Bloomberg publishes list of most innovative UK startups

Bloomberg has published a list of the most innovative startups in the UK. The list, titled “Business Innovators 2016”, was selected by a panel of judges along with Bloomberg Head of European Technology News Nate Lanxon and Bloomberg Television’s Caroline Hyde.

The panel comprised ten business experts, including finnCap Ltd founder and CEO, Sam Smith, and ENTIQ Managing Director, Eric van der Kleij.

Inventiveness

Fifty companies from a variety of sectors made the list, including marketing platform Boldmind, tech company Quantum Cambridge Computing and business financing company Funding Circle.

Bloomberg stated that the companies were selected based on their “inventiveness, their ability to challenge the way the UK conducts business and for evidence of strong local or global demand for their ideas.”

Key debates

The judges had several key debates over UK startups, with one discussion being whether or not a startup should remain “locally focused” or “entertain global ambition from day one.”

Stylist magazine founder and editor, Lisa Smosarski, a member of the panel, stated that there is a “school of thought” of startups becoming global as quickly as possible but that there are also smaller trends about focusing on local markets and “serving communities in an exceptional way.”

Van der Kleij said that it is possible for businesses to be successful in the UK as it is such an “addressable market.”

“It's why a lot of companies around the world come here to launch their business before going into Europe,” he said.