Millennials shaking up their industries

Finance: Christopher Vogt BillFront

BillFront is a technology-enabled invoice finance business co-founded by Vogt that helps digital media companies and publishers manage cashflow in a sector where businesses often wait 90-120 days to be paid for their services.

Its algorithm analyses if and how much a digital media company can be financed, and can free up working capital faster to accelerate business growth.

BillFront integrates with clients’ invoicing systems and provides financing from €50,000 to millions of euros per month.

Food: Camille Rumani VizEat

Launched in July 2014, VizEat enables travellers to eat local food in the homes of welcoming residents, offering immersive and authentic food experiences.

As co-founder and chief operating officer, Rumani focuses on VizEat’s entire product offering and says the challenge is in changing the way people travel, one food experience at a time. Through the app, users can respond to ads from people in the area offering to cook dinner in their own homes at reasonable prices.

The app has 110,000 users and 22,000 hosts in 110 countries, and was selected by Apple as one of 2016’s top apps.

Marketing: David Arnoux Growth Tribe

Serial entrepreneur Arnoux launched Europe’s first growth hacking ‘academy’ in 2015 with co-founder Peter van Sabben.

Growth hacking is a term to describe how start-up companies can implement creative and unconventional techniques in small data-driven and technical teams to boost their sales. At the core, the company teaches how to drive growth through retention, up-selling and cross-selling.

Growth Tribe has trained over 1,900 people from more than 500 companies.

Education: Johan Brand Kahoot!

Kahoot! is one of the fastest-growing learning applications. It has over 40 million monthly users and reaches one in every three US students.

The free app, which has been around since 2013, connects children with fun and engaging learning methods, regardless of their circumstances.

Kahoot! is also the top education app in UK and US app stores. The company says it wants to improve education all over the world and help everyone of any age, aptitude or circumstance to unlock the magic of learning. The game-​based platform encourages learners to interact while playing, and connect with each other for maximum engagement.

Publishing: Benjamin Potter CLICKON

Uninterested in the way sports content was portrayed, Potter created CLICKON. This ‘new-age’ sports publisher challenges the traditional, creating original branded content at scale, reaching 20 million users per month. Since launching in 2015, CLICKON has helped brands such as Adidas, Topgolf, Visa and Microsoft.

Its digital network provides a direct line to sports fans across 24 global sports, including one of the largest eSports communities. 

From top left, clockwise) Camille Rumani, Vizeat; Saurabh Arora, Lybrate; Christopher Vogt, Billfront; Rupa Ganatra, Millennial 20/20; HK Ueda, Drivemode; David Arnoux, Growth Tribe

Travel: Andrew Watson FLIO

FLIO, the airport app founded by Watson, is said to be the perfect companion for the 21st century traveller.

Airports can be difficult to navigate, and queries such as the location of the free Wi-Fi, the quickest route to the city, and security wait times, can all be answered with the FLIO app.

900 airports are covered. Other features include food deals, departure info and maps, with added hints and tips.

Health: Saurabh Arora Lybrate

In a country where patients rely on unqualified chemists for diagnoses, Arora is making waves with India’s first mobile healthcare communication and delivery platform.

Lybrate helps bridge the gap between supply and demand by connecting 80,000 doctors and other healthcare professionals with patients via smartphone. It offers access to general practitioners, dieticians, nutritionists, gynaecologists, psychologists and more.

The platform claims to save patients’ time and money, and the medical professionals are highly trained and experienced.

Downloading the app gives access to free questions, consultations and appointments.

Business: Rupa Ganatra Millennial 20/20

Founded by Ganatra in 2016, Millennial 20/20 is claimed to be the world’s first business summit series specialising in the future of next-gen commerce.

At the conferences, Ganatra’s team host more than 180 speakers and a series of immersive experiences with some of the world’s leading brands.

The summits in London, New York, Sydney and Singapore look into the future of next-gen commerce from the perspective of a digitally savvy consumer, with a focus on retail, marketing, mobile, video, social, big data and more.

Industry-specific tracks include travel and hospitality.

Automotive: HK Ueda Drivemode

Before creating Drivemode, Ueda oversaw Tesla’s mission-critical projects such as the first Model S prototypes.

The Drivemode app simplifies the user’s phone while driving with a ‘no look’ interface, so the driver can focus on the road while still accessing features such as music and messaging. By using broad swipes, taps or voice, the user can control navigation, change songs, contact friends and respond to messages without looking at the screen, relying only on voice commands and peripheral vision.

Drivemode says that with a simplified interface, easy-to-use voice commands, bright colours and large buttons, the app is designed with safety in mind so you can stay focused on the road.

Retail: Aron Gelbard Bloom & Wild

The fresh flower seller launched in 2013, and is most known for making it possible to buy and send flowers for delivery the next day directly from a smartphone.

Gelbard believed that sending flowers should be as joyous as receiving them, and that was the company’s driving force. The flowers are long-lasting and come with bespoke presentation.

With the help of £3.5 million in venture capital and angel funding, the app has expanded to cover the UK and Ireland with a workforce of 30 people.