On 27 April ELITE welcomed 17 new UK companies to its diverse ecosystem for growth and capital. The new additions bring the total number of businesses in the community to over 520, from across 26 countries and 36 sectors, generating over £35 billion in combined revenues and accounting for over 180,000 jobs across Europe and beyond.

The new ELITE company CEOs and founders opened trading on London Stock Exchange, together with Iain Wright MP, to celebrate the occasion. Umerah Akram, Head of ELITE UK and the host for the event, commented: “I’m excited to present the latest group of UK companies to join ELITE, a clear demonstration of the country’s ability to grow great businesses. These companies drive innovation, employment and create opportunities for us all.

ELITE is committed to giving the British business stars of the future the very best chance to succeed, providing them with access to appropriate expertise and capital. It is a unique, strong community of the best and most dynamic entrepreneurs, advisers, investors and business school academics from the UK, Europe and around the world.”

Umerah Akram (Head of ELITE UK), Iain Wright MP, Marcus Stuttard (Head of AIM, Primary Markets)

Read our press release here. The event was also widely covered by the UK press. Several articles appeared on leading outlets with the BBC, City AM, BDAILY, BQ Live  and Automated Trader all welcoming the new cohort. The Penarth Times had a cover feature on OpenGenius, and the Belfast Telegraph featured a piece on Beezer’s ambitious expansion plans.

Applications for the next cohort launching in November 2017 are now officially open! Get in touch with ELITE UK team and explore your options for joining the programme!

Market Open at London Stock Exchange

Meet the CEOs and Founders from Cohort 7

The 17 new companies come from across the UK, from Edinburgh to Cardiff and represent a diverse range of sectors. Household names include the UK’s largest network for parents, Mumsnet, online investment management service provider, Nutmeg and British manufacturer of hybrid airships, Hybrid Air Vehicles.

Beezer helps sports organisations and brands build and engage event centric communities using social, mobile and cloud technologies.

Ronan Corr, CEO of Beezer

Why ELITE? The access to the London market and financial community are a great attraction as they pursue further funding. With ambitious plans to more than double their number of employees in the coming year, ELITE will provide a support framework to achieve sustainable growth.

Blaze create innovative urban cycling products with design and technology at the core.

Emily Brooke and Philip Ellis, the Founders of Blaze

Why ELITE? Emily and Phil have some big expansion plans that will require scaling up very quickly and ELITE will provide an opportunity to meet the community of advisers and peers they can learn from.

Ergonomic Solutions is a manufacturing company that designs and develops technology mounting and mobility solutions for a wide range of devices in many industries including the retail, hospitality, banking and transportation sectors.

Ian Dewar (CEO) and Charlie Irvine (CFO), Ergonomic Solutions

Why ELITE? Ian and Charlie joined ELITE to prepare for the scale up journey ahead. Ergonomic Solutions have plans to increase their revenues by more than 60% and ELITE provides the support network to achieve that growth.

HMR London carries out early clinical trials of new medicines for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Malcolm Boyce (MD), HMR London

Why ELITE? HMR is going through expansion and is considering floatation on AIM and ELITE is a great platform to prepare for this option.

Hub Productions helps large organisations to take on the challenge of making video an integral part of their communications strategy.

David Hunstone (CEO), Kate Paterson (COO), Hub Productions

Why ELITE? The company has grown rapidly over the years and as the expansion continues further David and Kate want to access the platform to help them professionalise as a business and assess their current strategy. Benchmarking through ELITE will help them avoid mistakes on their own growth journey, explore investment options and understand what type of funding could be right for them.

Hybrid Air Vehicles is the designer and manufacturer of the Airlander range of aircraft.

Stephen McGlennan (CEO), Chris Daniels (CCO) and Hwfa Gwyn (CFO), Hybrid Air Vehicles

 Why ELITE? Hybrid Air Vehicles have invested a lot of money in getting the product ready to go to market. The next step is to build an order book and move into the production stage, this in turn will create a material funding requirement for the business. As such, Chris and Hwfa would like to use ELITE as a platform to develop relationships with different types of investors early on.

Independent Strategic Group is a provider of investment technology, research, portfolio engineering and risk management services to the asset management industry. ISG works on a business-to-business basis, supporting and empowering buy side and intermediary investment firms.

Symon Stickney, CEO of ISG

Why ELITE? The early growth phase is a difficult place to be in the UK market and ELITE will provide a platform to develop relationship with investors and take them through ISG’s growth journey.

Mumsnet is the UK’s largest network for parents. Mumsnet is a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about pregnancy, parenting, education and beyond.

Justine Roberts, CEO of Mumsnet

Why ELITE? ELITE allows Mumsnet to meet other peers going through similar challenges. It’s an opportunity to get out of day-to-day running of the business and look at the longer term future and “get the head above the parapet”.

Nutmeg takes the best elements of a high-end investing service, strips out the complexity and cost and provides it to customers online and via an app.

Martin Stead CEO, Nutmeg

Why ELITE? Nutmeg made significant investment in core technology and is planning to undergo significant scale up and gain critical mass. ELITE programme can help facilitate this.

NWH Group comprises of two operating companies, one providing product and facilities to industry through NWH Construction Services and the other supporting businesses through NWH Waste Services.

Mark Williams (CEO), Billy Macmillan (CFO), NWH Group

Why ELITE? With plans to grow the business to £100m in turnover through strategic acquisitions, ELITE will help explore the different options for funding this growth.

OpenGenius own and operate DropTask and iMindMap, software services that provide a worldwide training network focusing on creativity and innovation.

Chris Griffiths (CEO), OpenGenius

Why ELITE? Droptask and iMindMap have expanded significantly without marketing or sales efforts. Now it’s about looking at how to leverage the amazing technology they have and go to the next level. Chris wants to explore series A funding and a potential floatation in the upcoming years.

Profile Financial Solutions offer impartial pensions advice and pension switching, with the aim of helping typical consumers get access to affordable whole of market pension advice that is not readily accessible.

Jordan Mayo, CEO of Profile Financial Solutions

Why ELITE? The business is now 4 years old and is advising over 12,000 customers in how to deal with their millions of pension assets. Jordan joined ELITE to explore how to take their pension advisory from 12,000 to 12million customers.

PTS provides Highway Assessment Surveys and Materials Testing services, both in the UK and abroad. The company operates a UKAS accredited laboratory, specialising in advanced asphalt testing and mixture development.

Tony Sewell (CEO), PTS International

Why ELITE? PTS will use ELITE as a platform to help explore best practice for acquisition and different financing options, including floatation.

Via Developments is a property development company that specialises in developing residential property.

Stephen Khan (Co-CEO), John Khan (Co-CEO) at VIA Developments

Why ELITE? The programme facilitates networking with other entrepreneurs going through similar challenges and access to advisers and investors to explore further fundraising and potential IPO exit. It’s an excellent way to learn and gain new skills crucial to make our business more sustainable and profitable.

V-Nova is an independent London headquartered software company providing advanced video compression technology and software solutions to address the global explosion in network traffic.

Simone Ferrara Head of IP, V-Nova

Why ELITE? ELITE is a platform to provide training and support throughout V-Nova’s scale up journey.

6T9 by Mussett Engineering, is an IP-rich engineering and manufacturing business across Aerospace, Oil & Gas, Automotive, Telecoms and Motorsport.

Mark Chapman, CEO of 6t9 by Mussett Engineering

Why ELITE? The programme is an excellent opportunity to learn, network with peers and showcase the company for investment and development.

Thesqua.re is a high end travel company offering premium serviced apartments.

Sid Narang (CEO & Founder) and Nathan Lovegrove, thesqua.re

Why ELITE? Sid wants to continue to expand the business internationally but finds that getting the quality right is very difficult. ELITE will help to find the right balance between business growth and sustainability.