Using the scientific measure of 'things we like', we have combed through the mass of start-ups in London and the UK to come up with five start-ups you should know about now. Covering every area of technology from banking to online shopping, social media to power supply and gaming, here are some of the great emerging companies we'd like to see succeed in 2011 and beyond. The number of start-ups is growing quickly even in these economically-challenged times and we'll be featuring the best of the crop regularly on Huffington Post UK.
Inensu is a gaming company to watch. As gaming works its way into so much of what we do online, this company aims to blend entertainment, games and music technology into engaging new platforms. They’re already working with Channel Paulina Bozek, Inensu’s founder was Executive Producer / Game Director of the popular SingStar music game series for PlayStation
Lookk.com is a new platform that uses the best of sociability to bring new fashion designers to market. Designers get crowdsourced feedback on what fashion fans like or don’t like. The venture won Seedcamp 2010, and has an impressive team of investors including Net-a-Porter founder Carmen Busquets, Eden Ventures and 500 Startups founder Dave McClure. The site not only looks great, it has potential to change the way emerging labels grab a slice of an £8 billion UK industry.
Not as sexy as gaming or fashion, Bio bullets offers an environmentally-sound solution to control the mussels and barnacles that clog a power plant's heat exchangers. That may sound miniscule, and the barnacles are, but it can cost £1m a day in lost generation, and that’s a whole lot of energy inefficiency we could be avoiding. The current solution is chlorine but Bio Bullet delivers microencapsulated toxins to solve the problem.
PeerIndex is a London-based startup that tracks your popularity online. It rivals existing service klout to qualify how well you’re doing in services such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress and Blogger. Not just a vanity tool, it’s main use is for brands or communicators to make sure they’re having the desired affect. That said, you’ll check out your own profile as soon as you finish reading this, yes?
Wonga promises to change the currently dire state of payday lending. Their TV advertisements may feature strange puppets, but these guys are not kidding around. Unlike other lenders, they don’t make more buy lending to you for longer, rather, they recoup if you cough up fast, while trying to make short-term lending more responsible. Time will tell whether they retain their excellent customer ratings and outshine the established payday lending firms.