The Start Up Loans Start-up of the Year 2017

Start-up name: Bulb
Founders: Amit Gudka and Hayden Wood
Started in: 2015
Based in: London
Business description: A supplier of green, 100% renewable electricity and gas

Supplying clean, green energy to over 100,000 members, Bulb is a rapidly-growing electricity and gas provider, a true business success story, and the worthy overall winner of the Startups Awards 2017, succeeding 2016 winner Onfido.

Founded by two energy professionals who wanted to see their sector do better, Bulb is challenging expectations of the UK energy industry.

An industry which its co-founders, Amit Gudka and Hayden Wood, say is dominated by ‘the Big Six’; mammoth firms who churn out environmentally-unfriendly energy and charge excessively for it.

Championing innovation, Bulb supplies 100% renewable electricity and 10% renewable gas – something the business describes simply as “what makes sense for our environment and future generations”.

Furthermore, the start-up places unwavering focus on customer service, with staff on hand to answer customer calls within 10 seconds of the phone ringing and a clever IT system which quickly automates problem resolution.

As if these weren’t reasons enough to love this start-up, Bulb also takes the view that eco-friendly energy shouldn’t have to cost the Earth.

Through investing in better technologies, the business says it is able to charge 20% less than the Big Six, and has already reduced its prices twice this year while energy behemoths have raised theirs.

Now, having experienced “unprecedented” growth in just two years, Bulb lays claim to being the fastest-growing energy business in the UK, and is the highest-rated energy company on TrustPilot.

With one simple tariff for all customers, a team of “highly-skilled energy specialists” on board, and a range of membership perks available, Bulb aims to take the complexity, expense and environmental damage out of the energy industry.

Startups.co.uk and headline sponsor The Start Up Loans Company are proud to call this disruptive business this year’s overall winner. But the decision wasn’t an easy one.

With so many incredible start-ups acknowledged at this year’s awards, competition for The Start Up Loans Start-up of the Year – selected from our roster of winners – was breathtakingly fierce.

This year’s deserving runners up for the overall winner position are all-natural nut butter and nut milk brand Pip & Nut, and digital experience analytics company Decibel Insight, which took home the Highly Commended and Commended awards respectively.

Congratulations to Bulb; we’ll be keeping a close eye on the business’ progress over the coming year so watch this space!