Crowdfunded Business of the Year 2016

Start-up name: LOVESPACE
Founders: Brett Akker and Steve Folwell
Started in: August 2012
Based in: London
Business description: By-the-box storage collected from your door

Aiming to disrupt the £1bn UK storage industry by “doing what Amazon did to bookshops, and Ocado did to supermarket shopping”, LOVESPACE takes the concept of cloud storage and applies it to physical items.

While this might seem like an ambitious goal, if the start-up’s crowdfunding record is anything to go by – then they’re well on their way to success.

Just last May, LOVESPACE – co-founded by serial entrepreneur Brett Akker, the man behind Zipcar – launched a £500,000 crowdfunding campaign and overfunded by nearly 40%, bringing in £690,000 from over 250 investors.

A serious draw for the value-seekers amongst us, the service enables customers only pay for what they need as users buy physical storage by-the-box – greatly reducing the cost of renting storage space.

Prices start from as little as £1.95 per box per month with free collection and a small charge for return delivery to cover logistics costs.

Having already doubled revenues year-on-year and having handled over 100,000 boxes to date, LOVESPACE is on target to hit seven-figure turnover by the end of 2016

A highly competitive category, the judges awarded Mindful Chef; which raised £1m on Seedrs, and Syndicate Room as highly-commended and commended respectively.