
Click here to nominate for the 2017 Future 50 awards
Business: Semafone
Sector: Payments
Year founded: 2009
Future 50 class: 2012
The company was founded in 2009 and now supports customers in 22 countries on five continents. Semafone is vertical agnostic and its extensive customer base includes companies such as AO, AXA, The British Heart Foundation, Rogers Communications, Santander, Sky, TalkTalk and parts of the Virgin Group.
“Looking back to 2013 when we were featured in the Future 50 list, Semafone had already been operating for four years, but we were still very much having to educate the industry about the importance of securing card payments made over the phone,” said CEO Tim Critchley “Four years on, and the need for strong data security has only become more important for companies across the globe. Legislation such as the EU GDPR and Investigatory Powers Act is making information security and privacy an incredibly complex process for businesses. “Thanks to this, and combined with the US introduction of Chip and PIN payments, Semafone has been perfectly positioned to not only grow the business here in the UK, but also to open our North American headquarters in Boston. In fact, in just the first six months of the US office being operational we signed three significant new customer deals worth $7.5m.”Business: DesignMyNight
Sector: Events
Year founded: 2011
Future 50 class: 2016
Design My Night is a website dedicated to helping people discover and book their perfect night out in London.Click here to nominate for the 2017 Future 50 awards
Business: Landbay
Sector: Investment
Year founded: 2013
Future 50 class: 2015
Landbay matches investors with borrowers in a bid to enable both parties to benefit from the British property market – whether that’s through investment or direct ownership. The idea came about when founders John Goodall and Gray Stern recognised a shift away from traditional investing to a more transparent online platform. They decided to anchor peer-to-peer lending to UK rental properties. “Since being included in the 2015 Future 50, we’ve invested heavily in building out our team and infrastructure, culminating in the receipt of full FCA authorisation at the end of 2016,” said Stern. “We now look forward to launching our property-backed ISA in conjunction with our strategic partner and investor, Zoopla, and scaling our mortgage lending operation with a mix of funding, including retail and institutional. 2017 is set to be a big year as we roll out of a number of new products and partnerships that will help us move deeper into the UK property finance and investment ecosystem.”Business: Captify
Sector: Business intelligence
Year founded: 2011
Future 50 class: 2015
Business: Journolink
Sector: PR
Year founded: 2013
Future 50 class: 2016
Journolink describes itself as an interactive platform that enables business owners to manage their own PR and send out business stories to journalists, broadcasters and bloggers. In addition, it acts as a meeting point for journalists looking to reach out to businesses. “‘Top 50’, ‘Disruptor’, ‘Future’. No business can ask for more of an endorsement that the concept they have hit on has traction, which is what JournoLink, the software platform to enable small businesses to engage with the media in a targeted way, and manage their PR for less than a fiver a week, has seen,” said Peter Ibbetson, CEO. “Partnerships with organisations who support businesses have flown in. Names like Virgin Start Ups, Entrepreneurial Spark, and a contract with the Government Start and Grow programme, have contributed to the thousands of businesses using JournoLink double in the past year. Businesses that never even contemplated using PR in the past. “Now that ‘disruption’ is established, the ‘future’ is the key, with JournoLink currently attracting wide interest for a £1m fundraising to build automation and artificial intelligence into its wizardry.”Click here to nominate for the 2017 Future 50 awards
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