7 Innovative UK Startups to Watch in 2022
The UK nurtures innovative new startups, with an abundance of VC funding and grants to help entrepreneurs turn their promising ideas into profitable businesses. Fledgling business leaders launched 20,000 new tech startups in the UK in 2020 alone. In this article, we look at 7 promising new startups poised for success over the coming months.
1. Karakuri
Headquartered in London and founded by Brent Hoberman and Barney Wragg, Karakuri specializes in robotics. The company works with commercial kitchens, enabling them to automate a variety of different processes, from measuring ingredients, to preparing food, helping kitchens to be more efficient while enhancing food quality.
Since Karakuri’s launch in 2018, it has attracted an impressive amount of startup funding, raising 13.5mn pounds sterling (ca. $16.54mn) from five investors to date. Experts anticipate that Karakuri’s robots could become an integral part of many more kitchens across the UK in the months ahead.
2. Greyparrot
Greyparrot’s technology has transformed the way clients manage waste, paving the way for a circular economy. Greyparrot’s AI-powered technology optimizes and automates recycling processes, its computer systems recognizing, auditing, and sorting large waste flows at scale.
Founded with the goal of tackling the global waste crisis and effecting positive change in terms of climate change, Greyparrot now has a 19-strong team spanning 11 countries, combining a wealth of expertise in waste management, deep learning, and international expansion. Over the last 18 months, the Greyparrot AI Waste Recognition System has been deployed to waste sorting facilities all over the world, where it has been integrated to moving conveyor belts to automate waste composition analysis, empowering waste regulators, managers, and producers with actionable insights.
3. Netomnia
Founded in 2019, Netomnia is based in South West England. The company provides homes and businesses across the country with fiber optic broadband.
Currently, the majority of the UK continues to rely on a copper communications network, which simply does not have the capacity to keep pace with modern Internet use. Netomnia was created to upgrade infrastructure, building a new fiber optic network that relies on light particles to transfer data.
Having attracted an impressive 123mn pounds sterling (ca. $150.68mn) in investment to date, Netomnia aims to reach areas of the UK that, historically, have had to contend with poor connections and slow Internet speeds, creating a network that lasts in the long term. The company has announced ambitious plans to connect 1 million new homes and businesses by the end of 2023, and 2 million by the end of 2024. Led by CEO Jeremy Chelot, Netomnia’s leadership team benefits from decades of in-depth industry experience.
4. Habito
Touted as the world’s first digital mortgage broker, Habito uses technology to streamline the mortgage application process, bringing it into the 21st century.
Created to provide people with an honest, transparent way to identify and access the best mortgage deal, Habito is headquartered in London. The platform provides house hunters with the knowledge, tools, and expert support they need to find, finance, and buy their dream home.
With a team of 50 plus, by the end of 2020, the company had brokered more than 4bn pounds sterling (ca. $4.9bn) in mortgages for clients across the UK.
5. Jiffy
Jiffy is a London-based q-commerce (quick commerce) company that was founded in 2020. It is essentially an online supermarket that offers a lightning quick delivery service, enabling customers to order household goods and produce and have them delivered within minutes.
Jiffy’s operations are currently restricted to the London area. Although the grocery-services-on-demand sector has seen huge growth across the UK since the start of the pandemic, Jiffy founders Artus Shamalov and Vladimir Kholiaznikov are taking a measured approach to growing the startup, at odds with many of their competitors. To date, the company has held 2 funding rounds, attracting 23.3mn pounds sterling (ca. $28.54mn) in investment.
6. Sidequest
Based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Sidequest was founded in 2019 to provide a community-driven app store for virtual reality games and apps.
Sidequest provides a platform for developers to advertise their games and apps, as well as helping people to find new games compatible with their VR tools. Founded by husband-and-wife team Shane and Orla Harris, the company has attracted a total of 2.9mn pounds sterling (ca. $3.55mn) in investment from nine different sources to date, enabling the business to develop and scale.
Completely free for both users and developers, Sidequest aims to support the VR industry, providing a launching pad for game and app developers to validate content and kickstart their communities.
7. Purespring
Launched in November 2020, University of Bristol spinout Purespring is a London-based medtech startup that develops renal-related gene therapies. The company was founded with the mission of transforming the lives of 8 million people living with kidney disease in the UK.
Purespring’s approach is based on the groundbreaking work of Professor Moin Saleem, the University of Bristol’s Professor of Pediatric Renal Medicine. It focuses on the podocyte, a type of cell that is integral to healthy kidney function. To date, Purespring has attracted 45mn pounds sterling (ca. $55.13mn) in funding from Syncona, a life science investment company with a strong track record of building innovative gene therapy companies.
