Established in the UK in 1999, Hurun is a research, media and investments group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research.
Best-known today for the Hurun Rich List, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s other main series are the Hurun Unicorn and Uth series. Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand last year, mainly in China and India.
Hurun is the world’s largest classifier of unicorns and future unicorns. The Hurun Unicorns series includes 3000 unicorns and Future Unicorns in 2024. Of the 1453 unicorns from around the world, the UK has 53, and of 1500 future unicorns in the world, classified as Gazelles (most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years) and Cheetahs (to ‘go unicorn’ within five years), the UK has 84, ranking fourth in the world after the US, China and India.
The Hurun Uth series is about promoting young entrepreneurs to investors, local government and strategic partners, who can help them think big, grow faster and bigger. The Uth series starts with the Under25s (to qualify, you have to be a founder of a business worth over US$1mn), Under30s (over US$10mn) Under35s (over US$50mn) and Under40s (over US$100mn). 2024 is the third year of the Hurun UK Under30s, second year of the UK Under35s and first year of the UK Under40s.
Biographies of Hurun UK U30s 2024
Ayoola Ajisafe
Ajisafe is president and one of the founders of the recruitment agency Enzo Tech. Sales exceeded £10m in the London-based firm’s second year of trading.
Ama Amo-Agyei
Amo-Agyei started Plantmade with £100 after being made redundant during the pandemic. Her natural skincare brand has grown sales to £5.3m.
Khurram Asif
Asif was just 11 years old when he started the YouTube channel that would evolve into his IT contractor TechSimulater. Annual profits have climbed to around £4.5m.
Alexis Augier
A French former banker, Augier is the chief executive and one of the founders of Vega, a wealth tech firm aiming to connect clients to investment opportunities traditionally only available to large institutions. So far the operation has attracted more than $8m of funding.
Ryan Beal
Beal has a PhD in artificial intelligence from Southampton University. His consultancy Sentient Sports uses AI to help sports clubs make better decisions and has attracted more than $6m of investment.
Reece Broadhurst
Broadhurst set up the fashion label Arne Clothing with his brother Ryan after working in the NHS. Warrington-based Arne made annual profits of £4.7m last year.
Max Buchan
Valarian provides greater security for businesses’ internal messaging and communications tools to safeguard their intellectual property and trade secrets. Buchan co-founded the operation and raised $11m of investment in 2022.
Charlie Bullock
Scan.com provides an online marketplace where customers can quickly arrange a medical scan. Bullock has helped raised nearly $60m of funding and the service has already been used by more than 115,000 people.
Sam Burrow
Anaphite is on a mission to decarbonise electric vehicle batteries. Burrow co-founded the Bristol-based firm and in October raised $13.7m of funding.
Josef Chen
Describing himself as “traumatised” from his experience peeling potatoes in his family’s restaurant from the age of 6, Chen co-founded Kaikaku. This robot developer is hoping to transform food preparation in restaurants. A fundraising has valued the business at $15m.
James Dacombe
Founded by Dacombe while he was still in his teens, CoMind specialises in neurotechnology – innovative brain-related products and services. So far the London-based operation has raised more than £13.5m of investment.
Nick Doman
Ocean Bottle makes drinking vessels from recycled plastic and vows to recover 1,000 bottles for each product it sells. Co-founder Dorman has helped raise more than £7m of investment.
Hannah Earley
Vaire Computing earlier this year raised $4m for developing computer chips that require less energy. Earley is chief technology officer and co-founded the London-based start-up around her lecturing job at Cambridge University.
Lily Cairns Haylor
Cairns Haylor is head of product and one of the founders of Advanced Infrastructure, a provider of data and advise to utilities and local authorities on how to plan for a lower-carbon economy. The Cambridge University spinout has raised more than $3m of funding.
Alexander Hewitt
Hewitt co-founded Anaphite, a Bristol firm that has patented technology with the potential to make EV battery manufacturing 30% less carbon intensive and 40% cheaper. The Bristol-based firm recently raised $13.7m of funding.
Joan Kangro
Kingdom Technologies has developed robotic lawn mowers capable of trimming up to 70,000 square metres a week – 10 times as much as other models on the market. Kangro founded the Glasgow-based tech firm and has raised more than £3.4m of funding.
Oliver Carson
Universal Partners provides foreign exchange and hedging services to businesses. Carson co-founded and is chief executive of the company, helping grow profits to £3.7m over the past year.
Harry Glucksman Cheslaw
Autone offers an artificial intelligence-powered platform helping retailers manage their inventories. Cheslaw co-founded the London-based firm. More than $5m of funding has been raised and Autone has teamed up with businesses including Roberto Cavalli and Courrèges.
Alexander Christie
Attio specialises in building customer relationship management platforms. Christie co-founded the London-based software developer, has helping to secure more than $31m of funding.
Alex Cook
Cook co-founded Samphire Neuroscience, a biotech firm that has developed a headband delivering gentle electric pulse to help women experiencing pain during menstruation. The London company has raised around £2m of funding.
Flinn Dolman
Dolan is one of the co-founders of Lawhive, an online service connecting people looking for legal services with solicitors. A fundraising brought in £9.5m of additional investment earlier this year.
Chloe Donovan
Donovan co-founded Natural Building Systems, which creates cladding and other construction materials from hemp and other low-carbon solutions. The operation has so far raised around $2m of investment.
Luke Evans
Alliance Groundworks and Civils works with house builders to prepare sites. Evans founded the business in 2021 and has already grown annual sales to more than £63m.
Carlo Fedeli
Fedeli co-founded FlexSea, a manufacturer of a biodegradable alternative to plastic film. So far the London firm has raised more than £3m of investment.
Miroslav Gasparek
A former adviser to the World Health Organisation and his Slovak homeland’s health ministry, Gasparek is one of the founders Sensible Biotechnologies. The Oxford-based biotech is developing genetic programming systems to combat viruses and has raised $10m of investment.
Michael Ginzo
Hofy delivers fully-assembled home offices to remote workers anywhere in the UK within five days. Ginzo co-founded the business just as the Covid pandemic began. The operation was sold for around £100m earlier this year.
Ed Hardy
Tuza helps small and medium-sized businesses save money on their card machines. Hardy co-founded the operation, so far raising more than £5m of investment.
Martin Heathcote
Heathcote runs parts of his family’s collection of agricultural businesses. He is a major shareholder and leads VeriGreen, the food recycling division.
Archie Hewlett
David Beckham, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake have all worn loafers made by Duke & Dexter. Hewlett founded the brand after opting not to take up his place on a psychology degree at Durham University and has so far raised more than £5m of investment.
Junaid Hussain
Iconic AI is harnessing AI to improve video game development and in July this year raised $4m of investment. Hussain is one of three founders and was previously an investor at London’s Kingsway Capital.
Elise Jenkins
Australian-born Jenkins has raised nearly £2m of investment for Opto Biosystems, a Cambridge University spinout developing treatments for brain cancer.
Olivia Jenkins
Jenkins named her jewellery brand after her late mother. Sales at London-based D. Louise are setting to hit almost £10m this year.
Alice Jones
Jones and her younger sister Maisie started their gymwear venture Sisters and Seekers from their parents’ garden shed. Their brand now turns over more £14m a year and has attracted celebrities such as Love Island’s Molly-Mae Hague.
Maisie Jones
Jones and her sister Alice launched the fast-growing sportswear label Sisters and Seekers with £2,000 they made selling vintage clothes on eBay as a hobby. Annual sales at their Welsh label have topped £14m and they now employ more than 50 people.
Natasha Jones
Metris Energy helps commercial property owners install and optimise their revenues from solar panels. Jones co-founded the operation after working in venture capital and has raised $2.5m of investment.
Sioned Jones
Jones is chief operating officer and a co-founder of BoobyBiome, a baby nutrition company started in 2019 that has raised about £3m of funding.
Jai Kanwar
Hungarian-born national Kanwar co-founded Zeus Labs. The London logistic platform harnesses artificial intelligence to save freight operators time and money as well as reduce their carbon emissions. Zeus Labs’ annual sales have grown to more than £8m.
Beren Kayali
Turkish-born Kayali co-founded Deploy Tech. The Welsh company makes low-carbon water tanks that can be rapidly deployed to disaster zones. Its containers were used after recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Deploy Tech has attracted almost $2m of investment.
Oliver Knight
Scan.com provides an online marketplace where people can arrange MRIs and other medical scans from private providers. Knight co-founded the operation with Charlie Bullock. Scan.com has already arranged more than 115,000 medical imaging appointments and raised $60m of funding.
Marian Kupculak
Kupculak is chief scientific officer and a co-founder of Sensible Biotechnologies, an Oxford-based start up developing better ways to deliver vaccines. Funding of $10m has been raised so far.
William Langley
Langley is a director of Langley Holdings, the diverse industrial group built up by his father Tony. Will has run the subsidiary Reader Cement Products since 2019, tripling profits to £1.4m on his watch.
Levi Levenfiche
PerfectTed attracted investment from all five of the Dragons from the BBC’s Dragons’ Den. Levenfiche set up the health drink manufacturer with his brother Teddie. An investment round valued the business at £19.5m.
Teddie Levenfiche
PerfectTed sells energy drinks made with matcha, a Japanese type of tea. Levenfiche co-founded the business. Sales are expected to climb to £10m this year.
Cai Linton
Linton is a co-founder and the chief executive of Multus Biotechnology, a maker of serums for developers of cultivated meat – an alternative to conventional meat grown in labs. An investment round valued the operation at nearly £21m.
Etienne Louvet
Iona is harnessing drones and robotics to improve delivery services in rural areas. Louvet was inspired to start the firm after living in the French countryside during Covid lockdowns and has raised around $2m of investment.
Lydia Mapstone
BoobyBiome develops supplements and products to improve baby nutrition. Mapstone serves as chief executive and is a co-founder, helping land a further £1.6m of investment earlier this summer and taking funding so far to almost £3m.
Dom Maskell
Runna provides tailor-made training programmes for running enthusiasts. Maskell, once of McKinsey, set up the platform with his best friend Ben Parker. The pair have raised more than $10m of investment.
Sam Mayall
A former merchant navy deck officer, Mayall worked closely with the coastguard to develop Zelim’s life-saving technology. The Edinburgh-based venture sells systems detecting when crew members have fallen overboard and has raised $9.25m of investment.
Dylan McMahon
Lake District-based Kendal Nutrition makes a suite of infant nutrition products. McMahon is a director and co-founded the fast-growing baby milk arm, Kendamil.
Piers Millar
Kaikaku is harnessing robots to automate food preparation for restaurants. Millar co-founded the operation, helping raise £1.9m of investment.
Thibaut Monfort-Micheo
Born in Spain, Monfort-Micheo co-founded FlexSea. This London-based packaging manufacturer has developed a biodegradable alternative to plastic film made from seaweed. FlexSea has raised more than £3m of investment.
Maxwell Munford
OSSTEC is developing 3D-printed, orthopaedic implants and has raised funding at a valuation of £16m. Mumford is chief executive and a co-founder.
Alexander Murdock
Thermulon develops insulating materials known as aerogels used in electric vehicles, the construction industry and by airplane manufacturers. Canadian-born Murdock is chief technology officers of the venture, helping raise more than $4m of investment.
Will Newett
Newett founded his house building firm before his 20th birthday. His Yorkshire-based business chalked up revenues of £16.2m in 2022-23.
Tara O’Driscoll
O’Driscoll teamed up with Lydia Mapstone and Sioned Jones to launched BabyBiome in 2019. The infant nutrition firm has raised around £3m of funding – including £1.6m in August this year.
Alessandro Ottino
Oriole Networks is a University College London spinout harnessing light to develop more environmentally sustainable computer chips and recently raised an additional £17m of funding. Ottino was one of the founders.
Kevin Pan
Pan co-founded Multus Biotechnology, a developer of cultivated meat – an alternative to conventional meat grown in labs. The London-based firm has raised £9.5m of funding.
Ben Parker
This seven-time Ironman triathlete co-founded the running programme service Runna with his best friend, Dom Maskell. The London-based operation has raised more than $10m of funding and signed up Olympic athletes to help structure users’ training schedules.
Will Pearson
Pearson is a founder of Ocean Bottle, a bottle and flask manufacturer that utilisers recycled plastic and recovers 1,000 plastic bottles for each product it sells. Investment of £7m has been raised and so far.
Marisa Poster
Poster co-founded the health drinks brand PerfectTed with Levi and Teddie Levenfiche. A fundraising has valued the business at £19.5m and its drinks are now sold by Waitrose and Tesco.
Raphael Peralta
Peralti and his CardiaTec co-founder Thelma Zablocki are creating large datasets to help pharmaceutical companies create treatments that better combat cardiovascular disease. The pair recently raised an additional £5m of new investment for their Cambridge University spinout.
Emilė Radytė
Lithuanian by birth, Radytė co-founded the women health biotech firm Samphire Neuroscience. So far around £2m of funding has been raised.
Kazi Abidur Rahman
Rahman is chief executive of the luxury perfume and oils retailer Sunnamusk. He co-founded the business with his brothers while he was still in his teens. There are now 36 shops in the group and turnover is expected to reach £20m this year.
Alexandra Rico-Lloyd
Rico-Lloyd dropped out of her university degree to grow The Bike Club, a subscription service that provides bicycles to children and sends larger models as they grow. There is now a fleet of 70,000 bikes and the group has raised £37m of investment.
Gianni Romano
Lyfcycle works with ethical fashion brands to allow customers to see where and how their clothes have been made. The Nottingham-based service has grown revenues to nearly £5m and signed up labels including Arco, Skopes and Tog24.
Arne Scheu
Valink Therapeutics concentrates on developing faster and more efficient antibody-based drugs. German-born Scheu co-founded the London-based biotech, last year securing around £6.3m of funding.
Luca Schnettler
Qumata analyses a person’s use of their mobile phone to determine how likely they are to develop certain health conditions. German-born Schnettler founded the business after dropping out of university and has raised more than £22m of funding.
Mara Schmiedt
German-born Schmiedt has raised more than $18m for Alluvial. The London-based firm provides a range of software products to Coinbase and other cryptocurrency platforms.
Joe Seddon
Seddon used the last £200 of his student loan to launch Zero Gravity. The online service helps students from poorer backgrounds access British universities, employs 25 people and has attracted £4m of investment.
Neil Shah
Live-shopping service Tilt earlier this year raised $18m of funding. Shah co-founded the online fashion platform after working for Revolut.
Bradley Shipton
Shipton and his elder brother James have grown turnover to more than £10m at their Hertfordshire-based Luxury Personal Care. The firm creates in-house and personally branded cosmetics and other products.
Mati Staniszewski
Staniszewksi co-founded the ElevenLabs, a tech firm that harnesses artificial intelligence to create synthetic voices. A series of fundraisings have valued the operation at more than $1bn.
Olivia Stannah
Tuza helps connect small businesses to the most suitable payment provider. Stannah co-founded the price comparison service. Investment of more than £5m has been raised so far.
Jane Tkachenko
Tkachenko runs and owns Alaxa, a pharmaceutical company selling treatments for a range of cancers as well as over-the-counter medicines for less serious complaints. There were profits of £2.9m on £12.7m sales in 2022-23.
Eleanor Thatcher
Thatcher recently launched Juicy Apple, a cider created entirely using renewable energy. This is her first product as she becomes the fifth generation to run her family’s Somerset-based drinks group. Thatcher is now on the board of the company and has a brief to lower the business’s carbon footprint.
Clemente Theotokis
Zeus Labs uses artificial intelligence to help freight companies reduce administration costs and carbon emissions. Theotokis co-founded the operation, helping attract $2m of investment and grow annual sales to £8m.
Ivan Tregear
Tregear co-founded Kaikaku, a robotics start-up hoping to transform food preparation in restaurants. The operation has raised more than $2m of investment at a $15m valuation.
Reka Tron
Tron co-founded Multus Biotechnology, a developer of cultivated meat – an alternative to conventional meat grown in labs. The London-based firm has raised £9.5m of funding.
Tom Wallace-Smith
Astral Systems makes small-scale reactors creating the materials necessary for radiotherapy. The Bristol-based health tech firm has three active sites and has been working with the NHS and the Atomic Energy Authority. Wallace-Smith is a co-founder and serves as chief technology officer.
William W. Whatley
Metris sets out to turn commercial buildings into solar power plants. US-born Whatley set up the operation with Natasha Jones and the pair have raised more than $2.5m of investment.
Thelma Zablocki
CardiaTec is building large datasets to better understand heart disease. French-born Zablocki co-founded the Cambridge University spinout, earlier this year raising more than £5m in new investment.
Jack Zambakides
Zambakides and Olivia Jenkins have sold more than 350,000 earrings, necklaces and other pieces of jewellery to more than 100,000 customers. Sales at the brand D. Louise are set to exceed £10m this year.
Junhao Zhang
Born in China, Zhang set up the UK-based educational company after graduating in the UK that now has over 470 PhD-qualified teachers, making them the only PhD-qualified teaching team. With branches both in the UK and China, last year the company turned over almost £3m and now employs over 200 people.