Apptivation’s Mark Kanji named haysmacintyre Top Gun as 2013 Young Guns winners are unveiled

Mark Kanji, the founder of fast-growing app developer Apptivation Mobile, has been named the haysmacintyre Top Gun at the 2013 Young Guns awards.

His and 29 other outstanding businesses chosen by Growing Business and a judging panel made the 11^th annual list of the UK’s most exciting young entrepreneurs.

The Class of 2013, which this year boasted 50 qualifying co-founders, together employ 1,000, turn over an average of £7.2m and share an average age of 30.

With founders aged 35 or under and their companies having to exceed a turnover of £1m or to have raised significant amount of equity finance, the Young Guns list has become an exclusive network of the UK’s most precocious entrepreneurial talent.

Previous recipients include the founders of high-profile businesses Nails Inc., Hawk-Eye Innovations, Maximuscle, Mind Candy, Miniclip, Innocent Drinks, Notonthehighstreet.com, and Daisy Communications.

At an awards ceremony held at London’s Kensington Roof Gardens, with more than 60 of Britain’s top young business owners in attendance, Mark Kanji was selected from the 2013 winners as the haysmacintyre Top Gun for the extraordinary growth of his young business.

“I am thrilled to be have been recognised and awarded Top Gun for 2013, especially given the calibre of entrepreneurs nominated this year,” said Kanji. “The award is a real tribute to the strong team behind me and will help increase our profile, market confidence and further accelerate our growth into new industries.”

Kanji succeeds the likes of eCourier and Shutl founder Tom Allason, Forward Internet Group’s Neil Hutchinson, Miroma’s Marc Boyan, Broadbandchoices.com’s Michael Phillips, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk’s Mark Pearson, and 2012 winners Matt ‘Mills’ Miller and John ‘Sinx’ Sinclair, the founders of digital agency ustwo™.

Awarding Kanji with the Top Gun title, managing partner at haysmacintyre, Ian Cliffe, said: “With a record number of applicants this year and the quality of the businesses continuing to impress, shortlisting was tougher than ever, which made selecting this year’s haysmacintyre Top Gun a real challenge.

“Mark Kanji and Apptivation Mobile Limited caught our attention having achieved amazing results in such a short time from incorporation, with remarkable growth and employee numbers likely to be 100 by the end of the year, achieving all this without the need for external equity to date. We look forward to seeing what’s next for such an exciting entrepreneur.”