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. London-based WeFlex plans to have an all-electric fleet of 5,000 vehicles by 2025.

In the pantheon of British entrepreneurs to have navigated enormous, spirit-crushing roadblocks to turn their dreams into reality, one pushing for kingpin status is 58-year-old Surinder Arora – founder, owner and chairman of Arora Hotels. We spoke to him about his fascinating journey…

When Wayne Spriggs’ company, Lusso, was chosen to kit out the bathroom of The Equinox Hotel’s penthouse suite on Manhattan’s West Side in 2019, he couldn’t help but smile. Flashing through his mind were vivid memories of the two-bedroom houses he used to fix up in his hometown of Middlesbrough. The Equinox was a world away. Yet without starting out on those humble houses in England’s Northeast, the glamorous New York hotel project would never have come about. Moreover, if Wayne hadn’t taken that first step, Lusso – on track to turn over £45m this year – would not exist.

There are Hueligans everywhere – on your road, in the gym, down the pub, in your local restaurant. Hueligans aren’t people who hate spelling(!), but people with one thing in common: they all eat Huel. And their proliferation has propelled the company’s revenue to £100m in just six years. For context, there are four entries in this year’s FEBE Growth 100 to hit £100m+ in six years, but Huel is the only centurion in the consumer goods category. What’s more, it’s on a steeper growth trajectory than some of the huge names…

Care is not a traditional business value. Peruse the classics and you’ll see boldness, passion, honesty and perhaps integrity, but not the C-word.
Thankfully things are changing – as Bloom & Wild demonstrates. This flower retailer meets tech company is undoubtedly growing relentlessly. Yet its business values would disorient yesteryear’s ‘manly’ entrepreneurs. “We’re obsessed with care,” says founder Aron Gelbard. “It’s vital to me and it’s a key trait I look for when hiring.”

For Ian Wilson and the Wattbike team, there was only ever one goal – to build the world’s most accurate indoor training bike. They were well-equipped for the challenge. “Competing in elite sport makes you single-minded,” says Ian, a former rowing world champion. “It’s a vital attribute in business, too…”