Five South East firms featured in 2023 Startups 100 Index

Published by

Sam Pither

Startups.co.uk has released its 2023 Startups 100 Index, listing 100 of the UK’s most innovative small businesses, with five South East registered firms making the cut – including two in the top 10.

Hack the Box – 3rd

The highest ranking for a company in the South East this year goes to Folkestone-based Hack The Box, which provides online cybersecurity training, upskilling and certification.

The firm takes a gamified approach, which it says offers entertaining learning content that mimics real-world threat scenarios and is kept up-to-date with the latest cyber security threats.

Hack the Box has secured multi-millions of pounds in funding and boasts 1.5 million platform members including some of the world’s largest brands such as Siemens, Toyota and EA Sports.

Lottie – 8th

Brighton-registered Lottie was set up in 2021 by brothers Chris and Will Donnelly after finding it difficult to find a suitable care home for their family members.

The company has created a directory of vetted care homes and makes the fees surrounding them more transparent by making it compulsory for the providers to disclose their fees upfront.

Lottie boasts backing from the likes of Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo, and AccuRx founder Jacob Haddad, and recently launched a platform to help businesses support their employees who have caregiving responsibilities called Seniorcare by Lottie.

Worldr – 49th

Worldr is a Slough-based cybersecurity startup which develops security and compliance layers for business communication platform such as Microsoft Teams, Slack and WhatsApp.

The firm’s software verifies every device, user, and application that interacts with a network, providing customers with a high level of assurance that their data is protected, and claims to be able to get up and running within 10 minutes.

Named a Rising Star Finalist by Tech Nation in 2020, Worldr last year announced £9.9 million in seed funding, giving it strong financial resources as it looks to expand and develop new features for new platforms.

KinKind – 58^th

Bourne End-based KinKind is aiming to remove plastic from UK bathrooms with its entirely plastic-free hair and beauty bars.

It’s vegan, cruelty-free products are manufactured in the UK, and do not use any plastic in their packaging, delivering their products directly to the consumer.

Having already saved more than 320,000 plastic bottles from landfill since it was founded in 2020, the firm has gone on to win a Natural Health Beauty award.

Bold Bean Co – 86th

Based in Henley-On-Thames, Bold Bean Co sells a range of premium, sustainably-sourced and packaged legumes, which it says are an underexplored protein source.

Since being founded in 2021 the firm has won listings in Planet Organic, Selfridges, Gorilla and Waitrose as well as investment from some top dogs in the food and drink industry.

Featured image: Hack the Box founders Haris Pylarinos, James Hooker, Aris Zikopoulos. Credit: Hack the Box/Startups.co.uk

Sam Pither

Sam is the Regional Editor of Biz News, responsible for both Hampshire and Dorset. A new recruit to journalism, Sam started writing for the Business Magazine as a freelancer in May of 2022 after completing his degree in English at University College London. His passion for local businesses and ability to tell a story soon caught the attention of the publication’s management team and have led to his meteoric rise. Sam, who lives in central Reading, takes a particular interest in technology, gaming and food and drink, having been a chef before starting his degree.