Chief executive Dima Kats set up this fintech firm in 2016 to provide payment services to financial institutions. Clear Junction has developed expertise, methodology and a platform that processes global digital payments in multiple currencies. It aims to simplify cross-border payments for clients such as banks, marketplaces and digital currency businesses. The London-based company has offices in Poland and Latvia and employs 100 fintech professionals. Last year, transaction volumes increased by more than 9,000%.

Passenger Clothing sells durable outdoor clothing and accessories directly to the consumer. Based in the New Forest, it prides itself on being a responsible brand rooted in nature, connection and wellbeing. The company promises to plant a tree for every order and uses lower footprint materials like recycled cotton, hemp, recycled plastic and organics. In addition, its headquarters is powered by UK-generated renewable electricity. The business was co-founded in 2012 by former electrician Richard Sutcliffe and his wife, Alexa.

This mobile games studio was founded in 2017 by industry veterans including chief executive Lior Shiff, a serial entrepreneur. Its creations include wood block puzzle Woodoku, and versions of classic games such as Solitaire. The London-based firm achieved unicorn status in February 2022, when it was valued at $1.4bn in a $116m funding round led by investor 20VC. A month later, it acquired gaming platform Live Play Mobile for an undisclosed sum. Tripledot attracts more than 35m daily active users and has raised almost $195m to date.

The Skinny Food Co sells low-calorie products such as ketchup, beef jerky, low-carb rice and ‘100% Pure Cookie Dough Skinny Peanut Butter’. It sells online through its website and via the likes of Morrisons, Spar, B&M, and Holland & Barrett. Wayne Starkey and James Whiting co-founded the Nottingham-based company in 2018 with £3,000. The pair were inspired by diabetic family members and wanted to provide healthier, less calorie-dense alternatives to well-known foods. The Skinny Food Co stocks more than 500 products and generated sales of £17.2m last year.

This medtech firm specialises in diabetic equipment, such as blood glucose monitoring systems, needles and lancets, which it manufactures at sites in Cambridgeshire and Chicago. Sales grew to more than £34m in 2021, boosted by demand for Covid-19 personal protective equipment. Microdot is a trading name of Cambridge Sensors, which was spun off from Cambridge University’s Department of Biotechnology in 1991. Microdot’s Co-founders are Chris Lowe – Professor Emeritus of Biotechnology at Cambridge – and chief executive James McCann who run the company.

During Black Friday, Lounge Underwear despatched more than 150,000 orders, sometimes hitting 25 sales per second. Those figures indicate how fast this business – which Dan and Melanie Marsden launched from their front room in 2015 – is growing. In 2021, Lounge Underwear moved to a 54,000 sq ft global HQ in Solihull, with space for more than 500 employees. Sales rose 288% to £53.6m that year, boosted by demand for loungewear during lockdown. The company is not only expanding in the UK, but also in Europe, America and Australia.

Sunamp’s thermal batteries deliver hot water, cooling and heating for homes and businesses, and can be charged with renewable energy. The patented technology is compact, cuts energy costs, and reduces reliance on fossil fuels. Chief executive Andrew Bissell founded the East Lothian firm in 2006. In September 2021, the company secured £6m of funding from the Scottish National Investment Bank to drive expansion in China, the Americas and Europe. In November, it signed a £50m deal to roll out its thermal storage products in China.

Bold Security provides security services at locations such as construction sites, offices and large national events. It also offers commercial cleaning and building maintenance. The Essex-based company employs more than 160 people and works for clients ranging from small businesses to large corporates and public sector bodies. Founder and chief executive Badar Chaudhry is a seasoned entrepreneur who also founded a tech start-up to improve worker productivity and wellbeing, and a construction group.

Lucy Locket Loves makes colourful fitness clothing and accessories for women. The Derbyshire business caters for a wide range of body shapes, with sizes spanning six to 26. Former personal trainer Lucy Arnold founded the company in 2018 after suffering a back injury. While recovering, she created leggings to sell to former clients. Customers include Made In Chelsea star Rosie Fortescue and the company launched a collection with Strictly’s Dianne Buswell last year.

Chief executive Eddie McGillycuddy and director Chris Gleave co-founded St Albans-based Glencar in 2016 to provide best-in-class construction services. Last year, strong growth resulted in sales of £160.4m, 80 recruits, a new Manchester office and a move to larger premises in Birmingham. The company also created the role of head of sustainability, proving it has an eye on long-term as well as short-term growth. Recent wins include a 460,000 sq ft logistics unit in Crewe, and a six-storey industrial development in Brent, London.

A wardrobe malfunction with ill-fitting tights that would not stay up inspired Brigitte Read to set up this hosiery business in 2018. Snag Tights caters for a wide range of sizes from four to 36 and offers 1,500 product lines. The online retailer has diversified into leggings, T-shirts, skirts and swimwear and has more than 2m customers in 90 countries. The Scottish-based brand is now eyeing expansion in America.

This London business designs and makes flexible, hygienic screens to replace hospital curtains. KwickScreen aims to help hospitals replace disposable curtains, reduce operating costs and improve hygiene. The company says it works with every NHS trust to create flexible spaces that are better for infection control, and during the pandemic supplied many of the NHS Nightingale hospitals. Chief innovation officer Michael Korn founded the business in 2009 to combat hospital-acquired infections. KwickScreen now employs about 50 people and sells to 18 countries, including America, where its products are used in 230 hospitals.

Pizza-loving husband and wife Kristian Tapaninaho and Darina Garland founded Scotland-based Ooni in 2012 when they worked with a welder to build a prototype portable pizza oven. As interest in home pizza-making has surged, Ooni has expanded its range of pizza ovens and accessories designed to help people make pizza at home. The company sells to 90 countries, including the USA, its largest export market. Ooni is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland with offices in USA, Germany, China and Australia. In 2021, revenue increased by 264% to £208m.

ClearCycle provides recommerce and circular economy services for retailers. Its platform uses market data to increase financial yield on returns and overstocks, maximising the lifecycle of retail goods. The Wigan-based outfit was founded in 2016 by chief executive Richard O’Connor and works with brands such as ASDA, Carpetright, High Street TV and Swoon. It processes and refurbishes items in all categories, including technology, furniture and small electricals and employs more than 45 people.

Somerset-based field&flower delivers free-range meat, fresh fish and cheese directly to the consumer’s home. Co-founders James Flower and James Mansfield met at agricultural college and started out in 2011 selling beef from Flower’s family farm. Today, field&flower works with small-scale farmers, fishermen and artisan producers and has expanded its range to include chef-prepared food. The company has raised £960,000 of funding in two rounds. At one point during the pandemic, sales of field&flower’s meat box subscriptions leapt by 1,665%.

Safenetpay provides business accounts and payment processing services in more than 150 currencies. Its customers include sole traders, freelancers, and small- and medium-sized firms such as art galleries and consultancies. Chief executive Sanjar Mavlyanov and chief financial officer Dilshod Mikhmanov co-founded the London-based company in 2016. In 2021, it announced a partnership with Mastercard to launch a new card aimed at SMEs. It also set up a subsidiary in Denmark to help it expand into Europe. Safenetpay now employs more than 60 people.

Murder 24/7 on BBC2, The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan on Channel 4, and Jeremy Clarkson’s farming series Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon are all examples of this multiple Bafta winning production company’s work. The West London business creates entertainment, comedy, drama and factual programmes for broadcasters and streaming services, such as Netflix. Co-founders Tim Hincks – former president of Endemol Shine – and Peter Fincham – former ITV director of television – secured start-up investment from the BBC to launch in 2017. Expectation posted its first profit in 2021, when sales hit £34.8m.

This fast-growing hot tub supplier celebrated its tenth anniversary last year. Founder and managing director Rob Carlin started selling hot tubs on eBay in 2011 and launched the firm’s flagship brand, Platinum Spas, in 2016. In 2021, sales more than tripled to £48.4m, and the company moved to a 130,000 sq ft warehouse, distribution centre and head office in Chesterfield. The business works with over 200 distribution partners across the UK, Europe and America and is expanding into Australia and New Zealand.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Sherry Vaswani in 2015, Xalient provides managed IT services for clients such as Kellogg’s, Avis and WPP. Its growth has been fuelled by increased demand for cyber security and networking technology. The London-based company generates about half its revenues in America, where it has a base in Chicago. It also has operational centres in Leeds, Romania and India. Vaswani previously set up managed services provider Worldstone, which was acquired by telecoms group JT for an undisclosed sum in 2012.

London based Bloom & Wild delivers flowers and plants to households across Europe, and was launched in 2013 by Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway. It acquired Dutch rival bloomon and France’s Bergamotte in 2021, consolidating its position as Europe’s leading online florist, operating three brands across eight countries. To date the company has raised over £100m in funding from leading global investors including Index Ventures and General Catalyst.

Joint chairmen Colin Wilcox and James Gourlay co-founded this family-run logistics firm in 1981. Today, their sons – Gary Wilcox and Julian Gourlay – are at the helm as chief executive and chief financial officer, respectively. JAG UFS saw increased demand for its services during the pandemic. It arranged the delivery of 80m face masks and PPE for NHS Wales, in addition to 100m face masks, PPE and Covid-19 test kits for NHS Scotland. The Heathrow-based firm has offices in the Far East and America, and sales rose to £37.1m in 2021.

Tile Mountain was founded in 2013 by Mo Iqbal along with fellow former Topps Tiles directors Jeremy Harris and Nick Ounstead. In 2017, the tile retailer moved to a £10m purpose-built warehouse, showroom and office complex on a ten-acre site. Since then, it has expanded both e-commerce and traditional retail operations and will shortly be opening its fifth showroom.

This East Yorkshire business formulates and manufactures resin products, such as resin bound kits used on driveways and the patented Easihold pour on stone binder. Vuba supplies products to the trade and the public across the UK and will export more than £2m of UK manufactured products overseas in 2022, mostly to the USA. Managing director Sean Scott started the business in his garage selling specialist resin products online after being made redundant during the recession. Sales have quadrupled in two years to £6.3m in 2021.

Founder and chief executive Timo Boldt quit his City job to launch this recipe-box firm from his London flat in 2012, initially using his own savings then following up with a friends and family round. In February 2022, the company secured a secondary placing of $230m led by Japan’s SoftBank, which had previously invested $100m in January in a funding round that valued Gousto at $1.7bn. The business plans to move to a £40m fulfilment centre in Staffordshire, which will increase its operational capacity by 40%. In 2021 the company hit a record £315m sales.

Founded in 2010, by husband-and-wife team Jason and Deniz Yarnell, Vanilla Underground designs, manufactures and sells premium licensed clothing and gifts to the fans of popular TV shows, films and games. In 2022, it shipped its four millionth item and its range of merchandise includes Harry Potter pyjamas, Game of Thrones T-shirts and Minecraft hoodies. The Tamworth-based company distributes to 140 countries around the world and sells via its own website, eBay and Amazon. Sales rose to £14.2m in 2021.

Ickle Bubba designs and sells prams, pushchairs, and other travel accessories for babies and toddlers. Former engineer Fran Vaughan and his wife Veronica set up the business in 2013 after they struggled to find an affordable, high-quality pram. The company manufactures in China and ships the products to customer distribution centres and its own warehouse. It sells via its seven ecommerce sites and a nationwide network of retailers, including Argos, Asda and independent stores. In 2021, Ickle Bubba opened its new headquarters in Swansea after securing its third investment from the Development Bank of Wales.

Recording studio owner Steven Finch and Rolf Munding founded this digital music business in 2007. RouteNote enables independent artists to publish their music online and generate revenue from it. Its free service helps artists distribute tracks to platforms including Spotify, SoundCloud and Apple Music. It also offers a premium option, where musicians pay a fee to secure 100 percent of their royalties. The business has a catalogue of more than 800,000 artists and 4.8m tracks and employs 250 staff globally, including 100 at its headquarters in Truro, Cornwall.

This London-based video games developer was co-founded in 2010 by chief executive Henrique Olifiers, Imre Jele and Roberta Lucca. The company has sold more than 3m copies of its cult hit Surgeon Simulator, where gamers pick up a virtual scalpel and perform simulated operations such as open-heart surgery. Other Bossa hits include the BAFTA-winning Monstermind, I Am Fish and I Am Bread, and the studio has become a key player in the virtual reality games market. Investors include Atomico and London Venture Partners.

Sesanti produce a range of specialist camera systems for both military and commercial applications. The long-range products can operate in low or zero light and are typically used for critical infrastructure protection, border surveillance and runway debris detection. The company also has a range of shorter range optical products used for applications such as force protection. Sesanti also distributes commercial lenses for Canon and Fujinon in the UK, and has an engineering facility producing products for sectors such as aerospace. Co-founding directors Peter Kyle-Henney, Alison Kyle-Henney and Lee Sturges founded the business in 2013, and sales doubled in 2020 to £11.2m.

This family-owned construction group works in the healthcare, education and fresh produce sectors, creating buildings as diverse as operating theatres, schools and fruit-ripening rooms. Chairman Gerald Hartley founded the Cheshire-based firm in 2002, and his son, David, became managing director in 2016. Much of the company’s recent growth stems from healthcare contracts. Recent projects include a modular intensive care unit for William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, and a two-storey emergency department extension at Leighton Hospital in Crewe.

Cyden designs and makes intense-pulsed-light hair-removal products for use at home. The Swansea-based manufacturer was set up by four entrepreneurs in 2002, but traces its origins to 1979, when one of the founders accidentally discovered that a laser permanently removed hair from his hand. Cyden has sold in excess of 2.5m devices and exports to more than 50 countries, including China and America. The company employs more than 450 people and is led by chief executive Giles Davies.

Whalar is a global creator marketing company that offers the tools and technology to enable content creators, brands, and social platforms to drive growth. The London-based company works with global brands like Philips, Spotify, and Vodafone and also offers creator talent management and a dedicated Web3 innovation hub. In addition, Whalar is the preferred partner for major social platforms including, TikTok, Meta, Snapchat, and Twitter. Founded in 2016 by Neil Waller and James Street, the team now includes over 300 diverse storytellers, creatives, data, and technology specialists across five continents.

Founder and chief executive Susie Ma was 15 when she launched Tropic at Greenwich Market after borrowing £200 from her mother and selling a body scrub in jam jars. Today, Tropic manufacturers over 98% of the products it sells – including vegan skincare, body care, sun care and makeup – at its Surrey-based headquarters. Last year, Tropic funded a year’s worth of education for 12,000 children in rural Asia, with every order funding education through its United World Schools Partnership. This year, Tropic also funded and opened a forest in Hampshire, free for the British public to visit.

Offering exotic escapes, from jungle adventures to beach retreats and ‘big five’ safaris, this online tour operator specialises in the luxury travel market. Chief executive Nena Chaletzos founded the company after becoming frustrated with the complexity of tailor-making a luxury holiday. The company developed technology that makes the process of multi component trip building easier. Luxtripper is chaired by travel and media veteran Roger Flynn, a former BBC Ventures chief executive and Virgin commercial director, who chaired Loveholidays from 2011 to its sale in 2018. In January 2021, Luxtripper secured £1.2m of funding, bringing total investment to £3.1m.

Chief executive Tomer Guriel founded Ezbob in 2011 to provide loans to small businesses. In 2017, the company altered its business model to offer its digital lending platform to financial institutions, such as RBS, Santander and Metro Bank. The fintech has raised a total of £47m, including £20m in a 2016 funding round led by Leumi Partners and Oaktree Capital Management. Ezbob is headquartered in London and has development offices in Israel and Bulgaria.

BTL-UK manufacturers and distributes ball and roller bearings, mechanical power transmission products and linkages to equipment manufacturers in the agricultural, automotive, construction, industrial and motor sport sectors. The company was founded by managing director Ray Mifsud in 1991 and operates under licence, producing the Dunlop brand and also the trademark brand of Medway. In 2020 BTL-UK launched a range of personal protective equipment to combat Covid-19. Last year, it acquired West Sussex-based BH Precision Engineering for an undisclosed sum and further acquisitions are planned. It currently operates form three sites in the southeast of England.

Kubrick Group was launched to overcome the digital skills shortage by building a data, AI, and cloud technology workforce. It provides staff with training before deploying them as consultants. It has trained over 1,000 professionals and supports more than 100 clients, including BP, Morgan Stanley, and Jaguar Land Rover. The London-based company was co-founded in 2016 by managing partners Tim Smeaton and Simon Walker and is backed by private-equity firm Bowmark Capital, which invested an undisclosed sum last year. Sales have risen by more than 50% a year since 2018, reaching £29.2m in 2021.

Dialectica provides business professionals with real-time information so they can make better decisions. Its knowledge-sharing platform enables clients, such as investment and consulting firms, to collect data and market insights from a network of industry experts. Chief executive George Tsarouchas and managing director Frederick Corkett co-founded the London-based business in 2015 and have opened offices in Montreal, Vancouver, New York and Athens. The company has partnered with experts in more than 165 countries and 200 industries.

Accora produces therapeutic chairs and specialist beds for homes and the care sector. Its products are designed to help reduce the risk of pressure sores and falls, and its customers include care home operators, local authorities and the NHS. The Cambridgeshire company was set up in 1998 by the Drake family and has an American business led by co-founder Samuel Drake. In 2020, Accora designed, developed and put into production an emergency medical bed for Covid patients in just five days.

Overleaf is described as “like Google Docs for science” and was co-founded in 2012 by mathematicians John Hammersley and John Lees-Miller. They created a collaborative writing and publishing tool that makes it easier to produce scientific documents. It is used by more than 9m students and academics at 6,800 institutions worldwide, including Caltech and the University of York. The London-based firm has a team of more than 50 in the UK and US, and sales climbed to £5.7m in 2020.

GAMA Healthcare specialises in the manufacturing and distribution of infection prevention control products. Having developed a universal disinfectant wipe, the company now supplies wet wipes to hospitals in both the UK and Australia. Headquartered in Hemel Hempstead, GAMA Healthcare was founded in 2004 by joint chief executives Guy Braverman and Allen Hanouka. It now has six offices across three continents and exports to over 70 countries. The company also has a R&D centre in Halifax that is engaged in developing new products and improving on existing ones.

This group owns and manages independent schools and higher education colleges. It also has an investment arm. Based in Northwest London, the company has interests in the UK, America, Canada, Dubai and India. Its Sri Lankan founder and chief executive, Selva Pankaj – a former accountant – set up the business in 2000 after taking on a private-tuition student. Today, the group includes Regent Independent College in Harrow, which offers GCSE and A-level courses, and Regent College London, which provides higher education. The company diversified into real estate and investment management in 2018.

Founded in 2016 by then 23-year-old George Melhuish, this West Bromwich based company supports over 30,000 customers. Safe Fence is a manufacturer, hirer, distributor and installer of non-mechanical construction site plant. Expansion into areas such as groundworks, scaffolding and material handling equipment has seen sales more than double in two years, reaching £13.8m in 2021.

This e-commerce business sells furniture such as recliner sofas, marble dining tables, and beds with in-built televisions. Based in Mirfield near Huddersfield, it was co-founded in 2005 by Tom Obbard, a former employee of Amazon and upmarket furniture retailer Heal’s, along with his brother Howard, a furniture designer. To keep pace with growing demand, in 2020, Furniture and Choice created 40 jobs and added a warehouse in West Yorkshire, bringing the total capacity to 300,000 sq ft. Sales rose 126% in 2021 to £45.4m, as consumers turned to online shopping in the pandemic.

ACE Money Transfer is the brand name of “Aftab Currency Exchange Limited”, a Manchester based international money transfer service provider. Founded in 2002 by Aftab Ashraf, ACE Money Transfer has more than 200 employees with multiple offices across four continents. It offers online money transfer services to millions of customers with a payout network of over 350,000 locations spread across more than 100 countries worldwide.

From mobile phones and pizza to railcards and holidays, this company offers money-saving deals on a wide range of products. It lists discounts on its app and website, and it provides student verification technology to businesses to help them run their own loyalty programmes. It says it connects 163m students with 1,000 brands worldwide, including Samsung, WHSmith and Domino’s. Student Beans was founded in 2005 by two graduates, brothers Michael and James Eder, who spotted a gap in the market for a student loyalty platform. The London-based firm is expanding in America and the Asia-Pacific region, where it has offices in New York and Melbourne, respectively.

This affordable jewellery brand specialises in gold vermeil priced between £50 and £350. Founder and creative director Marisa Hordern started selling handmade pieces after work and launched Missoma in 2008. The label has since won a string of celebrity fans, including Jennifer Lopez, The Duchess of Cambridge, and Kendall Jenner. In 2020, Heineken heiress Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken took a substantial stake in the business for an undisclosed sum. Last year, Hordern launched Missoma Fine, a new range in fine and solid gold.

Hilltop is a honey manufacturer based in Powys, Wales. It sells to most major supermarkets such as Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, as well as online. The brand was founded by managing director Scott Davies in 2011 – then aged 22 – after a back injury left him unable to work. He started jarring and labelling honey by hand at home, and his break came in 2015 when Holland & Barrett ordered 25,000 jars. Hilltop has not received external funding and Davies owns 100% of the company, which employs more than 60 people.

In 2010, James Hyde and James Strachan built a cloud based e-commerce fulfilment platform in the corner of a Cambridgeshire warehouse. They now operate fulfilment centres across the UK, the Netherlands and America. During 2020, the company generated sales of £31.9m and secured £11m of funding from private-equity firm LDC. Last year, it added 92 recruits and expanded operations with a new 200,000 sq ft fulfilment centre in Northampton. The business continues to build on its proprietary technology platform, enabling retailers a single global view of operations.

Business-to-business marketing agency Transmission has tripled in size since 2019 and now employs more than 350 people worldwide. It has delivered campaigns for the likes of HP, EY and Microsoft. Last year, it opened three offices in America and one in Poland, adding to bases in the UK, Europe, Australia, China, India and Singapore. Transmission began life in 2013 as a London-based marketing agency, and has expanded under the watch of founder and chief executive Chris Bagnall.

Cru Wine is a team of fine wine specialists, co-founded in 2013 by chief executive Gregory Swartberg. The company offers clients the ability to buy, sell, and learn about fine wine and rare spirits. It provides an investment service, which enables clients to build a wine and spirits portfolio and track its value online, as well as purchasing fine wine and spirits through its website and its offline store. The company received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade in 2020.

Storal Learning provides more than 2,000 childcare places at day nurseries and pre-schools across England. Co-founders and joint managing directors Ashwin Grover and Varun Chanrai bought their first nursery in Maidstone in 2016 and have expanded the group to 24 locations, from Hove in the southeast to Manchester in the northwest. Recent acquisitions include Farley Nursery School, which has three sites in Wiltshire and Hampshire. The company aims to drive innovation and efficiencies by pooling resources and sharing best practice across the group.

Cutting Edge publishes and finances music for film, television, live entertainment, games and advertising. It has worked on more than 1,000 projects, including historical drama The King’s Speech, and Broadway show Matilda. The London-based company has offices in New York and Los Angeles and was founded in 1993 by film music producer Philip Moross. This January, it partnered with investment firm Blantyre Capital to acquire music publishing rights owned by composers, in a deal reportedly worth an initial $125m.

SoPost has built a digital sampling platform which enables over 200 brands, including Estée Lauder, L’Oréal and Unilever, to run data-driven online sampling campaigns. SoPost’s technology is available in 20 markets, utilising a global distribution network to ship samples direct to participating consumers’ homes. Founded in 2012 by Jonathan Grubin, the company is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, with international presence in five countries. SoPost generates about two-thirds of its sales outside the UK and has raised £1.6m in funding to date.

This Cambridge company manufactures thermal imaging systems for industry, defence and security. Its products include clip-on thermal imagers with Augmented Reality for night vision army goggles, and fever screening and face mask detection technology, developed in response to the pandemic. In 2009, it supplied its space qualified thermal imaging camera for NASA’s LCROSS satellite, which identified the presence of sub-surface water on the moon – other applications include F1 racing and TV wildlife. Thermoteknix generated more than 90% of its £15.8m sales overseas in 2021. This year marks the business’ fortieth anniversary, which was founded in 1982 by managing director Dr Richard Salisbury.

Former Glamour magazine entertainment editor Nicola Elliott co-founded Harrogate-based NEOM Organics with Oliver Mennell in 2005. Their scented organic products – such as candles, diffusers and pillow sprays – are designed to boost wellbeing and provide an antidote to fast-paced, stressful lifestyles. The company sells online and has five stores in the UK and Ireland, as well as retail partnerships with the likes of Harrods and John Lewis. NEOM launched in America in 2020 and is eyeing expansion in China.

Former investment banker Connie Nam founded this jewellery brand from her Notting Hill flat in 2012. The Seoul-born entrepreneur spent £500 on a website to launch Astrid & Miyu, named after Swedish and Japanese words for ‘beautiful’. In 2019, German-based investment firm Aeternum Holding bought a 33% stake in the business for £4m. Astrid & Miyu opened stores in Soho, Chelsea and King’s Cross last year, and it now has seven London shops and two concessions in Selfridges. The brand’s celebrity fans include Georgia May Jagger, Pippa Middleton and Rochelle Humes.

Vashi enables customers to co-create jewellery with its craftspeople at in-store workshops. The pieces are made with recycled gold and platinum and ethical diamonds. The business was founded in 2007 by chief executive and chairman Vashi Dominguez, a Tenerife-born entrepreneur, and sales reached £53.6m in 2020. The eponymous brand has an ecommerce site, a concession in Selfridges in Manchester, and four shops in London, with a fifth on Old Bond Street coming soon. It is also set to open a New York store.

Founded in 1988 by managing director Paul Kamel, this firm provides supply-chain management services nationwide. Kammac operates from ten sites across the Midlands and north of England, and has expanded to 3m sq ft of warehousing space. It specialises in storage and distribution for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, and turnover rose 71% in 2020 to £49.6m. The company employs more than 400 people and deals with about 5,000 40ft containers a year.

This fintech firm is a payment service provider for online, phone and point-of-sale transactions. The Manchester-based company was co-founded in 2015 by Alex Leigh, Matthew Hamer and Jean-Michel Soopramanien. Total Processing works with more than 3,000 merchants globally and made a string of senior hires last year, including chief executive Rob Pailin, former managing director of Assetz Capital. The company has grown from a team of four to more than 50 people in the past four years. In 2021, it opened a Dubai office, its first outside the UK.

This family-run firm provides logistics services across sea, air, road and rail. It operates in a range of sectors such as food, fashion and chemicals, and it helped to arrange PPE transportation for non-governmental organisations at the start of the pandemic. The company’s customers include retailers such as Iceland, THG and The Entertainer. Chairman Alan Edge founded EWL in 1989 and his son Philip is chief executive. The Salford-based company has four UK offices, as well as bases in Vietnam and Thailand.

Huel makes nutritionally complete food: drinks, bars, instant meals and protein products. Serial entrepreneur Julian Hearn and James Collier founded the brand in 2015, and chief executive James McMaster joined two years later. In 2018, the Hertfordshire firm raised £20m from investor Highland Europe to launch new products and drive international growth. Huel has sold more than 200m meals to over 100 countries, and sales passed the £100m mark last year, when it generated adjusted EBITDA profits of £2m.

SumUp enables 3m small businesses to process payments in-store and online. It offers card readers, as well as online payment links, an invoices app, and QR codes. The London-based company was founded in 2012 by a team including chief executive Daniel Klein. In 2021, it raised €750m in debt financing from investors including Goldman Sachs, Temasek and Bain Capital, to fund acquisitions, overseas expansion, and product development. Later that year, SumUp bought Fivestars, a US payments and marketing firm, for $317m.

Chief executive Steve Marshall started this Hampshire business in 2009 as a team of four people selling financial protection over the phone. Today, Reassured claims to be the UK’s largest life insurance broker, with seven offices nationwide. It has sold policies to more than a million protected customers since it was launched. Marshall attributes much of the success to a focus on customer service, but the business also prioritises staff satisfaction – it has featured in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For list for the last seven years.

Lewis Blitz and brothers James and Richard Gold launched their first product – a colourful iPhone case aimed at young women – in 2011. After renting an office in Wembley and cold calling retailers, they got their first break when River Island put in an order for £20,000. The three founders, who appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den in 2012, now employ more than 180 people worldwide, with about 70 based at their Londonheadquarters. Skinnydip’s range has grown to include handbags, clutch bags, sunglasses and jewellery.

Lusso’s high-end bathrooms grace some of the world’s top hotels, including Claridge’s and The Connaught in Mayfair. The company designs freestanding stone baths and other luxury bathroom products, which it sells through its online store. Chief executive Wayne Spriggs, a former property developer, founded the Middlesbrough company in 2014 using a £10,000 overdraft, and today Lusso sells to 35 countries and is targeting expansion in America, where it already has an ecommerce site. In 2021 sales almost doubled to £31m and they now plan to open a showroom in Mayfair this year.

Preston-based Sapphire Utility Solutions was founded in 2013 by Michael Patel. It maintains essential infrastructure for both the utility and highway sectors. The company specialise in installing, replacing and maintaining clean water, wastewater, gas, digital networks and highways drainage infrastructure. It has grown to a team of more than 1,000 staff and hires local people through an apprenticeship scheme. It also provides opportunities for the long-term unemployed and former armed forces personnel.

This Rotherham business says it is the largest independent mattress retailer in the UK. Chief executive Steve Adams co-founded the company from his bedroom in 2003 and created one of the first online retailers to offer a next-day delivery service. In 2021, Mattress Online processed 128,500 orders and doubled sales to £37.4m. It also unveiled plans to acquire and open ten physical stores within five years. In March 2022, the company bought The Skipton Bed & Sofa Centre for an undisclosed sum.

Galaxy Insulation supplies a range of building insulation products, from dry lining and cladding to render systems and facades. Co-founder and managing director Tracy Shepherd established the company in 2009 with depots at Sheffield and Leeds. In 2019, he led a management buyout, which merged four Galaxy businesses. The group opened seven new branches in 2020 and 2021 and now operates from 13 sites across England and Wales, from Newcastle in the North, to Tonbridge, Kent in the South, and are due to open in Scotland next year. The company also completed its first acquisition, of Hush UK, in August 2021.

Activate Group provides accident management services to insurers and fleet providers. It manages insurance claims, supplies automotive parts, and partners with a nationwide network of repair centres. It also has its own chain of body shops. Chairman and co-founder Mark Wilcox previously set up financial crime investigation firm AGS Risk Solutions in 1999 and sold it in 2014. He launched Activate with Mark Woods in 2015, and Hannah Wilcox became chief executive in 2018. Sales reached £192.8m in 2021.

Dorset-based Muc-Off started life in 1994 when Rex Trimnell – father of current managing director Alex Trimnell – invented an eco-friendly bike cleaning solution. Muc-Off moved into motorcycle care in 2000 and car care in 2003, and has sponsored the likes of Team Sky in the Tour de France and Sahara Force India in Formula 1. In 2020, it created an antibacterial range to help combat Covid-19. The company exports to more than 100 countries and generates over half its sales overseas. Recent product launches include a care kit for
bike shoes.

Medical Research Network manages clinical trials at patients’ homes for customers including
pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Co-founded in 2006 by chief executive Graham Wylie, the business now employs more than 330 people across offices in Milton Keynes, America, Europe and Japan. It delivers clinical trials in more than 50 countries and completes over 1,600 home trial visits a month. MRN plans to expand internationally and invest in R&D after receiving a £3m loan from Shawbrook Bank last year.

Tofoo produces organic, gluten-, dairy- and yeast-free products from soybeans. Husband-and-wife team Dave Knibbs and Lydia Smith have built the business to sales of £18.6m in 2021. The North Yorkshire firm says it is the fourth-largest brand in the chilled meat-free market, with more than one million households buying its products regularly. Its recent growth is partly due to winning listings in major retailers including Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.

Kensa Group manufactures and installs ground-source heat pumps and is headquartered in Truro, Cornwall. Technical director Guy Cashmore and director Richard Freeborn co-founded the business in 1999, and Legal & General Capital acquired a 36% stake in 2020. Kensa recently broke production records by doubling output in 18 months, and it is aiming for a further twofold increase in capacity by 2023. The group says its heat pump installations have saved more than a million tonnes of carbon.

Craft Gin Club claims to be the UK’s biggest gin subscription club and allows its 120,000 members to discover exclusive and rare gins from around the world for £40 a month. Each month, members receive a full-sized bottle of craft gin that is paired with premium mixers, sweet and savoury treats, and the ingredients and recipes for cocktails. The London-based company was co-founded in 2015 by Jon Hulme and John Burke, who met while studying business in Madrid. In 2016, the pair appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, securing a £75,000 investment from entrepreneur Sarah Willingham in return for a 12.5% stake.

Chief executive Darragh McCarthy co-founded this Belfast-based financial services group in 2013. FinTrU provides technology-related services that help investment banks meet regulatory requirements. It employs more than 1,000 people and opened offices in Dublin and Maastricht in 2021, adding to bases in Belfast, Derry, London and New York. That year, sales rose to £29m, with almost a quarter generated overseas. In 2022, the company won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise, in recognition of its continuous growth in international sales over six years.

Former Spice Girl Emma Bunton and co-founder Christopher Money launched this eco-friendly baby brand in 2017. The Buckinghamshire business uses natural and sustainable materials for its products, which include nappies, wipes, babywear and skincare. It makes its plant-based nappies in a carbon neutral factory and sources organic cotton for its babywear range. Kit & Kin is stocked by the likes of Waitrose, Boots, Ocado and John Lewis, and has raised a total of £1.3m.

CP Media (Community Partners) was formed in 2006 by Andrew Walker as a part of Adgroup. Mike Brennan, former Sales Director at Global Media and at CBS, was later bought into the partnership in 2010. Initially providing revenue to councils from assets including roundabouts, welcome signs and poster sites, it now offers advertising on bridges, lampposts banners, bus stations and at NHS Trusts. In 2019, they purchased regional business Eye Airports, which sells advertising at 23 regional airports across the UK. The company also supplies and generates revenue through a number of other businesses including Be Original Marketing where it sells digital marketing services to SMEs. It has recently increased its staff members to around 40 people across all its businesses.

Dr.PawPaw makes more than 30 skincare products sold in 30 countries through the likes of Boots, Superdrug and Sainsbury’s. Johnny and Pauline Paterson set up the company in 2013 when their daughter was diagnosed with eczema. The husband-and-wife duo searched for a natural alternative to steroid prescription creams and realised there was a gap in the market. They invested £20,000 to create a multipurpose balm using papaya extract. Last year, the brand expanded its international presence with listings in South African and Dutch retailers.

Chief executive Rishi Khosla and co-founder Joel Perlman launched this challenger bank in 2015. OakNorth provides loans to small and medium-sized businesses and says it has lent more than £7bn to UK entrepreneurs. It claims this has helped to create more than 31,600 jobs and 22,300 homes. The bank has raised more than $1bn in total, including a $440m funding round led by Japanese investor SoftBank in 2019, when OakNorth was valued at $2.8bn.

This online retailer owns a portfolio of seven brands, such as ProBreeze and CosiHome household goods, and Hello Pure supplements. The group’s diverse range of products includes dehumidifiers, Himalayan salt lamps, air beds and baby monitors. The North London firm has operations in 12 countries and generated more than half its £57.5m sales overseas in 2020. Chief executive Joshua Stevens started importing goods from China when he was 13, and set up One Retail Group in 2013.

Twinkl provides teachers, tutors and parents with educational resources such as lesson plans, reading book collections, and maths worksheets. Its website offers 750,000 digital resources and attracts an average of 14m visits a month. Jonathan and Susie Seaton set up Twinkl in 2010 from their spare bedroom, after Susie, a teacher, could not find resources for her lessons. The Sheffield-based firm now operates in more than 200 countries and employs over 700 people. The company also runs TwinklHive, a business accelerator for edtech start-ups.

Bumper provides interest-free loans for drivers who need to repair or service their vehicles. The London based company has built a network of more than 3,000 partner garages that carry out its customers’ repairs. Bumper was founded in 2013 by chief executive James Jackson and chief commercial officer Jack Allman. It has raised a total of $17.5m to date from investors that include Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures, Porsche Ventures, and Autotech Ventures. Bumper is rolling out in Germany, with plans to launch in Spain and the Netherlands this year.

Contrado Imaging specialises in digital printing on fabrics. Fashion designers, students and businesses select a fabric or product, and then upload photos, patterns or art to create a customised design. Each order is handmade, often within 24 hours. Contrado has a network of 40 websites in nine languages across 14 territories and employs more than 100 people. Managing director Christopher Childs founded the London-based firm in 2002 and sales almost doubled in 2021 to £24m, boosted by demand for its online printing service during lockdown.

Loadhog designs and manufactures returnable transit packaging such as collapsible containers and pallet lids. It aims to eliminate single-use packaging and helped Sky and Unipart Logistics remove plastic pallet wrap from their supply chain. The employee-owned company is based at a 120,000 sq ft renovated gun factory in Sheffield and has subsidiaries in France and America. It was founded in 2003 by chairman Hugh Facey, who also set up Gripple, the wire fastener brand. Last year, it launched the Loadhog Foundation to support good causes.

Monwell designs e-commerce sites and helps clients run them, offering services such as marketing, stock management and customer insights data. It provides fully managed online shops to some of the UK’s biggest media brands, including the Guardian, The Mail and the Express. Established in 2016 by two former Guardian employees, Sara Montgomery and Nick Sidwell, they also specialise in selling books alongside ethically-sourced branded merchandise. The company is based in North London and employs a team of six. Its sales have more than doubled in two years, reaching 3.3m in 2021.

Spitfire Audio works with composers, producers, engineers and studios to create realistic recordings of instruments and libraries of music samples. The digital sounds can be downloaded to a computer and enable people to compose and perform music. The North London company was co-founded by award-winning composers Christian Henson and Paul Thomson in 2007 and the pair have collaborated with the likes of Hans Zimmer and the London Contemporary Orchestra. Spitfire Audio sounds have appeared in major Hollywood film scores as well as in recordings by Radiohead and U2.

Fairfax & Favor sells high-end footwear, clothing and accessories that blend ‘town’ and ‘country’ styles. Its bestsellers include the Regina, a tall, heeled boot with a tassel. The Norfolk-based company is named after its founders, childhood friends Marcus Fairfax Fountaine and Felix Favor Parker, who launched the brand in 2013 with a £10,000 investment. They started out selling at country shows and have expanded their retail presence to include online shops in five currencies, three physical stores, and a network of UK and international stockists.

Silixa was co-founded by executive director Mahmoud Farhadiroushan, chief technology officer Tom Parker and chief scientist Sergey Shatalin in 2007. The company has developed and manufactures distributed fibre optic sensing-based acoustic, temperature and strain sensing technologies and solutions. The systems are deployed worldwide, across the energy, infrastructure, mining and environmental sectors. For example, Silixa’s products have been used to monitor a CO2 storage reservoir in Australia, and subsea wells in the Gulf of Mexico. The company has raised over £25m in funding, and its current investors are Lime Rock Partners, Chevron Technology Ventures, and Equinor Ventures.

Lintbells develops and manufactures pet health products for dogs, cats and horses in both the UK and USA. Its range includes joint supplement, YuMOVE, omega oils for skin care, and supplements to improve digestion and anxiety. The products are available in vets, retailers such as Pets at Home and Amazon, and through its DTC subscription programme. John Davies and John Howie co-founded the Hertfordshire business in 2006, and private-equity firm Inflexion invested an undisclosed sum in 2017. In March 2022, the American Kennel Club named YuMOVE as its official dog joint supplement.

This online retailer sells home and garden power tools and accessories from brands such as Bosch and DeWalt. Founder and managing director Chris Guy started out in 1998 selling fittings and fixings to builders. He saw there was a demand for easy access to power tools and launched Powertool World online. Today, the company operates from two large warehouses in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. It uses automated packaging machines to create, tape, weigh and label each order, eliminating the need for void-fill materials.

WeFlex provides car finance and rental to ride-hailing drivers, focusing on electric vehicles. Founder Nicko Williamson is a serial entrepreneur, who launched his first eco-friendly venture, ClimateCars, in 2007 aged 23 and sold it to Addison Lee in 2015 for an undisclosed sum. WeFlex has raised £2m of investment and £27.5m in debt to date, including a £25m loan from Triple Point Investment Management. London-based WeFlex plans to have an all-electric fleet of 5,000 vehicles by 2025.

This Essex-based company sells and leases shipping containers, ranging from 6ft to 40ft. It also converts them into buildings such as mobile offices, cafes, football changing rooms, and workshops for community projects. Its containers are used by eBay and Amazon sellers to store dry foods and other stock. It also supplies customers such as the Red Cross, the Ministry of Defence, the police, and Thames Water. 1st Containers was founded by Mitch Brenner in 2004 and reported sales of £24.9m last year.

This company’s software enables teams to connect and collaborate through voice, video, chat and other methods. It also offers a customer communications platform for contact centres. The London-based business was founded by chief executive Russell Lux in 2015, and it has expanded to support 125k daily users in 65 countries. In 2021, it secured £4m in funding from investors, including BOOST&Co, to fuel acquisitions. It bought three companies that year, including Coventry-based PBX Hosting for £4.5m. In June 2022 TelcoSwitch completed a successful MBO backed by Queen’s Park Equity.

DK Engineering renovates, stores and sells luxury sports and racing cars. It stocks prestige marques such as Lamborghini, McLaren and Porsche but is best known for its expertise in Ferraris. Husband-and-wife team David and Kate Cottingham set up the Hertfordshire company in 1977, and their sons James, Jeremy and Justin have all worked in the family business. In 2019, DK Engineering won a Queen’s Award for International Trade, recognising its sustained growth in overseas sales.

This Welsh business has seven purpose-built ‘clean’ rooms, which are used to pack products such as dried foods. The company also offers warehousing and distribution services for its blue-chip clients and is certified by the Soil Association. Complete Co-Packing was set up in 2015 by managing director Steve Nicholls, a former electrical engineer. The business is based in Abercynon, north of Cardiff, and it opened a storage and distribution site in Merthyr Tydfil last year.

This Bournemouth-based retailer sells bathroom, kitchen and heating products via the websites Drench, Tap Warehouse and Only Radiators. Founder and managing director Elliot Lees-Bell launched the company in 2011 to sell taps online. Today, more than 8m people visit its three e-commerce sites each year. Beyond Retail offers 20,000 items from 50 manufacturers and has a growing portfolio of own-brand goods. Sales climbed to £47.9m in 2021, boosted by consumer demand for home improvement products.

Founded in 2011 by Dr Bashir Parkar, BAP Pharma specialises in pharmaceutical clinical trial supply. It works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to overcome complex supply challenges. The company has divisions in comparator sourcing, secondary packaging and labelling and storage and distribution. In 2021, BAP Pharma celebrated its tenth anniversary and moved to its new headquarters in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

Crescent Pharma produces and markets generic medicines and over-the-counter healthcare products. It says it supplied 180m packs in the UK last year, and its customers include the NHS, retailers and pharmacies. Chief executive Mohammed Al-Doori founded the business in 2003. In 2020, turnover passed the £100m mark, when sales rose 40% to £106.2m. Headquartered in Basingstoke, Crescent Pharma operates from six UK sites – two of which were acquired this year – and an office in Malta.

Founder Andrew Wright was 21 years old when he set up this online retailer in 2009 from his parents’ dining room, with £2,000 in savings. The business started selling kitchen goods from big-name manufacturers but launched its own brand, Cookology, in 2014. The Suffolk-based company sells its range of ovens, fridges, wine and beverage coolers, BBQ’s and other kitchen appliances on its website and on other ecommerce platforms. In 2021, The Wright Buy posted a 61% rise in sales to £23.2m, boosted by online demand for home appliances during the pandemic.

This technology firm helps organisations to build digital products and accelerate their own in-house digital delivery skills and capabilities. Its services include web development and app creation, and it works with the likes of British Airways, Premier Inn and Gousto amongst others. Founded in 2013 by chief executive Paramjit Uppal, AND Digital has opened 19 offices called ‘clubs’ across the UK and Netherlands and employs more than 1,400 people. The London-based business is backed by investor BGF, which has provided total funding of £19m.

This start-up is transforming the way music royalties are paid. The Audoo Audio Meter™ tracks and identifies music played in public places, such as shops, gyms and bars. The data is sent to performing right organisations to ensure that artists are compensated for their work. Musician Ryan Edwards founded the London firm in 2018 after hearing his own top 10 hit being played in a department store. Audoo has since raised more than £14m from investors including Sir Paul McCartney and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. This year, it plans to roll out its technology across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

This technology start-up unlocks the world of whisky. It has developed proprietary image capturing software that allows mobile phones to scan and identify any bottle of the ‘golden elixir’. The Bevvy app displays a variety of information on the scanned whisky, including an estimated valuation, tasting notes, user ratings and distillery history. Its database stores details of more than 200,000 bottles, and the app is aimed at anyone from novices to collectors and distillery owners. Headquartered on the Isle of Islay, the company was set up in 2021 by leading whisky expert Laurie Black, and entrepreneur Luke Heron, co-founder of medtech firm TestCard.

England football captain Harry Kane is one of the investors behind this gut health brand, which raised £1.4m in March. Dr Megan Rossi, a gut health specialist and research fellow at King’s College London, joined forces with chief executive Jon Walsh to launch the business in 2019 with a range of ‘good for the gut’ granolas. They have expanded the brand to mueslis, porridges and live yoghurts, and retail sales hit £2.8m last year. The products are stocked in more than 1,400 stores nationwide, such as Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, and celebrity fans include Davina McCall.

Creating hand-iced biscuits to mark any occasion, this bakery sells to customers in 117 countries. Its treats include Mr Men letterbox biscuits, tins of flower-shaped biscuits designed in partnership with the RHS, and a special collection to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. Biscuiteers trades online and through stockists such as Selfridges, Waitrose and Harvey Nichols. It also offers masterclasses in biscuit icing at its cafes in Belgravia and Notting Hill. Managing director Harriet Hastings founded the firm in 2007 with her husband, Stevie Congdon. The company moved to a new production centre in Wimbledon in 2019, and sales topped £11m last year.

This fashion brand works with artisan shoemakers in Italy to create luxury footwear for women. It uses sustainable materials and processes, and its high-end collections include an eco-friendly vegan range made from apple waste. Designer Jane Frances co-founded the label in 2016 with her husband, Scott O’Connor, who is chief executive. The London digitally native business sells primarily online via its global website but also partners with luxury retail outlets on four continents. It has raised a total of £2.5m from investors including KSR Ventures.

Dock & Bay was created in 2015 to reinvent the beach towel. The company’s lightweight towels are made from recycled plastic bottles and are quick drying, compact and sand repellent. In 2017, co-founders Andy Jefferies and Ben Muller appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, securing a £75,000 investment from Deborah Meaden in exchange for a 10% stake. The London-based business has warehouses on three continents and has expanded its eco-friendly product range to include hair wraps, make-up removers, ponchos and more, all using materials made from recycled plastic bottles building on its mission to become a sustainable lifestyle brand. Sales have doubled in two years, reaching £8.4m in 2021.

Dr Will’s is on a mission to reduce our sugar consumption. Its sauces, dressings and mayonnaise are made with only natural ingredients and are sweetened with dates rather than added sugar. Its eponymous cofounder, Dr Will Breakey, teamed up with Liam White and Josh Rose to launch its products in 2017, and they have since won listings in the likes of Tesco and Waitrose. In 2021, they secured £1.1m on crowdfunding platform Seedrs to invest in marketing, e-commerce, recruitment and packaging.

This femtech business develops women’s health products, including a wearable breast pump and an exercise aid to strengthen the pelvic floor. Chief executive Tania Boler partnered with technology entrepreneur Alex Asseily to set up the London-based firm in 2013. Sales rose 85% in 2020 to £36.5m, boosted by rapid growth in America and expansion into 10 new markets across the EU and Asia. Elvie also launched two new breastfeeding products that year. In 2021, it raised £70m from investors, including BGF, BlackRock and Octopus Ventures, to fund innovation, infrastructure, and geographical expansion.

In January, this household cleaning brand unveiled a 59,000 sq ft facility in Nantwich, Cheshire, housing its new headquarters, warehouse and factory. The family-run firm was set up in 2019 by father-and-son team Mike and James Sharpe, and it specialises in fragranced products, such as lemon lavender disinfectant, cinnamon-scented polish, and chamomile antibacterial spray. Fabulosa is stocked by retailers such as Amazon, Poundland and Aldi, and in 2021, the brand launched in B&M stores in France. Sales rose 79% last year to £34.7m.

Huma’s ‘healthtech’ platform monitors patients remotely via an app. Patients with cardiac failure, diabetes, musculoskeletal issues, rare diseases and more, use an app to remotely relay their health information to clinicians and researchers. Huma claims that its platform can lower mortality rates, almost double clinical capacity and cut hospital readmission rates by a third. It supports a network of 27m patients and works with over 3,000 hospitals, clinics, academic institutions and pharmaceutical firms such as AstraZeneca, J&J and Bayer. Founded in 2011 by Dan Vahdat and Rich Khatib, Huma has raised $250m to date.

This online, home decor start-up delivers eco-friendly paints, wallpaper and tools directly to the consumer. It also offers peel-and-stick paint samples, design tips, and virtual consultations with colour experts. Launched in 2020 by Lucas London and Sam Bradley, the company raised $22m last year from investors including Omers Ventures, Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman, and Tetra Pak heir Magnus Rausing. In 2021, sales hit £5.2m, boosted by online demand for home improvement products during the pandemic. This year, the London company launched Lick Pro for trade customers and acquired Eco-Union, a brand of sustainable decorating tools.

Husband and wife team Manav and Rimi Thapar started LoveRaw: a plant based chocolate brand with £600 and a food processor. Today, the confectionery is sold in 20 countries, and stockists include Asda, Coop and WH Smith. LoveRaw secured £2m of funding from investor Blue Horizon Ventures in 2020, after rejecting an offer in the BBC’s Dragons’ Den two years earlier. The family-run firm is based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, and products launched this year include vegan peanut butter cups in milk and white chocolate flavours.

Chief executive Marie Owen founded this business in 2006 from her kitchen table. Today, it provides location and production services from hubs in Edinburgh, Manchester and London. As one of the UK’s leading production services companies, LS Productions also produces globally, with shoots planned in Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Istanbul and Tenerife. The company specialises in film and television, commercials, music videos, fashion, and sports campaigns. Clients include global brands, studios and streamers such as Aston Martin, Adidas, HBO, Netflix, and Valentino, and feature A-list talent like Meryl Streep, Harry Styles, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zendaya.

Magic Light has produced nine animated Christmas specials for the BBC based on children’s books by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, including The Gruffalo and Superworm. Its other credits include the children’s animated series Pip and Posy, which premiered on Channel 5 last year. The London firm’s productions are available in more than 50 languages and 180 countries. It also licenses brands, such as The Gruffalo, to partners including clothing retailer Joules, and Chessington World of Adventures, home to The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure. Magic Light is led by joint managing directors Martin Pope and Michael Rose, who cofounded the company in 2003.

This year, Meatless Farm launched a vegan steak made from pea protein, adding to its range of plant-based food that includes meat free mince, burgers and chicken. Danish entrepreneur Morten Toft Bech founded the Leeds-based business in 2016. It opened production hubs in the Netherlands and Canada last year and now exports to more than 20 countries. Its products are available in retailers and foodservice outlets, such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Pret and Fridays restaurants. Meatless Farm has raised £38m to date, including £3.3m on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube last year. Investors include cyclist Mark Cavendish.

This London-based firm helps organisations to combat financial crime and comply with regulations. Its anti-money laundering platform uses artificial intelligence to screen its clients’ customers and monitor transactions for suspicious activity. Napier has more than 200 clients, including banks such as HSBC, payment providers like Trustly, and cryptocurrency firms. The business was founded in 2015 by chief executive Julian Dixon and has offices on four continents. Former HSBC chief operations officer Andy Maguire joined as chairman last year.

Plum Play was founded by Jonathan and Diane Schaffer in 1988. The company’s first toy product launched over 30 years ago and Plum Play remains a family run business specialising in designing, manufacturing and selling outdoor play equipment. Paul Schaffer grew up watching his parents build the Plum brand and now runs the business as managing director. The Lincolnshire-based company has offices in Hong Kong and Sydney and in 2020 secured a £4.2m financing package from Santander to drive overseas growth. Plum exports to more than 50 countries and stockists include Harrods and John Lewis.

Beijing-born twins Jake Xu and Shane Carnell-Xu launched this men’s cosmetics brand in 2019 after raising funds from angel investors Sally Preston and Neil Mather of Kiddylicious, the children’s snack business. Bestsellers in Shakeup’s skincare and makeup range include moisturiser, under eye concealer and face masks. The brand is stocked by national and overseas retailers, such as Harvey Nichols, Superdrug and Australia’s Myer, and it recently launched its new Face 4ward range in China. The Xu brothers previously set up READY, a creative agency based in Bath.

SKOOT Eco Group is helping businesses identify, avoid and offset their carbon footprint. SKOOT has developed a suite of initiatives, from a carbon calculator focussed on the 5.5m UK SME’s, to a plug-in API for hospitality, allowing guests to purchase in the moment transactions to remove carbon through recognised climate solutions. It also has a carpooling app with 30,000 users across 120 cities which helps users share journeys, reduce congestion and remove CO2 from travel. SKOOT was founded in 2019 by Greg Gormley and Mark Stringer and has raised over £4m to date including from the Low Carbon Innovation Fund.

James Averdieck launched this dairy-free dessert brand in 2014, after selling his previous venture, Gü puddings, to Noble Foods for £32.5m in 2010. The Coconut Collaborative makes coconut-based yoghurts, ice creams and puddings, which are sold in major UK supermarkets such as Tesco, as well as overseas markets including America, France and Germany. Sales rose 28% in 2020 to £15.2m. In the same year, US private equity firm PowerPlant Partners invested $7m in the business to fund expansion in America. This May, the company debuted its plant-based, gut health yoghurt in Sainsbury’s.

The Wave is an inland surfing destination near Bristol which exists to enable people of all ages the opportunity to surf. It’s powered by Wavegarden Cove technology, which produces waves for all abilities – from a child to a pro surfer training for the Olympics. As well as the 180m surfing lake, it also has a cafe bar, surf shop, and accommodation in 25 glamping tents. Founder Nick Hounsfield and chief executive Craig Stoddart opened their first park in 2019, and this year, the company announced plans to build six more venues across the UK and Ireland.

Co-founded in 2016 by former clinical psychologist Nick Taylor, Unmind is a mental health platform for the workplace. It offers self-guided courses, exercises and assessments to help employees look after their mental wellbeing. Customers include Sainsbury’s, the NHS and British Airways, and the platform is used by more than 2.5m people across 110 countries. Last year, Unmind raised $47m in a funding round led by EQT Ventures, to fuel product development and international growth. The company employs 180 people across offices in London, Sydney and New York, and sales doubled in 2021 to £6.2m.

This ‘insurtech’ start-up uses technology to deliver online insurance and detect fraud. It offers insurance policies to renters and people in house shares, as well as homeowners, and has amassed more than 100,000 customers since it was founded in 2016 by Jimmy Williams and Greg Smyth. This May, the London-based company secured £16.5m in a funding round led by North American investor Intact Ventures and the Ingka Group (the world’s largest IKEA franchise), bringing total funds raised to £32m.

This online marketplace offers more than 350,000 parking spaces that are bookable by the hour, day or month. The platform enables people to earn money by renting out their driveways to motorists. The company also lists spaces in commercial car parks and provides services, such as cashless parking, to clients including Premier Inn. Serial entrepreneurs Harrison Woods and Charles Cridland co-founded YourParkingSpace in 2013, and Andrew Higginson, the former chairman of Morrisons, joined as nonexecutive chairman five years later. The business is backed by private-equity firm Pelican Capital, which invested £5m in 2020. Sales rose 47% last year to £18.2m.