12 Fast Scaling Tech Startups To Watch
The past 2 years have proven tough for businesses—especially those just starting out. From multiple Covid-19 lockdowns to Brexit, UK startups have faced many challenges. Yet, 2021 shows UK companies pulling through and getting stronger than ever. In only the first half of this year, UK startups have raised $20.3bn – more than the $16.5bn raised during the whole of 2020. Read on to learn more about the fastest scaling startups that are ruling 2021.
Founded in London in June 2019, Hopin had the solution that businesses didn’t know they needed until the pandemic hit: a virtual events platform. Hopin has now hosted events for more than 50,000 organizations, including the United Nations and UCLA, and has raised the fourth-largest European Series B round of 2020. With investors such as Slack and Salesforce, Hopin has funded $576 million since January 2020.
Revolut is the most valuable fintech from the UK, having raised $800 million of Series E funding in June 2021. The digital banking app is now valued at $33 billion.
Launched in 2015, Revolut now hosts 15 million personal accounts and 500 thousand businesses. In 2020, the UK based startup also expanded to the U.S., Australia, and Japan. Initially a travel currency exchange card, Revolut now brands itself as a panacea for “your whole financial life”, offering budgeting caps, analytics, savings vaults, as well as cryptocurrency and stockbroking services.
Revolut is a fast scaling banking application, featured on Floww’s 12 scaling startup list. Image via Revolut.
Checkout.com offers a platform that simplifies and streamlines online payments, allowing users to transact in multiple currencies faster and reliably, protected from fraud. Users are also provided with data insights to keep track of finances. Founded in 2012, Checkout.com is now valued at $14.85 billion, having raised $624 million since January 2020. Users include Samsung, Deliveroo, and Klarna.
Despite only launching in December 2019, online used-car dealer Cazoo is now valued at $7 billion. Cazoo has pushed boundaries from day one, having set a record for raising over $247 million pre-launch and reaching unicorn status just 6 months after launching.
Cazoo users can buy or rent used cars via the digital platform, and the car will be delivered directly to their door. With cleaning taking place before drop-off, Cazoo is fit for the contact-free business requirements of the pandemic.
Since January 2020, Cazoo has raised $500 million from investors including Draper Espirit, Octopus Ventures, and General Catalyst.
Security startup Snyk offers technology that facilitates the identification of code vulnerabilities throughout a company’s development process. This is important as it mitigates the risk of hackers exploiting these vulnerabilities at a later point. Snyk explains that approximately 43% of data breaches are linked to early application flaws. With partners including AWS, The Linux Foundation, and Google, Snyk is being seamlessly integrated to protect more than 700 customers.
The company is now valued at $4.7 billion following a new fundraising and secondary sale in March totalling $300 million, led by Accell and Tiger Global. To add to this huge growth, Snyk recently announced an increase in revenue by 200% year-over-year.
Fitting perfectly into the take-out boom, London-based Zego offers pay-as-you-go insurance for food delivery and courier drivers. Aimed to be accessible for small and large businesses alike, Zego facilitates cost-efficiency and scalability. Customers have the choice to insure entire fleets or individual vehicles.
This business model has led to huge success: Zego was the first UK insurtech company to reach unicorn status and has won Tech Company of the Year 2020, along with being listed in the FinTech50 and Startups100. Zego is now partnering with food delivery giants Deliveroo and UberEats, and, since the start of 2020, has raised £178 million.
London-based startup Onfido offers an app-based artificial intelligence solution for identity verification. Supporting regulated industries, such as banking and government, Onfido checks that ID is not fraudulent and lines up with the corresponding user. In 2020, Onfido was listed first on the FinTech50 and since January 2020 has raised £108 million.
Food delivery app HungryPanda connects authentic Chinese restaurants and grocery stores with Chinese people living abroad. With its interface in Mandarin and 24/7 bilingual customer service, HungryPanda aims to give a taste of home to Chinese nationals. HungryPanda operates in nine countries and is profitable in the UK and New York. Since its launch in 2016, HungryPanda only sought funding 2020, and in that year alone raised $90 million.
HungryPanda is a tech startup and expanding food delivery app. Image credit via HungryPanda.
Atom Learning is an online learning platform that uses AI to track and adapt students’ educational paths according to their individual needs. Focused on creating resources that can be used both in school and at home, Atom Learning thrives on offering two different, but interoperable, platforms. Schools use Atom Prime, a free platform with a huge selection of resources, automated tests and marking, and parents can choose to subscribe monthly to Atom Nucleus, the premium platform that acts as an alternative to a private tutor. Atom Learning has been profitable from day one.
Leeds based startup Bidnamic uses AI in its marketing platform to optimise Google Shopping campaigns at the granular level. The AdTech platform increases users’ spending efficiency and revenue. In June, Bidnamic announced a 100% year-on-year increase in turnover and an increase in employees from 30 to 70 since the beginning of 2020.
AccuRx offers a messaging platform for doctor surgeries, which is used to automate communicating patient information with everyone involved on a need-to-know basis. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, AccuRx expanded its offering to facilitate video consultations, patient triage queries, and vaccine booking services. Over 90% of all GPs in England are now using the services.
Having raised a total of $11.9 million, AccuRx is now expanding its offering beyond its original free platform to include a premium service.
Cohesity offers a multi-cloud platform for data management services, providing security, analytics, and recovery of data for enterprises. The solution was listed on Forbes Cloud 100 for 2 years running and has gained a range of customers across industries, including NASA, the U.S. Airforce, Siemens, and Cisco.
Cohesity is valued at $2.5 billion, having raised $660 million in total funding.
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