12 British Start-Ups to Watch This Year

An online furniture brand with a difference, Swoon Editions cut out the overheads from having a physical shop and warehouses by working directly with suppliers. By producing well-crafted furniture at competitive prices, Swoon is able to undercut its competitors at the same time as providing something a little different to the increasingly saturated market.

Influencer marketing, particularly on Instagram, has become a huge driver of income over the past couple of years. Takumi is an app that allows brands to easily connect with micro-influencers to create campaigns together, allowing those with a lower number of followers to make money from their Instagram accounts. The idea is based around the assumption that a group of micro-influencers with high engagement have a large amount of reach between them all, enabling them to effectively spreading the word about the brand that they are promoting.

If you have a pet dog, chances are that Tails.com is already on your radar. Yes, there are other online services that deliver pet food directly to your door, offering more affordable alternatives to supermarkets or pet stores – but the difference is in the detail with Tails.com. By asking its customers detailed questions about their dogs including age, weight and health, the service can provide specially designed, nutritional meals that provide your pet with everything it needs.

The first completely digital bank in the entire world, Monzo knows that Millennials don’t have the time for popping into branches or even logging into online banking. The easy-to-use app aims to offer its customers the best current account in the world, making it easier and quicker to organise all elements of banking by using only your smartphone.

Delivery services are becoming more and more niche with even flower deliveries being shaken up. Bloom & Wild offer beautifully presented fresh flowers, delivered through the letter box either for yourself or as a gift for a loved one. Each delivery is carefully packed by hand and packaged in a thin cardboard box that can easily be pushed through the letterbox, meaning that you no longer have to wait it to receive your bouquet. The flowers are all at bud stage when sent, which allows them to fit into the specially designed boxes but also assures that they will last for longer. You even receive tips for care and presentation with each parcel.

If you want to start investing your money but don’t know where to start, Moneybox is the app for you. This start-up connects to your credit card or bank account, rounding up your everyday purchases to the nearest pound and collecting the spare change to invest. With as little as just £1 saved, you can invest in a variety of companies, allowing everyone the chance to dabble in investing.

An image-recognition platform that is taking the technology to the next level, Blippar is a simple app that allows users to point their phone camera at an object to discover information about it. The app will work for anything from a product in a shop to a painting in a gallery or even a photograph of a celebrity in a magazine. Their database is constantly growing and there are even plans to allow users to upload photos of their own faces in the future.

Drones are no longer just a cool piece of tech; Zipline has launched a drone delivery service that specialises in transporting medical supplies to those in need. Concentrating on areas where the infrastructure makes it difficult to reach patients, the drones are specially designed to transport supplies such as blood and medicine. Currently being used in Rwanda, there are plans to expand to other locations soon.

This London-based start-up is helping people buy and sell used cars, making a real difference to what is widely known to be a tricky transaction. By saving the money that would normally be charged by a dealership, Carspring removes all of the hidden fees to offer transparent prices for both the buyer and the seller. The company also promises that its service will speed up the process of buying and selling new cars.

Love Facetime but feel frustrated that you want to talk to more than one person at once? Houseparty has produced the technology to allow people to join group video chats of up to eight people, mimicking the effect of socialising at a party over smart phones. People can drop in and out of chats when they appear online and users can even meet friends of friends over the app.

Perfect for busy people who struggle to find the time for food shopping or those who need a little inspiration for cooking from scratch, Gousto offers a service delivering recipe boxes to your door on a weekly basis. With 22 delicious recipes to choose from each week, you’re sure to find something tasty to cook. Simply select four meals that you like the look of and you will be sent a box containing the ingredients that you need to cook the meals for either two or four people along with easy to follow recipe cards. All you need to do is cook and serve – voila!

What’s more frustrating than wandering around the terminal at an airport searching for a seat that has access to a plug socket? Everyone wants to be able to use their phones and i-Pads during their flights, which makes Away’s concept of suitcases with in-built USB chargers an ingenious idea. Offering a variety of sizes including carry-on suitcases, there are a variety of colours and optional stickers available to personalise your bags.