To follow on from our maiden Tech Invest event, we’ve profiled some of the most exciting technology companies in the UK.

GrowthBusiness has now produced a new 2014 version of Tech Innovators, where we have again profiled some of the best technology ventures in the UK through interviews with founding entrepreneurs.

VouchedFor.co.uk

Based in: London Founded in: 2011 No. of employees: 7 Company founder: Adam Price

Founder profile:

Adam Price has been at the forefront of digitally transforming the investment and pension industry since joining Barclays Wealth in 2007. Prior to that, he worked in marketing at Capital One, and in management consulting at Marakon. Price holds an economics degree from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Background business profile:

VouchedFor.co.uk’s mission is ‘to make advice great’, with transparency as its tool. The business is helping people find the good financial advisers out there, and soon other professional service providers. Independent financial advisers help seven million people and together generate £4-£5 billion in annual revenues. Yet only 21 per cent of adults believe that it’s easy to find a well-recommended IFA.

Inside track:

Having spent his career in the financial services corporate world, Adam Price saw the light whilst he was working for Barclays on the banks digital strategy.

Having seen how well platforms like TripAdviser work in the travel sector, Price saw a gap to create a business providing similar service in the financial advisers space.

Since setting up the company in 2011, Price and his team have spent their time building up the platform to make sure it is as strong as possible.

‘It’s one thing to choose a hotel based on a review and risk a bad nights sleep, but it’s another to pick a financial adviser. Our platform has to be far stronger than others,’ Price says.

Having secured the backing of a host of influential angel investors, Price is adamant that there are no ‘magic answers’ to getting the kind of investment he has got.

‘It’s just lots of networking and conversations. All of our investors, and we now have 12, I have known for about 2-2 1/2 years,’ he explains.

‘You don’t just meet an investor and walk away with money, you need to win their trust. Old networks can also be surprisingly powerful – I got one backer from my time spent at Capital One.’

Going forward, Price is firmly focussed on making the VouhcedFor.co.uk product better and better. Once he’s done that in the independent financial adviser space, he would like to explore extrapolating the idea and providing a system to recommend accountants and solicitors.

Recent milestones:

• Full product launch Q3 2012
• Second angel investment round closed (June 2013)
• Nearly 1,000 IFAs signed up (5 per cent of the market)
• Revenues grown by around 50 per cent per month over past six months

Upcoming milestones:

• Treble platform usage by year-end
• Expand into related categories (e.g. solicitors, accountants)
• Q4 2013: raise VC round

Alliances:

• Institute of Financial Planning
• Fidelity Group

Investors:

• Matt Cooper (Octopus, Capital One), William Reeve (LoveFilm, Graze), Doug Monro (Zoopla, Adzuna), David Pitman (Close Brothers, LSE), Mark Hawkin s and Matt Denman (both HD Decisions), Mark Soonaye and Mike Piddock (both Octopus), Andrin Bachman (Piton Capital), Shan Drummond, Kate Hulme and Robert Cranbourne (S amos Investments)

See also: 25 of the most exciting fast growing technology companies in the UK