In recent years London’s startup scene has really taken off and now the capital is considered to be one of the most influential and prosperous startup locations in the world. London well deserves this reputation, for it not only offers startups a terrific, culturally dynamic place to base themselves in but is also the biggest financial knowledge base in the whole of Europe.
So with this in mind, just what does the London startup scene have to offer? Let’s have a look:
1. Whichit
Whichit has had a very strong start to its journey, having won UKTI’s Sirius Programme, as well as winning the Duke of York’s Pitch@Palace ‘People’s Choice Award’ and being named ‘Startup of the Year EMEA’ by Facebook. The company managed to raise £500,000 is their Seed funding stage, and have recently been given a funding amount of £246,426 from the Innovation UK SMART TSB.
But what is Whichit exactly? Put simply, it is a platform for ‘Interactive Opinion Aggregation’. The organisation’s CEO, Jonathan Gan, states that the company helps “publishers and marketeers deliver dynamic content to readers and tailor commercial offers, in real time”.
Whichit allows online content producers to encourage users to get involved with the content they have produced via visual polls. This in turn, converts what would be a passive user into an active contributor, which is the ultimate goal of anyone producing online content.
2. HeySuccess
HeySuccess came to London back in November 2014, as a winner of UKTI’s Sirius Programme. The company has managed to gain a good deal of investment from funders across the UK and Israel and is soon expected to receive $1 million in the United States.
What does the company do? HeySuccess is a fabulous platform that helps the student community (this includes people who have recently graduated) identify jobs that are available internationally. On the flipside, HeySuccess also provides an identification/ recruitment service to potential employers. It does this by aggregating a ton of different student platforms from all over the globe, enabling users to conduct one simple search and filter journey.
Many have caught on to the usefulness of HeySuccess, with the company seeing huge growth to 100,000 registered users and 11,000 student programs. The startup has also attracted many partnerships from a variety of international organisations, such as The Economist, Schneider Company, and World Merit, amongst others.
HeySuccess has big plans for 2016, including reaching a target of 1,000,000 registered users, amongst a variety of other aims. Having seen their success so far, it seems a safe bet they will meet these targets.
3. Zeek
This startup was founded by Daniel Zelkind, Ziv Isaiah, Uri Levine, and Itay Erel just over three years ago and since that time has seen a great deal of growth, for instance securing 100,000 users in only six months, as well as funding. Having received approximately $3 million in funding since being founded, the startup has now expanded to two continents but what services does it offer?
Zeek provides a service by which if you have an unwanted gift card, you can sell it to the company for cash. They also allow users to buy discounted gift cards. With statistics showing that 47% of people in the UK receive a gift card they don’t want, and won’t use, every year, you can see why Zeek is proving popular.
The company has big plans for 2016 and has recently launched a TV campaign, which looks extremely promising and has pretty much set the tone for 2016, which is looking set to be their best year since being founded.
4. Zesty
Zesty was co-founded by James Balmain and Lloyd Price in 2012 and since that time has managed to rack up 18 awards, shortlists and nominations. Last year, they added another string to their bow by completing $7.2 million in Series A funding. But what does the company do?
This startup is firmly positioned in the health sector, and essentially provides people with an on-demand booking platform. The difference with Zesty to a normal healthcare booking system is that it searches all nearby healthcare providers, compares their services and then locates an appointment, all in under one minute!
Originally focused on NHS dental, Zesty quickly realised the benefits of expanding their reach and now focuses to a wide range of healthcare services, from physio and osteopathy to podiatry, private GPs and counselling. The service has really taken off in the UK, which is allowing the company to expand into Europe and beyond.
5. MIRA
Another health focused startup, with offices in both London and Romania, MIRA was founded by Cosmin Mihaiu, Liviu-Andrei Dascalu, Andrei Cantea, and Alina Calin back in 2012. Since that time the company has been nominated as one of the best social impact startups (2015).
MIRA’s aim is to make the usually painful and boring recovery period for patients after surgery a lot more interactive and engaging. As people go through their, often daunting, programme of physical therapy, MIRA’s system keeps track of their progress.
MIRA’s systems works by ensuring the exercises being performed by the recovering patients are safe and useful, as well as making sure they are also easy to learn, cost-effective, and most importantly, fun to do. With an international presence already, MIRA is well positioned for continued expansion this year.