The London List – London startups exceeding $10m in annual revenues

Saul Klein is a partner at European VC firm Index Ventures, previously worked for Skype, co-founded Video Island and is founder of Seedcamp. In this guest post he responds to recent posts by TechCrunch US writer Paul Carr regarding the position of London as a startup hub.

I’m singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feelin’
I’m happy again
I’m laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun’s in my heart
And I’m ready for love
– Lyrics Arthur Freed, music Nacio Herb Brown (dance moves Gene Kelly)

It seems that it remains fashionable to knock the London startup community – especially if you’re a former resident. There is no question that London (and Europe) has a long way to go.

But we really believe London has a lot to offer as world-class design & marketing, access to global markets and siginificant capital become more and more of a competitive advantage for ambitious companies.

Our experience investing in London over the last 10 years, is that this is a city that attracts great entrepreneurs and has consistently produced very significant technology start ups. So while we love investing in other established and emerging technology hotbeds like Palo Alto, San Francisco, LA, New York, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow and Tel Aviv – we love London.

So while the sun may not shine and the rain often dulls the spirit, we humbly submit a first cut at The London List.

Below are over 50 London companies, who we know well that have either exceeded $10m in annual revenues (in many cases $100m) or have established and are leading their markets globally (as per the requirements of our esteemed colleagues across the pond).

These companies show that there’s a lot more to London’s future than Wimbledon, the Royal Family and the 2012 Olympics.

Next time you’re in town rather than get depressed, why not spend a couple of hours with each of these companies. If you were working Valley hours and keeping to this list, it will only take you 5-6 days. So, still lots of time for visiting the Tate Modern, going to the theatre, a gig at the Round House, the beautiful game at the Emirates or whatever takes your fancy.

No need to even bother with the very significant bases Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, Yahoo, AOL, eBay and apparently Twitter are planning in London to see why they find London so compelling. In fact, let’s hope the London List doesn’t get too much beyond 50 otherwise you’d be staying for at least a month each time.

Looking forward to your comments on the list below, any additions or corrections – and most of all, looking forward to helping the next generation of world-beaters to get their start from London.

A good place to start might be Seedcamp London – you can still apply.

So….

In the last 10 years:

ASOS
Betfair
King.com
Lastminute
Lovefilm
Messagelabs
Miniclip
Moneybookers
Moneysupermarket
Net-a-Porter
Ocado
Photobox
Rightmove
Shazam
Skype

In the last 5 years:
Alfresco
Canonical
Huddle
Just Eat
Mimecast
Moo
Moshi Monsters
Not on the High Street
OpenX
Playfish
Scansafe
Seatwave
Spotify
Viagogo
Wonga
Zoopla

On the way:

Alertme
Astley Clarke
Fizzback
Glasses Direct
People per Hour
Badoo
Shazam
Wonga
Mendeley
Smarkets

And Some Emerging Leaders:
Amee
Groupspaces
Seedcamp
Songkick
Tweetdeck
PeerIndex
Datasift
RjDj
Timetric
Mixcloud
LiveBookings
We7
Moonfruit
Skimlinks