Hurun UK Under30s 2026
In association with Alibaba Cloud
The unicorn class: Fuse Energy's Charles Orr, Revolut's Eduardo Maric and the Nahmad art dynasty's Yoni Nahmad lead the 2026 Hurun UK U30s
The Hurun Research Institute today releases the 2026 Hurun UK U30s, naming 78 individuals, of which 39 are 2026 winners and 39 previous winners still eligible by age and company valuation. Together, they are associated with businesses worth a combined US$129.8 billion.
The 2026 U30s in numbers — 2026 winners and qualifying past winners together:
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The 78 are behind businesses worth a combined US$129.8 billion — 73 first-generation founders, who between them have created companies worth billions of dollars
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Four NextGen family-business leaders, between them taking on businesses worth more than US$2.1 billion
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One senior executive — Eduardo Maric, 27, Revolut's youngest-ever Operating Partner, helping to run Revolut
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Five businesses valued at US$1 billion or more — Revolut (US$115 billion as of 4 November 2026), Fuse Energy (US$5 billion), Olix (US$3.3 billion), the Nahmad family art business (US$1.3 billion) and SheMed (US$1 billion)
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Average age 28 among the new winners; most started their current business in their early twenties
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The youngest person on the list is 24 — past winner Piers Millar — while the youngest of the new winners is the Nahmad art business's Yoni Nahmad, at 25
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Several started businesses as teenagers: ConnexAI's Richard Mealey co-founded his company at 16, Healf's Lestat McCree started his first venture at 17, KodyPay's Yoyo Chang founded at 18, and Signatur Biosciences' Celestin de Wergifosse has been running startups since 14 — while past winners James Dacombe founded CoMind at 17 and Simon Swali started the business that became iCare24 at 14.
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Just under one third, 22 were born or raised outside the UK, from Syria and Bosnia to Switzerland, Morocco and Singapore
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Imperial is the most common university (eight degrees), followed by Cambridge (six), Warwick (five) and Bristol (five) — but nine on the list hold no university degree, including dropouts, among them Olix founder James Dacombe, whose company is valued at US$3.3 billion.
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18 of the 78 are women, including five of the 39 new awardees — among them SheMed CEO Olivia Ferro, Maebe founder Molly-Mae Hague and Hair Syrup founder Lucie Macleod.
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More than 20,000 jobs across the businesses connected to the list — 13,000 of them at Revolut, with the biggest other employers ConnexAI (around 530), Fuse Energy (around 375) and Sunderland AFC (around 350)
[London: 12 November 2026]:
The Under30s is one of four lists in the Hurun UK Uth Series, published together and designed to be read together: the inaugural Under25s, the Under30s, the Under35s and the Under40s. The U30s is the list where potential turns into proof: five businesses on this list are valued at US$1 billion or more.
The 2026 list arrives two weeks after Chancellor John Healey's Autumn Budget of 28 October — the so-called 'Founders' Budget' — whose proposed Founders' Relief — a 10% rate of capital gains tax on up to £10 million of lifetime founder gains, for disposals from 6 April 2027 — is aimed squarely at the high-growth founders this list tracks.
The top of the list: three types of success
The first-generation founder: Charles Orr, 30, of Fuse Energy (US$5 billion). The biggest founder-built business on the U30s list is this year's breakout. Orr, a UCL graduate, co-founded Fuse in 2022 with fellow Revolut alumnus Alan Chang — Revolut's employee No. 5 and its chief revenue officer at 27. The pair bought an energy supply licence and a single wind turbine, and have built a full-stack energy company — generation, trading and retail supply — now valued at just under US$5 billion.
The NextGen: Yoni Nahmad, 25, of the Nahmad art dynasty (US$1.3 billion). The son of the late Ezra Nahmad, Yoni and his brothers inherited half of one of the world's greatest private art collections — almost US$7 billion of Impressionist and modern art, including some 300 Picassos, held in the family's Geneva freeport. His two elder brothers run the family's London galleries; Yoni is the only one of the three young enough for this list. As a principal of the family business his remit is real estate — expanding the family's three-decade property portfolio across continents. Westminster-educated, Monaco-born.
The senior executive: Eduardo Maric, 27, of Revolut. Topping the 2026 list by company size is Revolut's youngest-ever Operating Partner. Maric leads New Initiative Management at Europe's most valuable startup, orchestrating product and market approvals across five continents; in 18 months he ten-x'd delivery speed for critical departments and oversaw more than 500 product launches for 70 million customers. A University of Zagreb computer-science graduate, his drive, he says, traces back to his family's escape from war-torn Bosnia — and a first-hand understanding of what cross-border finance means to people rebuilding their lives. The company he helps run employs some 13,000 people — the largest single payroll of any business connected to this list.
Behind them: Olivia Ferro, 26, CEO of SheMed — co-founded with her sister Chloe, this year's U25s list-topper, making the Ferro sisters the first sister-act unicorn founders in Britain; Richard Mealey, 29, whose Manchester agentic-AI company ConnexAI is tipped to become the North's next unicorn; and two very different NextGen leaders — Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, 29, who became chairman of Sunderland AFC at 23 and has taken the club back to the Premier League, and Samir Kamani, 30, CEO of boohoo and boohooMAN inside his family's Debenhams Group.
The class of 2026 — and the past winners they join: what the whole list tells us
The unicorn pipeline is real. Britain has 80 unicorns worth £242 billion, the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, according to the 2026 Hurun UK Unicorn Index. Five businesses on this U30s list are valued at US$1 billion or more — Charles Orr's Fuse Energy, past winner James Dacombe's Olix, the Nahmad family art business, Olivia Ferro's SheMed and, at US$85 billion, the Revolut that Eduardo Maric helps run. No other ranking captures so much of Britain's billion-dollar pipeline this early.
Source: Hurun Research — Hurun UK U30s 2026
An AI wave with deep roots. The AI and software sector accounts for nine list members and some of its most valuable founder-built businesses: past winner James Dacombe's Olix alone is valued at US$3.3 billion. This year's winners extend the wave into hard tech and the agentic economy — Callosum and Oriole Networks in compute infrastructure and photonics, ConnexAI, Omnea and Voyfai in enterprise AI, 11x and Jack & Jill AI in AI workers, SuperIntern in AI agents — while alumni hold the line in AI chips (Olix), insurtech (Qumata) and AI-native finance (Tilt, Tuza). Britain's young AI establishment is, to a remarkable degree, a Hurun U30s club.
Consumer is the biggest tribe, energy and AI the biggest value. By headcount, consumer brands and hospitality lead the list — more than a quarter of all 78 named, from Reformed and Made by Mitchell to Corteiz, Maebe, TALA and Odd Muse. This is also the group that draws the mainstream spotlight. Molly-Mae Hague served as PrettyLittleThing's creative director before launching Maebe in 2024; its debut drop sold out within minutes. Grace Beverley founded Shreddy at 19 while at Oxford and built TALA to £19.8 million turnover in the year to March 2025. Jess Hunt co-founded Refy in 2020, now selling more than £45 million of product annually, while Mitchell Halliday built Made by Mitchell through TikTok into 95-plus Boots stores and a February 2026 Ulta Beauty launch. But the value sits elsewhere: the 2026 winners skew heavily technical, with AI-first, deeptech, fintech, health and climate companies well over half the class of 2026 by value.
Source: Hurun Research — Hurun UK U30s 2026. Sectors are ranked by number of people; tied sectors share a rank.
A magnet for global talent. 22 of the 78 were born or raised outside the UK — Syria (Hasan Sukkar, who came to Britain as a refugee), Bosnia (Eduardo Maric's family), Morocco (Neil Marrakchi), France (Neil Saada), Switzerland (Kyril Louis-Dreyfus), Taiwan (Yoyo Chang), Belgium (Celestin de Wergifosse), Germany (James Maund, Luca Schnettler), the Netherlands (Sebastiaan de Vries), India (Amal Jolly), Austria (Michael Ettlinger, Kevin Pan, Josef Chen), Singapore (Yi Ng), Hong Kong (Ed Beccle), the United States (Harry Gestetner, Marisa Poster), Hungary (Réka Trón, Jai Kanwar) and Gibraltar (Raphael Peralta). Britain's young-business scene is powered substantially by people who chose it.
University helped — but is not required. Imperial leads with eight degrees, ahead of Cambridge (six), Warwick (five) and Bristol (five); Harvard, Penn, USC and Zagreb also feature. But nine list members hold no university degree, including dropouts — among them James Dacombe, the founder of US$3.3 billion Olix, and Ed Beccle, Monty George, Dan Beckles, Simon Swali, Thomas Markland, Piers Millar, Joel Morris and Maebe's Molly-Mae Hague.
They started very young. With nine list members holding no university degree, it is no surprise that many began building businesses early. Most founders started their current business in their early twenties — and several were far younger. Richard Mealey co-founded ConnexAI at 16; Lestat McCree started a teenage events business before Healf; Yoyo Chang founded KodyPay at 18; Celestin de Wergifosse has been building companies since 14. Among the past winners, James Dacombe founded CoMind at 17 and Simon Swali started the business that became iCare24 at 14 — the youngest founding story on the list.
Siblings everywhere. The Ferro sisters top two lists — Chloe on the U25s, Olivia on this one. Healf co-founder Lestat McCree is a Manchester Grammar School boy; his brother and co-founder Max Clarke, 25, joins him as a 2026 U30s winner. The Dhillon brothers (Simmer) return as past winners, as do the Jones sisters (Sisters and Seekers).
University and workplace networks matter. PerfectTed's Marisa Poster and Teddie Levenfiche were University of Pennsylvania roommates; Callosum grew out of Cambridge neuroscience; Multus's co-founders met at Imperial; and Fuse Energy's Charles Orr and Alan Chang met at Revolut.
Outside London, it's Manchester. London dominates, but Manchester is the list's clear second city — ConnexAI (Richard Mealey), boohooMAN (Samir Kamani) and Healf (Lestat McCree) all built there — with flag-flyers from Sunderland (Kyril Louis-Dreyfus) to Pembrokeshire (Hair Syrup's Lucie Macleod), Harrogate (James Dacombe) to Morley, West Yorkshire (Zero Gravity's Joe Seddon).
How they compare with the U25s. The two lists contain 96 entries but 92 distinct individuals: 78 on the U30s and 18 on the U25s, with James Dacombe, Josef Chen, Ivan Tregear and Piers Millar appearing on both. Read together, they show the pipeline developing from teenage founders and first cheques to serial entrepreneurs, senior executives and billion-dollar businesses.
A different species from Britain's mature giants. The founders of the HSBCs, AstraZenecas and Shells of the last century built with physical capital, bank debt and decades of patience. This cohort builds with software and AI, goes global from day one, raises venture capital rather than bank loans — and is strikingly international, with more than a quarter of the list born or raised overseas.
The U30s through the years. The Hurun UK U30s has tracked the country's young founders since its inaugural edition in 2022. Four editions in, the class of 2026 is the most valuable yet — and the first to include past winners who remain eligible by age and business value. In 2022, there were 100 winners; in 2023, 79; in 2024, 82.
Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said:
"Read the U25s and U30s together and you have the clearest picture yet of Britain's best young business builders: 92 distinct individuals, from teenage founders to leaders of billion-dollar companies. For government, this is the pipeline on which future growth depends; for investors, it is a map of where to look before the rest of the market catches up."
"The recently-released Hurun UK Unicorn Index shows why it pays to watch not only companies but their alumni. Alan Chang left Revolut to build Fuse Energy; James Dacombe founded CoMind before Olix. Today's U25s and U30s are tomorrow's unicorns — the opportunity is to back them before the rest of the world notices."
"The stories of the Hurun UK Under30s capture a new generation of founders and the startup ecosystem they are building — technical by default, international in outlook and global from day one."
About the categories. The U30s recognises three types of achievement: first-generation founders (73 of the 78 named), NextGen family-business leaders (four) and senior executives (one).
Methodology. The Hurun UK U30s recognises individuals aged 30 or under at 1 September 2026 in three categories: first-generation founders who founded or co-founded a UK-based business worth at least US$10 million; NextGen leaders who hold a significant leadership role in a family business, managing sales or investments of at least US$20 million; and senior executives, such as CFOs, VPs and Operating Partners, in a UK-based business worth at least US$100 million. For the first time, the 2026 list also includes previous winners who still meet both the age and business-value criteria; they are previous winners still eligible by age and company valuation, not new 2026 winners. Revolut's US$115 billion valuation is dated 4 November 2026. Combined business-size figures count each company once and use the valuation, revenue, funding or asset basis recorded in the master sheet..
Appendix — The stories of the 2026 U30s Winners
Charles Orr, 30 — Fuse Energy (US$5bn valuation). UCL graduate who co-founded Fuse in 2022, aged 26, with Alan Chang, 33, a 2026 Hurun UK U35s winner — both Revolut alumni, Chang the fintech's employee No. 5 and youngest-ever CRO. Bought an Ofgem supply licence and a wind turbine; built a full-stack energy company — generation, trading, retail — now valued at just under US$5 billion.
Olivia Ferro, 26 — SheMed (US$1bn valuation). Co-founded the women's health platform in April 2024 with her sister Chloe (2026 U25s list-topper) after Olivia's own decade-long search for a diagnosis. A USC graduate in communications and nutrition, she drove blood-test-based GLP-1 eligibility and the first female-focused GLP-1 clinical study to 60,000 members in under a year; a US$50m Series A in October 2025 made SheMed a unicorn within 18 months — a rare sister-founder unicorn story.
Richard Mealey, 29 — ConnexAI (US$400m). Altrincham Grammar School boy who co-founded the Manchester agentic-AI company in 2013, aged 16, going straight from school to startup. Now CTO of a platform automating enterprise customer engagement; raised £93m for a minority stake from investors including GP Bullhound, and tipped to become the North's next unicorn.
Hasan Sukkar, 28 — 11x (US$350m valuation). Born in Syria and came to the UK as a refugee; took a masters at Exeter and founded 11x in 2022, aged 25, to build AI "digital workers". A Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz in September 2024 valued the London-founded company at US$350m; it is now headquartered in San Francisco.
Jascha Achterberg, 30 — Callosum (US$350m estimated valuation). Cambridge-trained neuroscientist building "heterogeneous compute" — making many AI models on many chips behave as one system. Raised US$110m including a US$100m seed round in August 2026 backed by Atomico — and the UK Sovereign AI Fund's first equity investment. London-based.
Ben Allen, 30 — Omnea (US$325m estimated valuation). Bristol computer-science graduate and co-founder and CTO of the AI procurement-orchestration company founded in 2022; a second-time founder from the ex-Tessian founding team who started out in engineering at Dyson. Omnea has raised US$75m, including a US$50m Series B in September 2025 led by Insight Partners and Khosla Ventures.
Max Clarke, 25 — Healf (€47.7m realised revenue in 2025). Manchester Grammar School alumnus who co-founded Healf with his brother Lestat McCree in 2020. Sifted reported that realised revenue grew from €207,000 in 2023 to €47.7 million in 2025. Max joins Lestat as a 2026 U30s winner.
Lestat McCree, 28 — Healf (€47.7m realised revenue in 2025). Manchester Grammar School alumnus and King's College London BA PPE graduate who co-founded the premium health-and-wellness retailer with his brother Max Clarke in 2020, after a teenage events business. Sifted reported realised revenue of €47.7 million in 2025, up from €207,000 in 2023. Max is also a 2026 U30s winner.
Harry Fitzgerald, 30, William Monange, 28 & Joel Morris, 28 — Fanvue (US$200m annualised revenue run rate). Fitzgerald co-founded the creator-subscription platform with Monange and Morris in 2021. Fanvue announced a US$200 million annualised revenue run rate in July 2026, following a US$22 million Series A in January 2026. Monange read at Kent; Morris holds no degree after leaving school at 17 to build a YouTube channel with 2.5 million subscribers.
Neil Marrakchi, 26 & Neil Saada, 29 — Reformed (US$100m). Founded the functional-coffee label in 2024; Marrakchi is a Warwick graduate born in Morocco who ran his first business at 19, Saada was born in France and previously built student-tutoring and streetwear ventures. Now at US$70m of annual revenue and profitable, with a US$22m Series A in July 2026.
Saaras Mehan, 27 — Jack & Jill AI (US$80m). Cambridge graduate and former England chess international; founded the company in 2025 to build AI agents that run hiring conversations at scale.
Harry Gestetner, 26 — Fanfix (US$65m exit). Born in London and moved to Los Angeles at 15, he co-founded the creator-monetisation platform in 2021 while at Tulane; sold it to SuperOrdinary in 2022 in a reported US$65 million deal — the only pure exit among this year's winners.
Clint Ogbenna, 29 — Corteiz (US$58m). Born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in West London, he founded the streetwear label in 2017, aged 20, from a bedroom — building it on password-gated drops and guerrilla marketing into one of Britain's most influential fashion brands, with Nike collaborations and roughly US$58m of 2024 revenue, entirely founder-owned.
Mitchell Halliday, 27 — Made by Mitchell (US$50m). Bolton-raised makeup artist who turned a 2020 bedroom start-up into one of TikTok's biggest British beauty brands — stocked in 95-plus Boots stores and launched into Ulta Beauty in the United States in February 2026, and one of the list's most media-covered members.
Joshua Benjamin, 30 — Oriole Networks (US$35m raised). UCL-trained co-founder (2023) of the photonic-networking company re-wiring AI datacentres; co-founded with Alessandro Ottino, a U30s past winner on this list.
Yoyo Chang, 26 — KodyPay (US$31m raised). Born in Taiwan and educated at York; founded the hospitality-payments platform in 2018, aged 18.
Molly-Mae Hague, 27 — Maebe (US$25m). Born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and trained at the Fashion Retail Academy rather than university, she became the most successful businesswoman to emerge from Love Island (2019), serving as PrettyLittleThing's creative director before launching her own fashion label Maebe in September 2024 — its debut drop sold out within minutes. Her ventures generated about US$26m of 2025 revenue under MMH Group Holdings, and in 2026 she became the first Love Islander named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list, alongside a footwear collaboration with Adidas. One of the list's most media-covered members.
Celestin de Wergifosse, 30 — Signatur Biosciences (US$25m). Belgian founder running startups since 14 (co-founding and selling Sauna en Bois en route); Imperial-trained; now building precision cancer diagnostics.
James Maund, 29 — Voyfai (US$20m). Born in Berlin and a Warwick mathematics graduate; founded the AI consultancy-builder in 2023, with more than US$11m raised.
Amal Jolly, 29 & Michael Ettlinger, 27 — Saturn (US$16m). Founded in 2020; AI infrastructure for financial advice used by advisory firms overseeing tens of billions in assets. CEO Jolly was born in India; CTO Ettlinger is an Austrian software engineer from the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.
Yi Ng, 30 — SR_A / Samuel Ross Atelier (US$15m). Born in Singapore and a Cambridge law graduate; co-founded A-COLD-WALL and scaled it to a Frasers/Tomorrow exit before joining Samuel Ross's industrial-design atelier, which has grown past US$8m of revenue and US$30m of GMV with Zara and Inditex joint ventures.
Sebastiaan de Vries, 30 — Limbic (US$14.6m raised). Dutch founder (University of Amsterdam) who started Limbic in 2018, aged 22; its clinical-AI triage now supports NHS talking-therapy services, backed by a Khosla Ventures-led round in March 2024.
Alyx van der Vorm, 27 — Clyx (US$14m raised). London-born and Harvard-educated; founded the social-connection app in 2020, aged 21, to fight loneliness with real-world meetups.
Robert Huppertz, 28 — Orbio Earth (US$10m). Imperial-trained; founded the company in 2021 to track methane emissions from space.
Lucie Macleod, 27 — Hair Syrup (US$10m). Pembrokeshire-born; started the hair-oil brand in 2020, aged 21, while at Warwick; grew it via TikTok into a profitable national retailer-stocked brand with £5m of 2024/25 revenue.
Daisy Kelly, 27 — Glow For It (US$10m). London-born founder of the lash-and-brow serum brand started in 2020, aged 21; seven-figure TikTok Live sales days and more than 500,000 serum units sold.
Gerry Lianos, 30 — Raffolux (US$10m+). Warwick economics graduate of Greek-Cypriot heritage; founded the online prize-draw platform in 2019, aged 23 — giving away more than £20m of prizes and passing US$10m of 2024 revenue.
Thomas Markland, 30 — HYDP (US$8–15m estimated). Manchester-born founder with no university degree who built the creator-marketing agency from London into New York and Riyadh, serving clients from Amazon and Mercedes to PrettyLittleThing; revenue tripled after the 2023 US expansion.
Louis Horrell, 27 — Nook (over US$10m). Co-founder of Nook, the London hotel-room automation startup valued at over US$10 million — guests can pre-set lighting, music and room and mattress temperature, with sleep tracking and a self-changing bed in development. A concept room has been trialling at the Superhero Hotel in San Francisco since August 2026, with a London opening signed. Nook's co-founders include U30s 2024 past winner Piers Millar, below, and 2026 U25s winner Alice Mackenzie.
Joe Seddon, 29 — Zero Gravity (US$8m raised). Born in Morley, West Yorkshire, and an Oxford PPE graduate; founded the social-mobility platform in 2018 to help students from less advantaged backgrounds win places at top universities — 8,000-plus students and £1.5m of scholarships deployed, with clients including Lloyds, HSBC, KPMG and Snapchat.
Yujian (Diego) Hong, 29 — SuperIntern (US$10m). Oxford computer-science graduate and co-founder/CTO of the London-based AI-agents company (Houly Ltd), backed by a Samsung Next-led pre-seed round and now raising its seed.
The NextGen
Yoni Nahmad, 25 — Nahmad family art business (US$1.3bn). Son of the late Ezra Nahmad; with his brothers he inherited half of the family's near-US$7bn collection of Impressionist and modern art — including some 300 Picassos — held in the Geneva freeport, and is the only one of the three brothers young enough for this list. As a principal of the family business his remit is real estate — expanding the family's three-decade property portfolio across continents. Westminster-educated, Monaco-born.
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, 28 — Sunderland AFC. Born in Zürich and schooled at Millfield; son of Margarita Louis-Dreyfus; became chairman of Sunderland in February 2021, aged 23 — English football's youngest chairman — and majority shareholder in 2022. He led the club back to the Premier League in 2025. One of the list's most media-covered members.
Samir Kamani, 30 — boohoo & boohooMAN, Debenhams Group. Son of co-founder Mahmud Kamani; grew up in Manchester and attended Cheadle Hulme School; named CEO of boohooMAN and boohoo in 2020 at 24, driving the marketplace pivot (Brand Locker) and cultural partnerships such as darts world champion Luke Littler.
The senior executive
Eduardo Maric, 27 — Revolut (US$115bn valuation, 4 November 2026). Revolut's youngest-ever Operating Partner, leading New Initiative Management: the global approval engine for new products and market entries across five continents. Ten-x'd delivery speed in 18 months; 500-plus product initiatives launched for 70 million customers. A University of Zagreb computer-science graduate whose family escaped war-torn Bosnia.
Appendix B — Previous winners still eligible by age and company valuation
The 39 past winners below all made a Hurun UK list in a previous year — noted with each entry — and still meet the U30s age criteria in 2026. The analysis of the whole list is in the main release above; here are their stories one by one, in order of company value.
James Dacombe — Olix (US$3.3bn). U30s 2024. From Harrogate, Dacombe founded neurotechnology company CoMind at 17, then turned to the bottleneck he kept hitting: chips. Olix, founded in 2024, designs optical-based AI inference hardware, and in August 2026 raised US$312m at a US$3.3bn post-money valuation — the most valuable founder-built business among this year's previous winners still eligible. He holds no university degree.
Ed Beccle — Glorify (US$230m). U30s 2022 (also U40s 2024). Born in Hong Kong and raised in the UK, Beccle founded his first company, Grasp, at 19 and sold it to Hintsa Performance, then built the Christian wellbeing app Glorify — backed by a US$40m Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. He holds no university degree.
Marisa Poster — PerfectTed (US$180m). U30s 2024. Poster grew up in New York, studied at the University of Pennsylvania and moved to London to co-found PerfectTed, turning matcha into an energy-drink category leader stocked nationwide; a September 2025 round led by Felix Capital valued the company at £140m. Co-founder Teddie Levenfiche is below.
Ben Spring — TryHackMe (US$80m). U30s 2023. Spring co-founded the cybersecurity training platform TryHackMe in 2018 at 20, growing it — bootstrapped to more than £15m of ARR — into one of the world's largest security-training platforms, used by more than four million people.
Eleanor Thatcher — Thatcher Family Drinks (US$64m net assets). U30s 2024. A fifth-generation member of the cider family who grew up at Myrtle Farm in Sandford, Somerset, Thatcher worked in Australia before returning to take a director's seat at the family's 120-year-old business.
Jess Hunt — Refy Beauty (US$57m sales). U30s 2023 (also U35s 2024). From Manchester, Hunt studied fashion at art college in Plymouth and worked as an NHS personal assistant before co-founding Refy in 2020, now selling more than £45m of product a year. One of the list's most media-covered members.
Darcy Laceby, 29 — Absolute Collagen (US$57m). U30s 2022 (also U35s 2023). Laceby co-founded the collagen supplements brand at 18 with her mother Maxine while studying food and nutrition at University College Birmingham; turnover has passed £20m. The company has been certified by B Lab since February 2023 as a B Corp, meaning it meets verified standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
Amy Knight — Must Have Ideas (US$51m sales). U30s 2023 (also U35s 2024). A Kent law graduate, Knight was head of supply chain at Ecoegg before founding the TV-shopping and social-commerce retailer, which turns over £40m with £5m of profits.
Simmy Dhillon — Simmer (internal valuation above £100m; £36.1m revenue for the year to January 2025). University of Bristol economics graduate who started Simmer as a student before stints at Google and Rothschild & Co, and bootstrapped the healthy meal-prep business with his brother Jhai; the pair were named Great British Entrepreneurs of the Year 2025. Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner.
Aimee Smale — Odd Muse (US$40m). U30s 2023. Smale founded the womenswear brand Odd Muse in 2020 at 23 — built on the idea of buying clothes made to last — and has grown it into one of the UK's fastest-growing independent fashion labels, shown at London Fashion Week; 2024 sales of £22.5m came with £3m of pre-tax profit.
Alessandro Ottino, 29 — Oriole Networks (US$35m). U30s 2024. Ottino co-founded Oriole Networks out of his UCL PhD research at 26, building optical networking for AI data centres. Co-founder Joshua Benjamin is a 2026 winner, above.
Monty George — Furniturebox (US$32m revenue). U30s 2022. Raised in Salisbury, George left school at 17 to co-found the online furniture retailer, now generating more than £25m a year. He holds no university degree; co-founder Dan Beckles is below.
Grace Beverley — TALA and Shreddy (US$30m turnover). U30s 2022. Beverley founded fitness app Shreddy at 19 while studying music at Oxford, then built activewear brand TALA, which turned over £19.8m in the year to March 2025; she is one of the most media-covered members of the list.
Luca Schnettler — Qumata (US$28m raised). U30s 2024. Born and raised in Frankfurt, Schnettler came to the UK to study at Queen Mary University of London and founded the insurance-technology company at 19.
Kevin Pan — Multus Biotechnology (£9.5m raised). U30s 2024. Educated in bioengineering at TGM Vienna, Pan came to Imperial College London and co-founded Multus in 2020, which develops growth media for cultivated meat. Co-founders Cai Linton and Réka Trón are below.
Cai Linton, 28 — Multus Biotechnology (£9.5m raised). U30s 2024. Linton co-founded Multus at 22 after studying at Imperial College London, and leads the business as chief executive.
Eliot Makabu — Bonnet (US$25m). U30s 2023. Makabu co-founded the electric-vehicle charging app Bonnet at 23 and sold it to OVO Energy in November 2023. Co-founder Patrick Reich is below.
Patrick Reich — Bonnet (US$25m). U30s 2023. An Imperial engineering graduate, Reich co-founded Bonnet at 24 with Eliot Makabu, building the UK's leading EV-charging aggregator before its acquisition by OVO Energy.
Simon Swali — iCare24 (US$25m). U30s 2023. From Birmingham, Swali started the healthcare-staffing business that became iCare24 at 14 and has since launched a dementia-care training venture. He holds no university degree.
Teddie Levenfiche, 29 — PerfectTed (£140m valuation, approximately US$180m). U30s 2024. Levenfiche forwent Harvard Law after the University of Pennsylvania to co-found PerfectTed at 24 with his Penn roommate Marisa Poster, above.
Dan Beckles — Furniturebox (US$21m sales). U30s 2022. From Mere, Wiltshire, Beckles co-founded Furniturebox with Monty George; profitable and founder-run, with around 50 staff. He holds no university degree.
Will Newett — Newett Homes (US$21m). U30s 2024. From a Yorkshire family, Newett founded the housebuilder at 19 and has built it into a regional developer with £16m of revenues.
Neil Shah — Tilt (US$18m raised). U30s 2024. A Manchester graduate and an early Revolut employee, Shah co-founded the fintech Tilt in 2021.
Maisie Jones, 27 — Sisters and Seekers (US$18m turnover). U30s 2024. From Hope in Flintshire, North Wales, Jones started out selling vintage clothes on eBay and Depop at 18 before co-founding the womenswear brand; turnover has passed £14m. She studied at the University of Chester.
Josef Chen, 25 — Kaikaku (acquired by REEF; terms undisclosed). U30s 2024. Born and raised in Austria, Chen ran a Bitcoin faucet at 13, exited his first venture at 17 and was Bitpanda's first intern before studying at Warwick and co-founding the restaurant-robotics company. REEF Technology acquired Kaikaku in July 2026; Chen and the core team joined REEF to scale its restaurant robotics and AI. Co-founder Ivan Tregear is below; fellow co-founder Piers Millar had already left to found Nook.
Ivan Tregear, 25 — Kaikaku (acquired by REEF; terms undisclosed). U30s 2024. An Imperial College London graduate, Tregear co-founded Kaikaku at 22, building robots that run restaurant kitchens. REEF Technology acquired Kaikaku in July 2026; Tregear and the core team joined REEF, where he continues to develop restaurant robotics and AI.
Piers Millar, 24 — Nook (over US$10m). U30s 2024. Millar dropped out of the LSE to co-found Kaikaku, the restaurant-robotics company, at 21 — the business for which he was, at 22, the youngest member of the U30s 2024. REEF Technology acquired Kaikaku in July 2026. Millar had already moved on to found Nook, the hotel-room automation startup he co-founded with 2026 U25s winner Alice Mackenzie and valued at over US$10 million — making him the youngest member of this year's entire U30s list.
Joe Wilkinson, 30 — Heat / Mile (US$15m). U30s 2023. From Sheffield, Wilkinson founded the luxury mystery-box platform Heat in 2019; backed by LVMH, the business later became the members-only shopping app Mile. In December 2025, Wilkinson and Mario Maher's new luxury group Hulcan acquired Matches and Raey from Frasers Group, with plans to relaunch both in 2026.
Sam Burrow — Anaphite (US$14m raised). U30s 2024. Burrow developed his graphene-composite research at the University of Bristol and spun out Anaphite, which makes materials for battery electrodes. Co-founder Alexander Hewitt is below.
Alexander Hewitt — Anaphite (US$14m raised). U30s 2024. Hewitt co-founded Anaphite at 21 after studying at Bristol, commercialising the university's graphene research.
Olivia Jenkins, 30 — D.Louise (US$13m sales). U30s 2024. A South Wales native and Reading graduate, Jenkins founded the waterproof jewellery brand at 25, reaching £10m of sales.
Réka Trón, 28 — Multus Biotechnology (£9.5m raised). U30s 2024. From Hungary, Trón came to Imperial College London and co-founded Multus at 22, leading its science as chief technology officer.
Jai Kanwar, 27 — Zeus Labs (US$10m sales). U30s 2024. Born in Hungary and educated at the LSE, Kanwar founded the freight-technology company at 23.
Lily Cairns Haylor, 30 — Advanced Infrastructure (US$10m). U30s 2024. A Cambridge graduate born in the city, Cairns Haylor co-founded the energy-data company at 23.
Wenmiao Yu, 29 — Quantum Dice (US$10m). U30s 2023. Yu co-founded Quantum Dice, the Oxford spin-out making quantum random number generators, at 22.
Raphael Peralta, 28 — CardiaTec (US$6m raised). U30s 2024. Schooled in Gibraltar, Peralta studied at York and took an MPhil at Cambridge before co-founding the cardiovascular AI-drug-discovery company at 23. Co-founder Thelma Zablocki is below.
Thelma Zablocki, 27 — CardiaTec (US$6m raised). U30s 2024. A Cambridge graduate, Zablocki co-founded CardiaTec at 23.
Ed Hardy — Tuza (US$6m raised). U30s 2024. Hardy founded his first startup at 14, took degrees at both Oxford and Cambridge, and founded venture-backed banking-technology company Tuza after building an earlier company to a six-figure user base.
Molly Allington — Albotherm (US$5m). U30s 2023. Allington co-founded Albotherm at 22 out of the University of Bristol, developing smart coatings that keep greenhouses and buildings cool without energy.
About Hurun Inc.
Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research
Oxford, Shanghai, Mumbai
Established in the United Kingdom in 1999, Hurun is a research and media group that promotes entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Hurun is the world's largest provider of unicorn and young founders lists, as well as rich lists, valuing around 20,000 businesses and entrepreneurs every year. Hurun's lists generated 8 billion brand views in 2025, mainly in China and India.
Hurun is best known for the Hurun Global Rich List, the Hurun Global Unicorn Index and the Hurun Uth Series — the Under40s, Under35s, Under30s and Under25s — which began in 2017 and today runs across China, India and the UK.
For further information, please contact:
Alexandra Sanne/ Porsha Pan
For business cooperation, please contact:
Ada Shan, Hurun representative in the UK & Europe
07539018042
Do you know a candidate for the 2027 Hurun UK Under30s? The 2027 list will recognise individuals born after 1 September 1996: FirstGen founders of businesses worth US$10m or more; NextGen leaders managing sales or investments within a family business of US$20m or more; and Senior Execs (VP or C-suite) at businesses worth US$100m or more. If you know of candidates for the 2027 Hurun UK Uth Series, please contact Alexandra at press@hurun.co.uk.
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