London is a hub for Indian entrepreneurs, with the city benefitting with 20 times the number of migrant-led businesses based here (188,000) than Birmingham, the second most popular location (19,000). A report in the near past has revealed that Indians are among top five nationalities who have set up companies and created jobs in Britain along with Irish, Germans, Americans and Chinese. Centre for Entrepreneurs and a financial technology company DueDil had reportedly said that 32,593 Indians set up companies with turnovers between £1 million and £200. The number has of course steadily increased over years, at least till the EU Referendum in 2016.
The report had also said that migrant entrepreneurs are on average much younger than British entrepreneurs and twice as entrepreneurial as Britain-born working age population. Migrant founded companies created 14% of all jobs an nearly 500,000 people from 155 countries have settled in the UK for businesses.
One such business worth mentioning is Improbable Worlds Limited, a virual reality tech firm based in London co-founded by an Indian-origin entrepreneur has been valued at more than $1 billion after raising $502 million from Japan's SoftBank in May 2017, one of the UK's largest venture capital deals. The firm was co-founded by Herman Narula with a Cambridge University friend in 2012. Narula was born in Delhi, was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and Girton College, Cambridge University, where he studied computer science. He is the son of Harpinder Singh Narula, who runs DSC Ltd, the family construction business with family. The British Indian entrepreneurs with parents who hail from East Africa or India, are also not far away. They have also taken over the market, with innovative and especially tech based entrepreurnership, that catches one's attention. Richa Bhalla is one of such candidates.
Founder of the start-up Pedals, she is building a network of riders who accept small jobs across London via an app. The burgeoning company is based in London, Farringdon and specialises in the distribution of “unique and bespoke” goods, using only the invigorating, green power of the city’s courier cyclists. Speaking to Asian Voice in her Spotlight interview the 29 year old from Camden said, “We work with a myriad of amazing start-ups around London and they have all been very supportive. We have found our lively metropolis to be full of SMEs who are similarly passionate about their products, but had no affordable and efficient way of getting these to customers who wanted them most. They wanted a reliable service that could transport goods with the deserving care, precision and speed.”
As well as introducing “old-school bicycle delivery”, the environmentally conscious company also takes care to cultivate the job satisfaction of their individual workers: “unlike other courier services out there, we not only focus on making the customer service as high touch and all-encompassing as possible, but also making sure that our team of cyclists are leading happy and fulfilling careers.” With this ethos behind them, Pedals has accelerated at a lightning velocity. They can boast a host of trendy companies, such as Mast chocolate, Pip & Nut and Monmouth Coffee on the regular rotary roster.
The charismatic Bhalla has also flourished with a micro version of the Pedals business –the simpler flower delivery service Petal and Cycle –and gathered valuable - and impressive -experience from her time in the US’ Silicon Valley where she worked before.
One of the first amateur riderers to sign up to her app to drop off a parcel on his way to work, lives in Battersea and works in Westminster. People accept jobs that are no more than 10 mins away but some are ready to go further- the company finds out how far they are ready to go beforehand. Couriers are paid between £5 to £24 per delivery depending on location, package style and timescale. Customers pay between £6.70 and £32 per delivery and the pay is competitive. The service has a 5 star rating on google, open from 9am-9pm and also has a mobile number for contact.
Another such candidate is Amit Gudka, co-founder of Bulb, a tech-focused energy start-up based in Shoreditch in a co-working space called Second Home. Bulb has got all the regulatory clearance needed to be a gas and electricity supplier, has 60 staff members, with revenue of £70mn, secured two rounds of investment, amassed 70,000 customers and is profitable. Gudka was a gas and electricity trader for Barclays and Wood a consultant for Bain and advised some of the Big Six such as Npower. To compete with high prices and poor customer services, Gudka and friends decided to do something about it and set up Bulb. The concept was simple. An energy company, renewable, with one tariff, no sneaky teaser rates and no exit fees. They were able to charge less, more as they would run it as online only with fewer staff.
They raised £1.3mn in seed funding from friends and family to get the ball rolling and after a few teething issues, the business quickly picked up. Though Londoners do not tend to switch energy providers that easily, Bulb has found to be a hotbed for young switchers, perhaps a sign that those paying high rents in capital are starting to find an alternative for savings.
Bulb's employees aren't usual company staff. They are energy specialsists, meteoroligists and specialists in the weather on Mars. The company recently tapped up angel investors for another £6mn to keep up with the pace of the growth- like funding smart meters in homes, mobile app to see how much energy they are using through their smart meters etc.
