We’re joining the Future Fifty programme from Tech City UK

 •  22 Feb, 17  •  5 min read

We’re very excited to announce that we’ve been accepted onto Tech City UK’s Future Fifty programme for the UK’s fastest growing, late stage tech companies!

Tech City UK has announced 26 new companies that are joining its Future Fifty programme, which showcases and supports 50 of the country’s leading growth stage companies.

Future Fifty gives companies immediate access to a valuable peer network; expert-led classes and workshops designed to take their businesses to the next level; and a higher profile amongst the wider tech ecosystem. Future Fifty companies represent some of the country’s most exciting growth stage tech businesses, while changing the sectors that they operate in fundamentally.

All 26 companies have been identified by a highly experienced and respected judging panel made up of some of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors in UK tech. They believe these companies have the potential to scale rapidly and build significant businesses. The full list of Future Fifty companies is here (1 – 26 are new companies, 27 – 50 existing companies).

New Companies:

1. Azimo is an online international money transfer service that allows people to send money to any internet-connected device in over 190 countries

2. Blis uses location data technology to create audiences for advertisers

3. Bloom & Wild provides flower delivery through the letterbox

4. Carwow is the most convenient, stress free way to find and buy a new car.

5. ClearScore is a company that provides free access to credit scores and reports

6. Condeco Group helps companies manage their meeting and office spaces more effectively

7. Ebury is a financial services company that helps small and medium enterprises grow internationally with foreign exchange, business lending and cash management solutions

8. Epos Now is a point-of-sale software and hardware provider that automates small business banking

9. Fairsail provides cloud-based human resources and people management software to mid-sized organizations

10. Festicket is an online marketplace to discover and book musical festival experiences

11. Gousto provides innovative recipe boxes with pre-portioned ingredients packaged and delivered to the door each week

12. Interact provides intranet software and professional services to help companies solve internal communication and collaboration challenges

13. Kano creates computers and coding kits for all ages

14. LoveCrafts is an online community and marketplace for the crafts sector

15. My UNiDAYS connects brands and services to a verified audience of students around the world

16. Onfido is an identity verification platform that helps over 1,000 companies ensure their customers are who they claim to be

17. Receipt Bank automates small business bookkeeping

18. ROLI a music technology company that makes a modular music creation system that opens up new possibilities for musical expression

19. Tails.com is an online pet nutrition service that makes and delivers tailormade food for an individual dog’s unique diet and nutritional needs

20. Thread is an e-commerce company that uses human stylists and machine learning to help men dress well without going shopping

21. Threads Styling is a company reinventing luxury goods commerce for the Snapchat generation

22. Spitfire Audio provides virtual instruments to composers and producers to produce and earn royalties on quality musical samples

23. SuperAwesome powers a kid-safe digital media ecosystem with products that are designed for kids’ data privacy requirements

24. Swoon Editions is an online furniture brand that works directly with suppliers to provide better quality products at a better price than traditional retailers

25. Trak Global Group is a telematics company that uses embedded devices to gather data and manage driver risk

26. Ve Interactive provides software that helps companies with digital advertising and online conversion

Of the 77 companies that have been through the programme since 2014, Future Fifty’s track record now includes:

  • Five IPOs on the London Stock Exchange, raising $1.5 bn
  • 17 mergers and acquisitions of which 11 in the last year, including SwiftKey (Microsoft), Housetrip (TripAdvisor), One Fine Stay (Accor Group) and Skyscanner (Ctrip)
  • Over $3.8 bn raised in funding, across the 77 companies, including more than $1.5 bn in 2016
  • The companies have created 27,000 jobs around the world, demonstrating the extent to which tech is rapidly creating jobs and wealth throughout the UK
  • A string of alumni companies that are household names including Zoopla and Just Eat.

Other well known companies that have graduated from the Future Fifty programme include:

  • Farfetch– the global fashion retailer
  • Lyst– a personalised fashion marketplace
  • Notonthehighstreet.com– the retail site for unique gifts
  • Naked Wines– which was bought by Majestic Wines
  • Unruly– the viral ad company that was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News UK
  • Photobox– sold to a private equity company in 2015

Existing Companies:

27. Adzuna is a search engine for jobs ads that lists every job, everywhere

28. Algomi enables all market participants to securely and intelligently harness data to make valuable financial trading connections

29. Brandwatch is the world’s leading social intelligence company

30. buddi is a personal emergency response service

31. Busuu is the world’s largest social network for language learning

32. Crowdcube is a leading investment crowdfunding platform

33. Deliveroo was founded in 2013 to provide the ultimate food delivery experience

34. FundApps provides cloud-based regulatory compliance monitoring SaaS to financial institutions

35. GoCardless is the easy way to collect Direct Debit payments

36. iwoca offers flexible credit to small businesses across Europe

37. Just Giving is the Number 1 platform for online giving in the world

38. LMAX was established to deliver the benefits of exchange quality execution to both buy-side and sell-side trading institutions

39. Lost My Name is an award-winning independent technology and publishing business

40. MWR InfoSecurity is an independent cyber security consultancy with research at the heart of what they do

41. NewVoiceMedia powers customers connections that transform businesses globally

42. Performance Horizon is the leading provider of SaaS solutions for digital partner marketing

43. Qubit empowers businesses to customise and optimise websites in real-time using qualitative and quantitative visitor data

44. RateSetter is one of the largest P2P lending platforms in the UK

45. scoota is an online advertising technology company that enables advertisers to create, activate, measure and optimise brand campaigns to scale

46. Space Ape is a gaming company focussed on mid-core games

47. The Floow designs the world’s most insightful, feature-rich and cost effective telematic system to make vehicles safer and cheaper for all

48. TransferWise is an international money transfer platform

49. WorldRemit lets people send money to friends and family living abroad, using a computer, smartphone or tablet

50. Yieldify founded in 2013, helps marketers convert visitors easily

Parveen Dhanda, Programme Lead for Future Fifty at Tech City UK, said:“We’re delighted to be working with this year’s intake. Together, they represent the diversity and depth of the UK technology sector. Their passion and talent has seen them do amazing things so far and we look forward to helping them to take the next step.”

Gerard Grech, CEO, Tech City UK, said: “From Fintech to online shopping, telematics to edtech, the Future Fifty companies offer a glimpse into the UK’s digital future. Britain remains one of the best places in the world to start a tech business and we will make sure it remains so. These companies have global ambitions and with the support of the tech community we will do everything we can to help them, so that they can create jobs and opportunities across the UK, as their successful predecessors have done.”

Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said: “The UK has a world-renowned tech and digital sector and the value of the Future Fifty programme has been to support the fastest-growing, most pioneering companies in their final push to build mainstream businesses. The fact that so many Future Fifty companies are now household names is testimony that it works.”

“The innovation that we are seeing in all of these young firms is key to the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy. We recognise that through tech and the digitisation of many aspects of UK business, we can create new opportunities across the city to expand our economy and make it more productive. The companies that join Future Fifty today will be the established businesses and employers of tomorrow.”