Hurun UK Under35s 2026
In association with Alibaba Cloud
ElevenLabs' Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski, Nscale's Josh Payne and Revolut CFO Victor Stinga lead the 2026 Hurun UK U35s — as three Warburton brothers join the succession generation
The Hurun Research Institute today releases the 2026 Hurun UK U35s, recognising 112 individuals: 46 winners for 2026 and 66 previous winners still eligible by age and company valuation. The businesses they founded, lead or help run are worth a combined US$209.6 billion.
The 2026 U35s in numbers — 2026 winners and qualifying past winners together:
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97 FirstGen founders, 13 NextGen family-business leaders and two senior executives — Revolut Group CFO Victor Stinga and Luminance CEO Eleanor Lightbody
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US$209.6 billion of combined business value, counting each business once
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16 founder-built unicorns, represented by 19 FirstGen individuals: ElevenLabs (US$22bn); Nscale (US$14.6bn); Wayve (US$8.6bn); Fuse Energy (US$5bn); Recursive (US$4.65bn); Synthesia (US$4bn); Improbable (US$3.3bn); Prime Hydration (US$3.1bn); Marshmallow (US$2bn); Granola (US$1.5bn); Paddle (US$1.4bn); Humanoid (US$1.35bn); 9fin (US$1.3bn); Gymshark (US$1.45bn); Castore (US$1.3bn); and Fractile (US$1bn). Across all categories, 27 people are linked to billion-dollar businesses
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Average age 32; the average founder was 24 when they started their current business
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18 were born or raised outside the UK, from Poland and Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand
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83 of the 112 went to university — Oxford and Cambridge tie on eight degrees each — while at least 16 hold no university degree, including dropouts
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18 of the 112 are women, including seven of the 46 winners for 2026 — among them Marisa Poster, Eleanor Lightbody and Tessa Reed
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More than 47,800 jobs across the list's businesses — around 20,300 in NextGen family companies, approximately 14,660 in founder-built businesses and 13,300 at the senior executives' employers
[London: 12 November 2026]:
The Under35s is one of four lists in the Hurun UK Uth Series, published together and designed to be read together: the inaugural Under25s, Under30s, Under35s and Under40s. The U35s is where the pipeline becomes the establishment: 16 founder-built businesses on this list are valued at US$1 billion or more, and the first substantial wave of family-business succession arrives.
The 2026 list arrives two weeks after Chancellor John Healey's Autumn Budget of 28 October. A proposed Founders' Relief would apply a 10% capital-gains-tax rate to up to £10 million of qualifying lifetime gains for disposals from 6 April 2027, while a £5 billion uplift to the British Business Bank's financial capacity is designed to help more companies scale.
The top of the list: three types of success
The FirstGen founders: Mati Staniszewski, 31, and Piotr Dąbkowski, 31, of ElevenLabs (US$22 billion). Two Polish friends who met at school near Warsaw built Europe's leading AI voice company after becoming frustrated by badly dubbed films. Staniszewski studied mathematics at Imperial and worked at Palantir and BlackRock; Dąbkowski studied at Oxford and Cambridge and worked at Google. They founded ElevenLabs in 2022. A US$300 million employee tender in September 2026, co-led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, doubled its valuation from February's US$11 billion Series D to US$22 billion.
Josh Payne, 32, of Nscale (US$14.6 billion). Payne left high school in industrial Australia and spent three years working underground in a coal mine, teaching himself to build websites on long shifts. After selling supplements online and building a recruitment platform, he founded Arkon Energy. Nscale was spun out of Arkon and incorporated in London in May 2024, bringing together cheap power, GPUs and rapid data-centre construction for the AI boom. Its US$2 billion Series C in March 2026 backed a US$14.6 billion valuation; TIME named Payne to its 100 most influential people in AI in August.
Behind them: Alan Chang, 33, Revolut's employee No. 5 and youngest-ever chief revenue officer, whose Fuse Energy is valued at US$5 billion; Tim Shi, whose Recursive raised US$650 million at a US$4.65 billion valuation within months of launch; KSI, whose Prime Hydration is valued at US$3.1 billion; Sam Stephenson of Granola; Artem Sokolov of Humanoid; Steven Hunter of 9fin; and Walter Goodwin of Fractile.
The NextGen: Charles Forte, 34, of Rocco Forte Hotels (US$1.8 billion). The son of group founder and chairman Sir Rocco Forte, he heads development at the fourteen-hotel luxury group. He leads eleven NextGen winners for 2026, from fifth-generation Warburton brothers Harry, Jack and James to Tessa Reed of reed.co.uk, Emma Booth, the sixth generation of Booths supermarkets, and Eleanor Thatcher, 26, the fifth generation of Thatchers cider.
The senior executives: Victor Stinga, 33, of Revolut, and Eleanor Lightbody, 35, of Luminance. Stinga joined Revolut in 2018 after Capgemini, became an Operating Partner in the CEO office at 27 and interim CFO at 30. He is now Group CFO and Partner at the US$115 billion fintech, which reported 2025 revenue of US$6.0 billion and pre-tax profit of US$2.3 billion. Lightbody joined Cambridge-born legal-AI company Luminance and became CEO at 29.
The class of 2026 — and the previous winners still eligible by age and company valuation
This is the unicorn establishment. Sixteen founder-built companies connected to the U35s are worth US$1 billion or more, against five businesses across all categories on the U30s. The 2026 winners account for nine of the 16; Previous winners still eligible by age and company valuation account for the other seven. Across all categories, 27 U35s individuals are linked to billion-dollar businesses, including NextGen leaders and senior executives. Counting people and companies separately avoids turning co-founders into extra unicorns.
The 16 founder-built US$1bn+ companies connected to the Hurun UK U35s 2026. Source: Hurun Research.
AI and fintech dominate value; consumer dominates headcount. Consumer brands account for 36 of the 112 people, from Gymshark and Castore to Prime Hydration, PerfectTed, Refy and Dash Water, followed by 24 in AI, software and deeptech. The 2026 winners skew especially technical: Fractile in chips, Humanoid in robotics, Recursive in frontier AI, Oriole Networks in photonics and Basecamp Research in AI biotech. Revolut alone accounts for US$115 billion of the US$209.6 billion whole-class total.
The succession generation arrives. Thirteen NextGen leaders take their places on the U35s, against four on the U30s and none on the inaugural U25s. They are assuming responsibility at Rocco Forte Hotels, Langley Holdings, reed.co.uk, Warburtons, Booths, Baxters, Chisholm Hunter and Thatchers, while previous winners still eligible include India Rose James and Charles Shortt. Their family businesses employ more than 20,000 people.
A magnet for global talent. Eighteen people were born or raised outside the UK: Staniszewski and Dąbkowski in Poland, Payne in Australia, Chang and Ed Beccle in Hong Kong, Gramondi and Cartechini in Italy, Sokolov in Russia, Kendall in New Zealand, Riparbelli in Denmark, Dalyac in France, Gauthier Van Malderen in Belgium, Eric Liu Kelu and Dylan Zhao Zhiheng in China, Yaniv Toledano and Roei Samuel in Israel, Marisa Poster in New York and Steven Bartlett in Botswana.
University helped — but was not a prerequisite. Oxford and Cambridge lead with eight degrees each, ahead of Warwick and UCL on six each. At least 16 people hold no degree, including university dropouts. They include Payne, Bartlett, KSI, Harry Stebbings, William Langley and Christian Owens. For those who did not go to university, starting young often substituted for further study: the average founder was 24 when starting the current business, and several built or sold businesses in their teens.
Serial founders and second acts. Sokolov built and sold a jewellery business before Humanoid; Lewis Morgan sold out of Gymshark before AYBL; Tim Shi co-founded Cresta before Recursive; Will and Chris Donnelly each sold a company before Lottie; and Gini Newton ran Karma Cans before Karma Kitchen. This is no longer a list of first attempts.
Co-founding relationships take several forms. Siblings and spouses include the Warburtons, Kent-Brahams, Marsdens, Dhillons, Holmes-Darbys, Edgertons, Swalis and Brittans. University produced 9fin's Steven Hunter and Huss El-Sheikh, who were friends and flatmates, and PerfectTed's co-founders at Penn. Revolut supplied Fuse Energy's founding partnership, while Scan.com's Charlie Bullock and Oliver Knight met through work. Granola's Sam Stephenson and Chris Pedregal met in an online community for note-taking enthusiasts.
The U35s through the years. This is the third edition of the Hurun UK U35s. The first edition in 2023 had 109 winners and the previous edition in 2024 had 62 winners. The 2026 edition recognises 112 individuals: 46 winners and 66 previous winners still eligible, with US$209.6 billion in combined business value and 16 founder-built US$1bn+ companies. Earlier editions were valued in sterling; the 2026 edition uses US dollars.
How the U35s fit with the U25s and U30s
Read together, the U25s, U30s and U35s follow a single pipeline: the U25s show the youngest starting point, the U30s show potential turning into proof, and the U35s show proof turning into scale, alongside the first substantial NextGen wave. Across the three lists are 208 list appearances — 18 U25s, 78 U30s and 112 U35s — representing 195 unique individuals. Four people appear on both the U25s and U30s; nine appear on both the U30s and U35s; and nobody appears on both the U25s and U35s. A person can be a 2026 winner on one list and an previous winner still eligible on another, depending on their previous awards.
Lessons from the U35s
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For the UK government: this report is evidence that your policies are working. The EIS/SEIS regime, the Global Talent Visa and the Regulatory Sandbox have helped create the third-largest startup ecosystem on the planet. The UK is attracting the world’s best founders. The next challenge is ensuring that the UK remains the best place in the world to scale a company — so that the founders who choose Britain continue to choose Britain as they grow. This requires maintaining the competitive tax regime that attracted them, building domestic late-stage capital capacity so scaleups do not have to sell to American buyers, and reforming the London IPO pipeline so that the UK’s most successful companies list at home rather than in New York.
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For young entrepreneurs: these 112 individuals are your role models. The average founder across the Hurun UK Unicorn Index 2026 was 35 when starting their company — you do not need decades of experience to build something extraordinary.
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For investors worldwide: this is a curated pipeline across AI, fintech, consumer and family business. The opportunity is not only to back the next startup, but to provide late-stage capital, governance and international connections that help companies scale in Britain rather than exit prematurely.
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For young founders with big dreams: the average U35 founder started their current business at 24. A degree is optional — at least 16 people on this list hold no degree — while co-founding relationships matter, whether formed at school, university, work or online. Many of these founders thought globally from day one.
Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said:
“The U35s are where the next generation becomes the establishment. Sixteen founder-built billion-dollar companies sit on this one list, while families including the Warburtons, Fortes and Reeds are passing responsibility to a new generation. Read with the U25s and U30s, this is a continuous pipeline of British enterprise — and much of it is powered by people who chose Britain. Government and investors should back these businesses to scale here, so that today’s young founders become the leaders of tomorrow’s great British companies.”
About the categories. The U35s recognises three types of achievement: FirstGen founders (97 of the 112 people), NextGen family-business leaders (13) and senior executives (two).
Methodology. The Hurun UK U35s recognises individuals aged 35 or under at 1 September 2026 who founded or co-founded a UK-based business worth at least US$50 million; hold an operational leadership role in a family business, managing sales or investments at least US$100 million; or hold a senior executive role, such as CEO, CFO, VP or equivalent, in a company worth at least US$500 million. For the first time in 2026, each list also identifies previous Hurun UK Uth winners who remain eligible by age and business value. Combined business-size figures count each company once and use the valuation, revenue, funding or asset basis recorded in the master sheet. Businesses marked below a former valuation without a current disclosed figure are excluded from the combined totals.
Appendix — The stories of the 2026 U35s Winners
The 46 2026 winners: 33 FirstGen founders, eleven NextGen family-business leaders and two senior executives. Stories are alphabetical by family name within each category; grouped co-founders remain together.
The FirstGen founders
Danyal Akarca, 31 — Callosum (US$110m raised). A Cambridge PhD in computational neuroscience; co-founded Callosum with fellow Cambridge neuroscientist Jascha Achterberg — a 2026 U30s winner — to make many AI models on many chips behave as one system. Raised US$110m including a US$100m seed in August 2026 backed by Atomico and the UK Sovereign AI Fund's first equity investment.
Steven Bartlett, 34 — Social Chain / Flight Story (US$600m peak valuation). Born in Botswana to a Nigerian mother and English father, raised in Plymouth from the age of two, and a Manchester Met dropout after a single lecture. He founded Social Chain at 21 and took it public in 2019; today he runs Flight Story and hosts The Diary of a CEO, among the world's most-listened-to podcasts — the biggest media platform of anyone in the Uth Series. A U30s 2022 winner, graduating to the U35s.
James Billingham, 31 — Cuvva (US$100m+ valuation). Co-founder and chief technology officer of Cuvva, founded in 2014 — the UK's first hourly, app-based car insurance — building the product from pre-seed before departing day-to-day roles in 2021; he remains a shareholder. Co-founded MVP Tracker (US) before Cuvva. Holds no university degree.
Toby Brittan & Oliver (Ollie) Brittan, 32 — Whites Beaconsfield (around £20m valuation). Buckinghamshire brothers who built the teeth-whitening brand into the UK's No. 1 on TikTok Shop — more than a million units sold, around £10m of 2024 revenue and a Superdrug listing, with EU and Dubai expansion in 2026. Ollie, a U30s 2023 winner, moves up; Toby is a first-time winner.
Charlie Bullock, 30 & Oliver Knight, 30 — Scan.com (US$60m raised). Birmingham-raised Knight — a King Edward VI Five Ways boy, Rothschild analyst and Helpling's UK&I managing director at 24 — co-founded the medical-scanning platform with Bullock, a second-time founder whose Kaampus was acquired in 2019. Both are U30s 2024 winners, moving up.
Wing Chan, 35 — Sourceful (US$30m+ raised). Was chief marketing officer of The Hut Group at 25 and its chief technology officer at 28, before founding the sustainable-packaging company Sourceful in 2020, backed by Index Ventures. A Cambridge graduate born and raised in Manchester.
Alan Chang, 33 — Fuse Energy (US$5bn valuation). Revolut's employee No. 5, who became its youngest-ever chief revenue officer at 27. Co-founded Fuse in 2022 with fellow Revolut alumnus Charles Orr — a 2026 U30s winner — buying an Ofgem supply licence and a single wind turbine; four years on, Fuse is a full-stack energy company spanning generation, trading and retail supply, valued at just under US$5 billion. An Imperial graduate, born in Hong Kong and schooled in Kent.
Alexander Christie — Attio (US$116m total funding). Founded Briefly.io and Doorpass, was VP Engineering at BORN.COM, and co-founded Attio, the AI-native CRM, in 2019. Holds no university degree. A U30s 2024 winner, moving up.
Luke Evans, 32 — Alliance Groundworks (£63m sales). Midlands-based founder who built the Lichfield groundworks contractor, founded in 2021, to £63m of sales. A U30s 2024 winner, moving up.
Alexander Fitzgerald, 33 — Isembard (US$59m raised). Founder of the AI-driven precision-manufacturing company for defence and aerospace, founded in 2021; a US$50m Series A in March 2026, led by Union Square Ventures, took total funding to US$59m. A Nottingham biochemistry graduate, born and raised in London.
Ben Freeman, 32 — Omnea (US$325m estimated valuation). Second-time founder from the early team at cybersecurity company Tessian; co-founded the AI procurement-orchestration company Omnea, which has raised US$75m including a US$50m Series B in September 2025 led by Insight Partners and Khosla Ventures. A Manchester-born King's College London management graduate. His co-founder and CTO Ben Allen is a 2026 U30s winner.
Walter Goodwin, 30 — Fractile (US$1bn valuation). Oxford AI-and-robotics DPhil who founded Fractile in 2022, aged 26, to design chips purely for AI inference — promising 100x faster runs at a tenth of the cost. A US$220m Series B in May 2026 (Accel, Factorial Funds, Founders Fund) made it a unicorn; Pat Gelsinger is a seed investor and adviser; and talks were reported in August 2026 to raise at a US$6.5bn valuation on the back of a chip-supply commitment from Anthropic.
Glen Gowers, 32 & Oliver Vince, 32 — Basecamp Research (US$220m raised). Oxford-trained co-founders of the AI biotech company, which builds foundation models of biology trained on one of the world's largest proprietary genetic databases. A US$140m Series C in September 2026 — backed by S32, Anthropic and Nvidia — took total funding to US$220m.
Gian Maria Gramondi, 33 & Luca Cartechini, 34 — Circeus (US$600m estimated valuation). Two Italians who chose London: Gramondi, an economics graduate of Luiss in Rome and former Amazon and Deloitte man, and Cartechini, raised between Marche and Molise with an ESCP Master in Management and a start in Jefferies' internet banking team. They co-founded the company as Shop Circle in 2021 — an AI-native software holding company that has made 18 acquisitions in four years, serves 200,000 businesses and is profitable — rebranding it Circeus in June 2026.
Steven Hunter, 34 — 9fin (US$1.3bn valuation). A first-class law graduate of the University of Bristol who joined J.P. Morgan's leveraged finance team, left at 23, and founded 9fin with his university friend and flatmate Huss El-Sheikh — sketching the company's values on their kitchen table. The AI-native platform for debt markets now serves more than 350 institutions including KKR and Apollo; a US$170m Series C in March 2026, led by HarbourVest, valued it at US$1.3bn. Born in Belfast.
Dominic McGregor, 33 — Social Chain (US$600m peak valuation). From York, McGregor co-founded Social Chain with Steven Bartlett and served as its chief operating officer through its 2019 listing; he has since become one of the UK's most prominent voices on mental health in business and served as a government policy advisor. An Oxford graduate and a U30s 2022 winner, moving up.
Dylan McMahon, 30 — Kendal Nutrition / Kendamil (£54m+ turnover). Founder who built Kendal Nutricare — maker of Kendamil baby formula — in Cumbria into one of Britain's fastest-growing food exporters; control was sold to Greenwood Foods in December 2025. A UCD Quinn School graduate, born in Kendal. A U30s 2024 winner, moving up.
KSI (Olajide Olatunji), 33 — Prime Hydration (US$3.1bn valuation). Born in London and raised in Watford to a Nigerian father; holds no university degree. He built one of the world's biggest YouTube followings from 2009, co-founded the Sidemen, and became a professional boxer and musician. In 2022 he co-founded Prime Hydration with fellow YouTuber Logan Paul; it sold US$1.2bn of drinks in 2023, is now distributed in more than 30 countries, and holds sponsorship deals with the UFC, FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, WWE and the LA Dodgers.
Alessandro Ottino, 29 — Oriole Networks (US$35m raised). Co-founded the photonics company out of his UCL PhD research, building optical networking for AI data centres. His co-founder Joshua Benjamin is a 2026 U30s winner. A U30s 2024 winner, moving up.
Josh Payne, 32 — Nscale (US$14.6bn valuation). Left high school in industrial Australia and spent three years working underground as a coal miner, filling the long shifts with entrepreneurship books. Taught himself to build websites, sold protein supplements online, built a recruitment platform for construction workers, then founded Arkon Energy to mine bitcoin on cheap hydroelectric power. Spun Nscale out of Arkon Energy and incorporated it in London in May 2024; in March 2026 it closed a US$2bn Series C — the largest in European history — backed by Nvidia, Citadel, Dell, Nokia and Jane Street, with Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg joining the board and a US$14bn agreement to deploy 200,000 Nvidia GPUs for Microsoft. Named to the TIME 100 AI list in August 2026. He holds no university degree.
Will Pearce, 31 — Orbital (US$75m raised). Warwick economics graduate who started his first company at 23 in the space industry; co-founder of the real-estate legal AI company, whose US$60m Series B in January 2026 took total funding to US$75m; valuation undisclosed.
Marisa Poster, 29 — PerfectTed (£140m valuation). Grew up in New York City and came to the UK after the University of Pennsylvania, where she met her co-founders — including Teddie Levenfiche, a 2026 U30s winner. PerfectTed, the matcha energy brand founded in 2021, is now stocked across UK supermarkets. A U30s 2024 winner, moving up.
Roei Samuel, 34 — Connectd (US$80m valuation). Israel-born founder of the platform connecting startups with investors, directors and advisors, with US$17m of annual recurring revenue; raised US$24m including a US$7m round in July 2025 led by Anker Capital. A Nottingham politics graduate and serial entrepreneur, he previously sold RealSport to Gfinity in 2018.
Tim Shi — Recursive Superintelligence (US$4.65bn valuation). A computer-science graduate of Tsinghua, Shi dropped out of a Stanford AI PhD to co-found Cresta, after a stint at OpenAI. He grew Cresta past US$100m of annual recurring revenue, then in 2025 co-founded Recursive Superintelligence with researchers from DeepMind, Meta and OpenAI — emerging from stealth in May 2026 with US$650m from GV, Greycroft, Nvidia and AMD at a US$4.65bn valuation to build AI that improves itself. The company has dual hubs in London and San Francisco.
Artem Sokolov, 32 — Humanoid (US$1.35bn valuation). Russia-born serial entrepreneur who took over his family's jewellery business and grew it to a US$1bn capitalisation before selling it in August 2025; he also founded the venture builder SKL.vc. He founded Humanoid in London in 2024, investing US$30m of his own money, to build general-purpose humanoid robots for industry — a US$152m Series A in July 2026, led by Prime Movers Lab with Schaeffler and Bosch, valued it at US$1.35bn.
Gabriel Spencer-Harper, 31 — Meticulous (around US$19m raised). Warwick computer-science graduate; founder of the AI testing company whose customers include Notion, ElevenLabs and Dropbox; backed by Chemistry and Menlo Ventures.
Mati Staniszewski, 31 & Piotr Dąbkowski, 31 — ElevenLabs (US$22bn valuation). Two friends who grew up near Warsaw and came to Britain to study — Staniszewski to Imperial for mathematics, Dąbkowski to Oxford, then a Cambridge MPhil. Both watched badly dubbed films as children and built ElevenLabs in 2022 to fix voice with AI: Staniszewski from Palantir and BlackRock, Dąbkowski from Google. Their AI voice platform is now Europe's most valuable voice-AI company — valued at US$22 billion in a September 2026 tender offer led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, just seven months after a US$11 billion Series D. Staniszewski won the U30s in 2024 and moves up to the U35s this year.
Sam Stephenson, 32 — Granola (US$1.5bn valuation). A Falmouth graphic-design graduate who met co-founder Chris Pedregal — previously the builder of Socratic, acquired by Google — through an online community for people obsessed with note-taking tools. They founded Granola in London: an AI notepad that runs on your own computer rather than sending a bot into the meeting. It spread virally through Silicon Valley's founder and investor community, and a US$125m Series C in March 2026, led by Index Ventures, valued it at US$1.5bn.
The NextGen leaders
Emma Booth, 33 — Booths (£300m turnover). The sixth generation of the Booths supermarket family and its first female family member in the business, joining in 2025 as category development manager. A Leeds graduate from Preston.
Maxwell Connor Brown, 32 — Chisholm Hunter (US$150m revenue basis). Retail director of the Glasgow family jeweller — some 30 stores plus Hamilton & Inches — and a holdings director since August 2024. A University of Glasgow graduate.
Charles Forte, 34 — Rocco Forte Hotels (US$1.8bn enterprise value). The son of group founder and chairman Sir Rocco Forte; the family's director of development, leading the expansion of the fourteen-hotel luxury group. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund took a 49% stake in December 2023, valuing the business at £1.4bn. A New York University history graduate.
Martin Heathcote, 31 — Heathcote Holdings (£164m turnover). Group CEO of his Kent farming family's agricultural group, where he leads the VeriGreen food-recycling division. Holds no university degree. A U30s 2024 winner, moving up.
William Langley, 31 — Langley Holdings (€1.3bn revenue). Son of the group's founder; appointed to the main board in 2019 aged 24 and runs the group's Reader Cement Products division. The engineering group made €152m of pre-tax profit in FY2025. From Retford; holds no university degree. A U30s 2024 winner, moving up.
Catherine McNiven-Baxter, 32 — Baxters Food Group (£250m turnover). An active statutory director of the Scottish family food group.
Tessa Reed, 33 — Reed Group / reed.co.uk (£1bn revenue). Daughter of the family recruitment group's chairman and an active statutory director of the business; also a trustee of The Big Give, the family's philanthropy vehicle. Born in London.
Eleanor Thatcher, 26 — Thatcher Family Drinks (£50.6m net assets). Fifth-generation director of Thatchers Cider — the youngest NextGen member of this year's U35s. From Sandford, Somerset. A U30s 2024 winner, moving up.
Harry, Jack and James Warburton, 33 — Warburtons (£650m turnover). Three brothers of the family's fifth generation in the business — sons of the bakery's chairman — taking on Britain's biggest bakery brand together. Harry is responsible business strategy controller and a main-board director; Jack was appointed to the board in January 2026.
The senior executives
Eleanor Lightbody, 35 — Luminance (US$1bn valuation). A geography and Spanish graduate of Exeter with a postgraduate diploma from Cape Town, Lightbody was an early Darktrace employee — building its African business and later heading its industrial division — before joining Cambridge-born legal AI company Luminance, founded in 2015, and taking over as CEO at 29. She has since led its US$75m Series C and was named Tech Businesswoman of the Year at the 2025 UK Tech Awards; more than half of her executive team and board are women.
Victor Stinga, 33 — Revolut (US$115bn valuation). Top of his class in management at Cass Business School, Stinga spent two years at Capgemini before joining Revolut in 2018. He became an Operating Partner in the CEO office at 27, running three landmark fundraises, and was named interim CFO at 30. Now Group CFO and Partner, he signed off the accounts as Revolut reported record US$2.3bn profits. Revolut is also represented on the U30s by Eduardo Maric, its youngest-ever operating partner.
Appendix B — Previous winners still eligible by age and company valuation for the U35s
The 66 previous winners still eligible are previous Hurun UK Uth winners who still meet the U35s age and business-value tests. They are not new 2026 winners on this list. Entries are alphabetical by family name and include their previous Hurun UK list years.
Phil Beahon, 34 — Castore (US$1.3bn). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Grew up on the Wirral and co-founded the premium sportswear brand Castore; it now kits out Premier League clubs, England cricketers and F1 teams, valued at US$1.3bn.
Ed Beccle — Glorify (US$230m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U40s 2024 winner. Born in Hong Kong; founded his first company at 16, and co-founded the Christian worship app Glorify, which raised a US$40m Series A backed by SoftBank and a16z. No university degree.
Ryan Broadhurst, 33 — Arne Clothing (US$86m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. From the North West; founded the menswear brand Arne in 2018, which now sells £68m of clothing a year.
Reece Broadhurst — Arne Clothing (US$86m sales). From the North West; co-founded the menswear brand Arne with his brother Ryan in 2018 after working in the NHS. The company now sells £68 million of clothing a year. Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner.
Connor Campbell, 32 — Osler Diagnostics (US$85m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner. An Oxford graduate born in Oxford, Campbell co-founded the diagnostics spin-out Osler, which raised an US$85m Series C to take its portable blood-testing platform to market.
Hugo Campbell — Togather (US$38m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. A former journalist who founded Togather in 2017, the events and venues booking platform turning over £30m. A Warwick graduate born in London.
Sebastien Cross — BeZero Carbon (US$250m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Began his career as a Bank of England economist before co-founding BeZero Carbon, the carbon-ratings agency whose scores are used by UBS, Equinor and a hundred-plus corporate subscribers.
Alexandre Dalyac, 35 — Tractable. Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. An early Lazada employee and hedge-fund quant before co-founding Tractable, the AI computer-vision company for accident and disaster recovery. France-born Imperial graduate.
Matt Davis — Perlego (US$277m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2024 winner. Co-founded Perlego, the subscription library of academic and professional ebooks — the 'Spotify for textbooks'. A Warwick graduate born in London.
Jhai Dhillon, 31 — Simmer (internal valuation above £100m; £36.1m revenue for the year to January 2025). A former professional footballer, Dhillon co-founded the healthy meal-prep company Simmer Eats with his brother Simmy. No university degree. Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner.
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 and bootstrapped the 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.
Flinn Dolman, 30 — Lawhive. Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2024 winner. Co-founded Lawhive, the AI-powered consumer law firm, which has raised US$114m including a US$60m Series B in February 2026 backed by GV and Balderton. A UCL graduate born in London.
Chris Donnelly — Lottie (US$100m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 winner. A Wellington College alumnus who founded Verb Brands at 21 and sold it in 2021, then co-founded the care-home marketplace Lottie with his brother Will — alongside one of the biggest business followings on LinkedIn. No university degree.
Will Donnelly — Lottie (US$32m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner. A Durham graduate, Donnelly co-founded and sold an events business before founding Lottie in 2021, the care-home marketplace. Born in London.
Kristian Edgerton, 32 — AYBL (US$65m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2023 winner. Co-founded AYBL with his brother Reiss, building it to £35m-plus of revenue within the group of young Midlands fashion brands. No university degree.
Reiss Edgerton, 34 — AYBL (US$65m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2023 winner. From Redditch, Worcestershire; launched the womenswear brand AYBL with his brother Kristian from their lounge in 2018, after building and selling watch brand Tayroc. No university degree.
Christian Facey, 34 — AudioMob (US$110m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2023 winner. From Bedford; a Google strategist and Meta science partner before co-founding AudioMob with Wilfrid Obeng; the company now partners with Bauer Media Audio across eight markets. A Kingston graduate.
Grant Goulden, 35 — Jaded London (US$78m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 winner. Founded the London streetwear brand Jaded London in 2013, whose revenues are approaching US$80m a year as it expands internationally.
George Heaton, 33 — Represent (US$160m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. From Horwich, Greater Manchester; co-founded the luxury streetwear brand Represent with his brother Mike Heaton in 2011, built on a cult community and now selling worldwide.
Joel Holmes-Darby, 34 — Excel Esports (US$127m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2024 winner. Co-founded Excel Esports in 2014 with his brother Kieran, building one of Britain's first professional esports organisations (now GIANTX after a 2023 merger); later general manager at Method.
Kieran Holmes-Darby, 30 — Excel Esports (US$127m merged-company valuation). Co-founded Excel Esports at 19 while studying at Lancaster and left before the 2023 GIANTX merger. He later became Formula E's gaming director and is now general manager of Los Ratones, while remaining a minority GIANTX shareholder. The valuation refers to the merged group, not a current independent Excel business. Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2024 winner.
Jess Hunt, 29 — Refy Beauty (US$57m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner. A Manchester-born former model and content creator who co-founded Refy Beauty in 2020 — now doing £45m of sales and £9m of profits — and one of the most-followed beauty founders in the country.
Murvah Iqbal, 31 — HIVED. Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 winner. A former Manchester City youth captain, Iqbal studied development economics at King's College London before building HIVED, the electric delivery firm whose clients include John Lewis, Nespresso and Zara; it raised a US$42m Series B in July 2025.
India Rose James, 34 — Soho Revue (US$912m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. Granddaughter of Soho property mogul Paul Raymond's empire; founder and director of the Soho Revue contemporary art gallery and an active steward of the £718m family estate.
Eamon Jubbawy, 34 — Onfido (US$650m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. St Paul's School and Oxford; co-founded the identity-verification company Onfido, sold to Entrust for US$650m in 2024. He has since founded fintech Sequence and climate venture Isometric.
Eric Liu Kelu, 31 — HungryPanda (US$500m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022, U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Born in China; came to the University of Nottingham to study computer science and management, and founded HungryPanda in 2017 — the Chinese-food delivery platform now operating across ten countries.
Alex Kendall — Wayve (US$8.6bn). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Kendall came to the UK for a Cambridge PhD and founded Wayve in 2017, pioneering end-to-end deep learning for autonomous driving. Wayve's US$1bn-plus SoftBank-led round in 2024 was Europe's largest AI raise; it is now valued at US$8.6bn and is powering Nissan's driver-assistance systems.
Alexander Kent-Braham, 35 — Marshmallow (US$2bn). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022, U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. The other half of the Marshmallow twins — British-Jamaican Londoners who built one of Britain's few Black-founded unicorns, now valued at US$2bn.
Oliver Kent-Braham, 35 — Marshmallow (US$2bn). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022, U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Co-founded Marshmallow with his twin brother Alexander in 2017 after working at a major UK insurer — a digital insurer for the customers incumbents ignore, now valued at US$2bn. British-Jamaican, born in south-west London.
Ed Leon Klinger, 34 — Flock (US$55m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. Cambridge MEng; worked in private equity before founding Flock in 2016, the data-driven fleet insurer. Born in London.
Amy Knight, 30 — Must Have Ideas (US$51m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner. A Kent law graduate, Knight was head of supply chain at Ecoegg before founding the TV-shopping and social-commerce retailer in 2018, which now turns over £40m with £5m of profits.
Daniel Knight, 30 — Kinetic Games, Southampton (US$150m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 winner. From Southampton, Knight founded the games studio Kinetic Games at 24 and built its debut title, Phasmophobia, largely alone at first — it went on to become one of the best-selling indie horror games in the world, with 25 million-plus copies sold.
Darcy Laceby, 29 — Absolute Collagen (US$57m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2023 winner. Co-founded the collagen supplements brand at 18 with her mother while studying in Birmingham; turnover has passed £20m and the company is a certified B Corp.
John Lambert, 35 — European Prestige (US$51m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. Began importing limited-edition cars in 2009 and built European Prestige, the London luxury car dealer turning over £40m.
Daniel Marsden, 35 — Lounge Underwear (US$330m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. From Birmingham; co-founded Lounge Underwear with Melanie, pioneering influencer-led e-commerce for underwear. Holds no university degree.
Melanie Marsden, 34 — Lounge Underwear (US$330m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022, U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. From Birmingham; co-founded Lounge Underwear with her husband Daniel in 2016, building the social-first lingerie brand to £75m-plus of revenue; the couple are worth £253m on the 2026 Sunday Times Rich List.
James McIlroy, 33 — EnteroBiotix (US$34m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. An NHS doctor and Aberdeen graduate who founded the gut-microbiome therapeutics company EnteroBiotix in 2016 as a medical student; it has raised £27m. Born in Glasgow.
Jenna Meek, 34 — Refy Beauty (US$57m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner. UK-born, raised in Bishop Auckland; founded the Shrine beauty brand before co-founding Refy Beauty with Jess Hunt. A Manchester Metropolitan graduate.
George Melhuish, 34 — Hermeq (US$42m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2024 winner. A Cambridge graduate and former HSBC banker, Melhuish founded construction-supplies business HERMEQ at 23; it now turns over £33m with £3.4m of profits. Born in West Bromwich.
Charlie Morgan, 31 — AU Vodka (US$130m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022, U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. From Swansea and a Southampton dropout; incorporated AU Vodka at 19 with Jackson Quinn. No university degree.
Lewis Morgan, 34 — Gymshark / AYBL (US$1.45bn valuation in 2020). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022, U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Co-founded Gymshark in 2012 with school friend Ben Francis in Bromsgrove, selling his stake in 2020 at a US$1.45bn valuation; then founded womenswear brand AYBL, which now sits at the head of a group of young fashion brands.
Gini Newton — Karma Kitchen (US$100m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U40s 2024 winner. Ran the office-lunch company Karma Cans before co-founding Karma Kitchen, building shared commercial kitchens across London. A Bristol graduate.
Wilfrid Obeng, 32 — AudioMob (US$110m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2023 winner. Held technology roles at J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, then became a Google strategist, before co-founding AudioMob — audio ads inside mobile games — backed by Lightspeed, Makers Fund and Google. A Sussex graduate born in London.
Christian Owens, 32 — Paddle (US$1.4bn). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Grew up in Corby, Northamptonshire, building websites for local businesses from the age of 12 and selling app businesses as a teenager. He founded Paddle to handle payments, tax and billing for software companies; it now serves thousands of sellers worldwide. He holds no university degree.
Jackson Quinn, 33 — AU Vodka (US$130m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022, U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Raised in Swansea; co-founded AU Vodka with Charlie Morgan, turning a Welsh startup into one of the UK's fastest-growing spirits brands with £54m of sales. A Portsmouth graduate.
Ayman Rahman, 35 — Dare International / Dare Global Holdings (US$300m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. A UCL economics graduate who founded the energy and commodities trading group in 2015, with revenues above £250m.
Victor Riparbelli, 35 — Synthesia (US$4bn). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. Born in Copenhagen, Riparbelli moved to London in 2016 and co-founded Synthesia, the AI video-generation company now valued at US$4bn — used by most of the Fortune 100 for corporate video.
Harrison Rose — Paddle (US$1.4bn). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Co-founded Paddle at 18 — no university degree — building the payments infrastructure company to a US$1.4bn valuation. He has since founded GoodFit and become an active angel investor.
Sam Ryan, 33 — Zeelo (US$43m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. Sold his first startup, JumpIn, to Addison Lee while still at Leeds University, before founding the coach-sharing platform Zeelo in 2016 — which came close to a US$100m sale.
Ashu Savani, 30 — TryHackMe (US$80m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 winner. Co-founded the cybersecurity training platform TryHackMe at 22; it now teaches millions of users worldwide through hands-on hacking labs. A UCL computer-science graduate.
Mara Schmiedt, 31 — Alluvial. Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2024 winner. Co-founded Alluvial, the institutional staking-infrastructure company whose Liquid Collective platform holds US$1.5bn-plus of assets; it was acquired by Galaxy Digital in December 2025. An LSE graduate.
Charles Shortt, 35 — DCS Group (US$444m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. Joined the Banbury-based family health-and-beauty distribution group in 2014 and serves as chief design officer and a director of the £350m-turnover business. A UCL graduate.
Abe Simpson — Kingsley Developments (US$89m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 winner. From an established Cornish property-developer family; managing director of West Country developer Kingsley Developments, with personal wealth put at £70m by Insider Media.
Alex Solomou — LBG Media (US$242m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Born in Stockport to a family of Cypriot heritage; founded LBG Media — the publisher behind LADbible — as a student, and floated it on AIM; the company made £14m of pre-tax profit on £92m of revenue in FY2025. A Leeds graduate.
Ben Spring, 28 — TryHackMe (US$80m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 winner. Co-founded TryHackMe at 20 with Ashu Savani, growing it into one of the world's largest security-training platforms — bootstrapped, profitable and still founder-led. A Portsmouth computer-science graduate.
Harry Stebbings, 30 — 20VC (US$400m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2023 winner. London-born; skipped university to start The Twenty Minute VC podcast at 18 from his bedroom, and has raised more than US$800m across his 20VC funds — venture capital's best-known interviewer, and the bridge between this list and the global tech establishment.
Georgia Stewart, 31 — Tumelo. Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner. A Cambridge Natural Sciences graduate born in Bristol, Stewart worked in sustainable investment before co-founding the shareholder-voting platform Tumelo, backed by Treasury, Fidelity and L&G.
John Swali, 34 — iCare24 Group (US$25m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 winner. From Birmingham; built the iCare24 healthcare-staffing group — including Vitality24 and Raven Medical Staffing — which he began as a teenager.
Yaniv Toledano, 34 — Qogita (US$400m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Israel-born co-founder of Qogita, the wholesale marketplace for branded goods, founded in 2021 and backed by Dawn Capital.
Gauthier Van Malderen, 34 — Perlego (US$277m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2024 winner. Born in Belgium; took a master's at Cambridge's Judge Business School and had already founded and sold two businesses — Teenage Tourist and Iconic Matter — before co-founding Perlego.
Reece Wabara, 34 — Manière De Voir (US$71m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022 and U35s 2024 winner. Born in Bromsgrove; a former Manchester City academy and England Under-20 footballer, who swapped professional football for fashion and founded Manière De Voir in 2013. No university degree.
Rob Whitehead — Improbable (US$3.3bn). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Co-founded Improbable while studying computer science at Robinson College, Cambridge, and built it into a metaverse-infrastructure company valued at US$3.3bn.
Paige Williams, 33 — P Louise (US$83m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. Raised on a Manchester council estate and started as a beauty-counter makeup artist; founded P Louise, the cosmetics brand and academy, now heading for £65m of sales. No university degree.
Matthew Wilson — Omnipresent (US$120m). Previously a Hurun UK U30s 2022, U30s 2023 and U35s 2024 winner. An Oxford graduate who founded his first company at 16 and ran Collegiate Capital before co-founding Omnipresent, the remote-employment platform, after a stint as CPO of Veratrak.
Alex Wright — Dash Water (US$44m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2024 winner. From a farming family; a Manchester graduate who worked at a large soft-drinks company before co-founding Dash Water with Jack Scott.
Dylan Zhao Zhiheng, 33 — HungryPanda (US$500m). Previously a Hurun UK U35s 2023 and U40s 2024 winner. Born in China; co-founded HungryPanda with Eric Liu, building the specialist Chinese-food delivery platform, founded in 2017, to a US$500m valuation with operations across ten countries.
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 Under35s? The 2027 list will recognise individuals born after 1 September 1991: FirstGen founders of businesses worth US$50m or more; NextGen leaders managing sales or investments within a family business worth US$100m or more; and senior executives (VP or C-suite) at businesses worth US$500m 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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