Starting a business is a daunting, yet exciting venture that not many are willing to do.
Below are 20 companies that made the plunge after navigating those first few years and are beginning to become established businesses.
The pandemic and lockdown gave some entrepreneurs the nudge to give their ideas a go, and in Wales the number of start-ups is outperforming the 海角视频 as a whole, according to a wide-ranging assessment of the economy from the research body Economic Intelligence Wales.
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Using numerous data sources, including from the ONS, its Economic Intelligence Wales’ (EIW) report shows that in the first quarter of this year business start-ups in Wales were up 31% on Q1 of 2020 – an increase from 3,500 to 4,560.
For the 海角视频 as a whole there was a 14% rise from 120,000 to 136,800.
The 20 businesses on this list, which all started after summer 2017, come from a variety of sectors and are already at very different stages of their evolution, with some turning over millions and others just finding their feet, but what they all have in common is they are companies that we believe are ones to watch over the coming years.
Here are the 20 companies – listed alphabetically – to watch over the next few years.
1. Aura Ads | Cardiff | founded April, 2020
Creative agency Aura Ads was founded by 23-year-old Ryan Walton. He used his student loans to create one of the 海角视频’s fastest-growing creative agencies after he spotted a gap in the market making videos for companies to use on social media.
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In July he secured a six-figure investment from an angel investment group as the Cardiff-based company continues to expand.
Mr Walton has already grown the team from just himself to eight members of staff in his first year, and the new funding will help Aura Ads accelerate growth through new hires and faster customer acquisition.
Clients have included Huel, Wild Cosmetics, Pact Coffee, Abbot Lyon, and Freddie’s Flowers.
2. DCW Group Holdings |, Swansea | founded August, 2020
DCW Group specialises in market intelligence, land sourcing and open-market sales consultancy along with a time-saving land due diligence SaaS platform, DCW Insights.
The company says it has a projected growth of the company will see them go from zero to £350m in turnover within only the three years of its operation.
3. Drop Bear Beer Co | Swansea | founded April, 2019
Multi-award-winning brewer Drop Bear Beer Co exploded onto the 海角视频 beer scene in 2019 with the aim of bringing true craft to the 海角视频’s fastest growing drinks trend – alcohol-free beer.
At the beginning of their journey, co-founders Joelle Drummond and Sarah McNena utilised a British Business Bank loan to contribute towards the capital costs of brewing their products. Then to keep up with the market growth Drop Bear went on to secure a further £2.1m investment, £1.5m of which came from Admiral Group founder Henry Engelhardt.
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Drop Bear want to keep the product range relatively small but are currently working on a series of limited editions and collaborations for the future.
They are also championing sustainability in the industry, transitioning away from bottles to cans and are also set to become Wales’ first B Corp brewery in the next few months.
The business, which started out in a Swansea kitchen, is now building the 海角视频’s biggest and Wales’ first alcohol-free brewery and is looking for another year of triple-figure sales growth. They have already expanded into Canada, Spain and Germany and plan to launch in two 海角视频-wide supermarkets before the end of 2021.
4. Floris | Cardiff | founded August, 2020
Young entrepreneur Aoife Doherty turned lockdown stress into business success with her zero-waste stationery company Floris, founded in August 2020.
With the aim of creating stylish products that don’t harm the planet, this Cardiff-based business specialises in refillable notebooks, creating all designs in-house and working with independent businesses to print on recycled and FSC-approved paper using vegetable-based inks.
Following a British Business Bank Start-up Loan in November 2020, Floris launched a Christmas collection and expanded the existing product range to include planners, greetings cards and trendy wrapping paper.
This month, after the success of a pop-up in John Lewis and a feature in British Vogue and Glamour Magazine, Floris is now set to open its first physical store in Cardiff city centre.
5. Grafmarine Energy | St Asaph | founded August, 2018
As the marine sector edges towards zero emissions, Grafmarine’s energy deck will look to challenge the reliance on heavy marine fuels in propulsion, as well as port power by providing an alternative source of renewable energy. Its Nanodeck can be fitted to any vessel or structure and turn it into an energy-generating surface and, because its modular, it can be adapted to fit specific shapes and cover limitless areas.
The business has developed a unique energy management system using the latest technologies and is now looking to take the final steps towards industry accreditation with live “on-vessel” testing and then on to commercialisation in 2021.
6. Harvst | Cardigan | founded October, 2020
The West Wales green technology firm manufactures smart
greenhouses.
The company was co-founded by Chris Tanner and Rik Sellwood, both passionate amateur gardeners with successful innovation and tech backgrounds, who came together last year during the Covid pandemic to bring the Harvst concept to life.
The business launched with a range of smart, self-watering, climate-controlled mini-greenhouses, and they have now created a solar-powered watering system.
7. Inndex | Beaumaris | founded October, 2017
InnDex was founded by George Smithies and Aaron Vousden, both civil engineers with extensive construction industry experience.
They started the company due to their frustrations regarding what they felt was a lack of innovation and the adoption of digital tools in the industry.
The key issues they wanted to help fix were the lack of automation and collaboration, plus poor record-keeping.
Its customers range in size from micro-companies employing fewer than five people to large multi-national construction companies. Earlier this year Mr Smithies was named on Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Along with its Beaumaris HQ, Inndex has offices in London and India.
8. Intuety | Port Talbot | founded January, 2020
Port Talbot-based Intuety provides a cost-efficient and effective solution to safety risk management by utilising its world-leading uniquely developed natural language processing software.
It has the ability to review and make recommendations of health safety and wellbeing risks and control measures, along with providing the ability to recall and provide corporate incident memory in a method never previously experienced within the industrial sector. Providing users with significant commercial advantage and improved safety performance.
9. Limb-Art | Conwy |founded March, 2018
LIMB-Art, which makes “s”, recently won a contract to supply the whole of NHS Wales with its products.
This means every adult amputee in Wales now has access to a free LIMB-art cover through Wales’ prosthetic centres in Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham.
Unlike foam prosthetic leg covers, which were traditionally available on the NHS, LIMB-art’s leg covers can be easily sanitised.
They are designed for all users of above knee and below knee prostheses.
10. Mallows Beauty | Llantrisant | founded February, 2020
Laura Mallows is the woman behind Mallows Beauty, a vegan beauty brand specialising in body scrubs and butters, bath bombs, nail products, candles and more.
Featuring colourful and kitsch branding, Mallows Beauty is very much targeted at the “every woman” with advertising featuring women of all shapes and sizes in an inclusive approach that is still largely unseen in the beauty industry.
Headquartered in Llantrisant, Laura launched Mallows Beauty in February 2020 with the help of a £25k British Business Bank Start Up Loan accessed via Business in Focus.
The loan enabled her to fulfil orders from several large retailers and according to Laura “kickstarted
everything”.
Since then Mallows Beauty has gone on to launch several new product lines, opened a flagship store in Cardiff city centre (with more to follow) and launched into Urban Outfitters stores nationwide.
Laura puts much of the success of the brand down to a well-executed social media strategy that saw
Mallows Beauty gain 156k followers on TikTok in just four months and 39k on Instagram.
Such an online profile has led to inquiries from all over the world and so Laura is currently putting a lot of effort into developing an international shipping programme, as well as pursuing partnerships with the likes of ASOS and Beauty Bay.
11. Matsudai Ramen | Taffs Well | founded September, 2019
When the pandemic forced the closure of .
The business was such a success he took on a dedicated kitchen space in Taffs Well, north of Cardiff, and staff.
The first batch of 200 bowls sold out in just half an hour; the business now offers 海角视频-wide delivery employs seven staff.
Next month Mr Chant will run a London pop-up which includes a special ramen dish created in collaboration with Youtuber, TikTok-er, and comedian Uncle Roger (Mr Nigel Ng).
12. Monva | Wrexham | founded June, 2018
Fintech firm Monva is a comparison service that seeks to use customer data and artificial intelligence to personalise and revolutionise the price comparison customer experience.
The company says the personalised service helps users make smart decisions that are right for them, while its technology and automation means there are less forms to fill in, making it easier to compare and buy.
Earlier this ear Monva more than doubled its fundraising target, attracting more than 600 investors
and raising £450,000 through Crowdcube. This funding round came ahead of a larger institutional round expected to take place towards the end of 2021.
13. MyHealthChecked | Cardiff | founded December, 2020
Cardiff-based MyHealthChecked plc, is an AIM-quoted 海角视频 healthcare company focused on a range of
at-home healthcare and wellness tests.
Previously MHC was a single product company focused on hormone testing and providing insight into unexplained infertility, called Concepta but the company changed its name to MyHealthChecked in December 2020 following the acquisition of The Genome Store.
In January 2021 the company made its second acquisition with Nell Health.
In April MyHealthChecked entered into an agreement with Boots to launch the MyHealthChecked Covid-19 at-home nasal swab kit and PCR laboratory testing service in Boots stores across Great Britain and its website.
The deal saw shares in a the company leap.
14. Poet Systems Ltd | Bridgend | founded November 2018
Poet Systems has developed a cloud-based software system designed to improve performance, save time and reduce waste.
The digital platform provides manufacturers with detailed data about their production processes, giving a complete view of operational performance in real-time.
Poet Systems says that then allows managers the time to work on areas for improvement and make decisions based on the most accurate and up-to-date information.
The platform, which has been developed over the past two years, has already helped biscuit manufacturer Burton’s Biscuit Co. at its factory in Llantarnam, Cwmbran.
15. Semper Paratus | Penyffordd | founded February, 2019
The Latin translation for “Always Ready”, Semper Paratus aims to provide a solution to the sales process that would improve efficiencies and maximise results.
They have tried to remove the time-consuming and futile tasks of cold-calling, emailing and networking by delivering salespeople the lead generation tools and techniques they have always desired which are not reliant on them constantly being on hand.
16. Silkcrayon | Cardiff | founded July, 2020
Since launching in July 2020, music production firm Silkcrayon has gone from strength to strength with their studio based in Cardiff Bay.
By offering high quality vocal recording to local artists, as well as finding and developing local and national artists with interesting stories, Silkcrayon has built a portfolio of international clients, from Los Angeles to Nigeria.
A British Business Bank Start-up Loan in December last year enabled Silkcrayon to purchase more equipment for the studio, increase the quality of its service and help more young people find their voice through music.
The company has since won the Social Impact Award for 2020/21 and is now in the process of becoming a record label.
This autumn, it is preparing to release some new music while working hard to facilitate more creative collaboration, and encourage artists from Wales to remain authentic and creative.
17. Sister & Seekers | Wrexham | founded August, 2017
Sisters Alice, 25, and Maisie Jones, 22, started the brand in their shed and they now employ 15 staff and hit turnover of £3m last year.
Before starting the company, Alice was working as a junior design engineer and starting a degree in architecture design and technology while Maisie was finishing sixth-form and embarking on her degree in business management.
The business was started with £2,000 of savings from selling vintage clothes on eBay and Depop on the weekends.
During the whole of 2020, Sisters & Seekers saw huge success and on Black Friday they hit the total sales target for the day (£100k) within one hour of launch at midnight.
They also created a menswear “brother brand” called Brother + Kin in the height of the pandemic.
18. Swperbox | Llandeilo | founded June, 2020
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Alex Cook saw bookings for his award-winning catering business disappear overnight.
He began helping out at the local Foodbank and c-oordinated the Feed the NHS Wales campaign in Carmarthenshire.
Mr Cook’s experiences led to the creation of Swperbox, an enterprise that makes fresh, local produce readily available and equips customers with the ability to use that produce to create a range of dishes at home. Currently, deliveries are made to customers in the SA postcode area.
But there are plans to make Swperbox deliveries across Wales within two years.
It is also Mr Cook’s ambition within three years to create more than 20 jobs in his local community.
19. Towy Valley Milk | Llanarthney | founded August, 2020
As a fourth-generation dairy farmer, Aled Davies set up Towy Valley Milk to carry on his family’s tradition of providing fresh pasteurised milk from their pedigree Holstein cows.
The family-run dairy farm is located just outside the Carmarthenshire
village of Llanarthney and has been selling fresh milk through its vending machines situated in several locations around the county since December 2020.
After dreaming up the idea in 2017, a Start-up Loan from British Business Bank in August last year enabled Towy Valley Milk to purchase its second milk station, switch to re-usable glass bottles and expand to offering flavoured syrups for customers to create milkshakes at no extra cost.
The latest 24/7 vending machine is set to open in the Carmarthenshire town of Cross Hands later this year, and the company also plans to launch new products, including butter and yoghurts, which will also be available from their vending machines, in the future.
20. 海角视频 Gummy Company | Swansea | founded July, 2017
The supplements market grew by 10% during 2020, according to Mintel, and according to research in the US the global gummy market is expected to reach more than $40bn by 2028.
The Swansea-based 海角视频 Gummy Company, which was started by Tom Walsh who enjoyed a career in supply chain management, specialises in supplying gummies for the health, sports, beauty, senior citizens and childrens sectors.
It also offers “specialised” tailor-made range that focuses on specific individual requirements and needs.