YPlan shines at Startups Awards 2013

London-based mobile events booking app YPlan, which secured over $13m funding in the last year alone, has bagged the top prize at the Startups Awards 2013.

Launched just 11 months ago, YPLan has been awarded Simply Business Startups Business of the Year, beating 28 other finalists to take the top award.

Recently launched in New York with plans for global expansion, the early-stage start-up enables users to browse through a curated list of London events taking place each night and book in just a few seconds.

With celebrity endorsement and a staggering 500,000 downloads to date, the app company also took home the award for Mobile Business of the Year and was a finalist for the Funded Business category title.

Simply Business COO, Chris Slater, commented: “This company excited all of the judges – even those that cast their vote elsewhere.

“There is enormous global potential for this business, a fantastically bright and enthusiastic team, the ringing endorsement of people in its industry. We will be genuinely shocked in a few years if this company is not talked about for as one of the best start-ups to have been started in the UK in the last decade.”

14 other category winners triumphed at the 10th annual Startups Awards, beating hundreds of entrants and fast-growth finalists.

The judging was led by business experts including Sarah Tremellan of Bravissimo, Fiona Wood of Naturally Cool Kids, Neil Morris of SignalYard and Dame Mary Perkins of Specsavers, as well as a panel successful entrepreneurs and business journalists.

The 2013 Startups Awards winners are:

Digital Business of the Year: Affectv
Finalists: Perfect Channel, Tyresonthedrive.com

Franchisee of the Year: Gary Riches, Driver Hire
Finalists: Richard McConnell, The Zipyard and Chris O’Halloran, Ripples

Freelance and Home-based business of the Year: LoveworkFinalists: Victoria Eggs, Ruby Star Associates

Funded Business of the Year: Crowdcube
Finalists: cloud.IQ, YPlan

Innovative Business of the Year: Affectv
Finalists: Hiring Hub, Tyresonthedrive.com

Mobile Business of the Year: YPlan
Finalists: Apptivation, Evrythng

Mumpreneur of the Year: Caroline Sparks and Gabrielle Lixton of Turtle Tots
Finalists: Maleka Duttu of Merumaya, Naomi Bloomstein and Sarah Wuttke of Little Bird

Product Business of the Year: Tinc
Finalists: The Collective Dairy UK, The Raspberry Pi Foundation

Service Business of the Year: Central Working 
Finalists: Tinc, PetShopBowl

Silver Fox Business of the Year: Warren Bader, Plan Bee
Finalists: Paul Williams, Freetricity and Colin King, Education Quizzes

Social Impact Business of the Year: The Raspberry Pi Foundation

Women in Business Award: Sara Jones, Hiring Hub
Finalists: Amelia Harvey, The Collective Dairy  UK and Maleka Dutto, Merumaya

Young Entrepreneur of the Year: Anil Stocker, Charles Delingpole and Ilya Kondrashov of MarketInvoice
Finalists: Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman of Chosen Bun, Nick Vaughan of Hamlyn Williams

People’s Champion Award: Little Bird

Held at the Kensington Roof Gardens, sponsors of the prestigious award ceremony included small business insurance specialists Simply Business, accountancy firm haysmacintyre, company formation agent Made Simple Group, advertising firm All Response Media, trade directory service Checkatrade.com and accountancy software provider FreeAgent.

Representatives from leading business organisations including The Princes’s Trust, The British Library and chief executive of Youth Business International, Andrew Devenport, all attended to show their support of the UK brightest start-ups.

The winners join an incredible list of businesses that have been recognised at the awards over the last ten years, including Made.com, Cambridge Satchel Company, Wonga.com, Naked Wines and Glasses Direct, to name a few.

Startups.co.uk founder, David Lester, feels confident that this year’s choice of new talent has the very same potential as its predecessors:

“This year’s winners demonstrate just how exciting this country’s start-up landscape continues to be and their impressive growth serves as a great example of how budding entrepreneurs can turn an early-stage business idea into a brilliant success story.

“Congratulations to all our winners and finalists!”