Crowdfunded Business of the Year 2017: Meet the finalists Get to know the Startups Awards 2017 nominees which have collectively raised over £8m from the crowd... Written by Megan Dunsby Published on October 10, 2017 Our experts We are a team of writers, experimenters and researchers providing you with the best advice with zero bias or partiality. Written and reviewed by: Megan Dunsby BuzzbikeBuzzbike is world’s first free urban cycling scheme, combining gamification with bike rental. Offering riders a high-end bike, lights, lock, insurance and servicing, Buzzbike’s app automatically records users’ journeys and rewards them the more they cycle. Buzzbike raised £410,000 via Crowdcube in July 2016.View the full profile here.FloomFloom is an Etsy-like online marketplace for independent florists. The platform vets all listed florists on its site for quality, and all photography on the site standardised so as to give consumers the best possible impression of exactly what they’re ordering. Floom recently raised £580,000 through Crowdcube.View the full profile here.HiyacarHiyacar is a peer-peer service which allows road users to pay for cars as and when they need them, while giving vehicle owners an extra source of income. Operating via desktop and mobile, Hiyacar enables members to decide the price they want to offer their vehicle up for. Last year, the start-up secured £2.2m from the crowd via Seedrs.View the full profile here.MoteefeMoteefe works with influencers, brands, clubs and founders to turn designs into ready-to-sell products. Users upload their designs to the platform to create a range of products in less than one minute with items printed and shipped once orders are received. The London start-up is backed by £2m investment which includes a £1.75m Seedrs crowdfunding round.View the full profile here.MousMous is an online store which manufactures and sells protective iPhone cases and accessories. Available for iPhone 6 and iPhone 7, Mous’ advanced impact material AiroShock contains thousands of micro air pockets that absorb the impact when a smartphone comes crashing to the ground. Mous has raised over $2.4m via Indiegogo.View the full profile here.Mr Lee’s NoodlesMr Lee’s Noodles is a range of healthy, gluten-free instant cup noodles which are low in sugar with no artificial colourings, preservatives, MSGs or additives. The Bournemouth business has also created ‘Noodle Kiosk’ vending machines to deliver its cup noodles and enables brands to advertise using smart targeting. In June of this year, Mr Lee’s closed £783,787 investment via Seedrs.View the full profile here.TutoraTutora is a tuition marketplace which works by enabling parents and users to browse and review profiles of top-quality tutors based on subject area, subject level and proximity to their postcode. It boasts over 8,500 active tutors and delivers over 5,000 lessons to UK students every week. The company has raised £700,000 in crowdfunding.View the full profile here.WolffepackWolffepack is a patented backpack which allows the wearer to ‘swing’ the bag to their front without taking it off. Having spent 18 years in R&D, the innovation claims to be “the biggest advance in backpack design in decades” and now retails globally. The start-up has successfully completed three crowdfunding rounds using Kickstarter.View the full profile here. Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Written by: Megan Dunsby