Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2015: Meet the finalists
Under 30 when their businesses started trading, who is in the frame to be named the UK's best young start-up entrepreneur?
There won’t be many grey hairs among the finalists in this category. To enter, companies had to boast a founder who was under 30 when the business started trading.
And alongside MadeSimple Group, our sponsor for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year category, we celebrate such youthful exuberance.
With a generation that thinks it’s pretty normal to start a business at university or from a teenage bedroom, this category is more competitive than ever. Many entrepreneurs are now on their second, third, or fourth business before they’re 30 and believe us when we say our six founders are suitably impressive.
PROPERCORN
The guilt-free popcorn business which offers flavours such as sweet and salty to peanut butter and almond. Gluten-free, vegetarian-friendly and less than 130 calories; the popcorn product is stocked in over 10,000 retailers and is the official snack of London Fashion Week.
Gousto
Delivers recipe boxes to time starved foodies with the exact ingredients they need to make quality meals. It has seen 100% revenue growth every six months, has an app in Beta with Apple and recently partnered with chef Theo Randall.
Appear Here
The online marketplace for short-term retail space enables landlords and start-ups to lease and rent flexible space in key retail locations around the country. More than 1,000 spaces are currently listed on the site with international locations to launch soon.
Smarter
Turn your kettle on from your mobile phone with Wi-Fi enabled kitchen applications from this Internet-of-Things start-up. Other products include a ‘grind and brew’ coffee machine with intuitive features which learn your daily routine and adapt.
Flubit
The online platform that helps consumers find the most competitive price for anything they want to buy. Partnered with Barclays, the company makes a commission on every sale, while users get a lower price and retailers get better conversion rates.
Onfido
The automated online background checker “revolutionising” the slow and frustrating process of performing background checks on job applicants. Over 500 organisations currently use the service which runs background checks using data-driven, intelligent technology.