 5pm. That means startups have seven weeks to apply, but don’t worry: we’ve made the application process as simple as possible so you don’t have to take weeks out of your hectic schedule to submit an entry.

• Entry deadline — 4 October 2024 
• Winners announced — early January 2025 

Start your Startups 100 application

Itching to get started? Now you’ve read through the above information, you should be ready to apply to the Startups 100 2025. Remember: entries will close on Friday October 4 2024.

If you have any questions about your entry, drop us an email at su100@startups.co.uk. And if you know a startup business that deserves to be on this year’s index, please share the news with them — we don’t want anyone to miss out!

“Appearing in the index has certainly validated our business as a market leading player within our industry, as well as raising our brand awareness and credibility” – Melissa Snover, CEO of Nourished