Future Fifty: Government backs high-growth tech flotation prospects The help companies in the Future Fifty receive will depend on what stage of development they are at, she added. Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange said: "We need to provide the right mix of finance for every stage in a company's development to make doing business and accessing capital markets in Britain as straightforward as possible. Some are true start-ups but others such as Zoopla, the property search engine that is jointly owned by DMGT and is already planning its flotation have strong links to the City. Meanwhile the Silicon Valley-based online data storage service Box has raised more than $300m in funding so does not need cash but has just opened its first international office in Mayfair and is learning about operating in Europe. Ms Shields said: "Different companies will get a different kind of value out of the programe." Several of the first wave of the Future Fifty are based in the Tech City cluster in east London, but the judges hope to attract more applications from across the country over the next month before the roster is completed in November. Highlights of the Future Fifty Skyscanner Based in Edinburgh, the travel comparison search engine Skyscanner apparently does not need help attracting investment. Last week it announced it had attracted $100m (£62m) the premier league Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm Sequoia Captial that valued the company at $800m. The welsh billionaireThe Future Fifty: the list investor Mike Moritz will join its board. Skyscanner's technology scours airline systems for the best deals and serves them up to 30 million visitors a month to its user-friendly website, plus its range of mobile apps. The company was founded in back in 2001 by three IT experts, but its growth has rapidly accelerated recently. Revenues have doubled in each of the last four years and last years stood at £33.5m on the back of £2.3bn in flight sales. Skyscanner now has nearly 200 staff and offices in the US, China and Singapore and recently expanded its hotel search sideline with the acquisition of a Spanish start-up. Hailo This mobile app has revolutionised getting a cab in London since it was introduced only two years ago. Hailo uses the mapping and GPS functions of smartphones to match nearby taxis with passengers on the streets of the capital. With a few taps of their screen, customers can summon and pay for a cab, meaning drivers do less aimless searching for fares and make fewer cash machine stops. Based in Farringdon, within the gravity of Silicon Roundabout, the company already claims annualised sales of more than $100m and has expanded to offer its service to taxi drivers and passengers in Dublin and Toronto, and is taking on American rivals Uber and Lyft on their home turf in Boston and Chicago. Hailo is backed with $50m from investors including Atomico, Union Square Ventures and Sir Richard Branson. Omnifone Omnifone was among the first technology companies to spot that the future of music and the future of mobile phones were linked. Begun in 2003 by an entrepreneurial trio including Rob Lewis, a pioneer of British online publishing, it streams music from a vast, fully-licensed catalogue to handsets in 34 countries. The experience is similar to Spotify, except Omnifone offers its digital jukebox on a white label basis to mobile networks and handset manufacturers who do not want to be cut out of the revenue opportunities of internet services that exploit their hardware and networks. Last year Omnifone's turnover more than doubled to £29.5m and following heavy technological investment it swung from a £22m loss in 2011 to a £3m profit. The company's head office is in the music industry heartland of Kensington.