app that lets people order black cabs from their mobile. Founded just two years ago, the service has already expanded to New York, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, Toronto, Chicago and Boston.

Hailo, which counts three cabbies among its founders, has over 42,000 drivers signed up and has booked over 3 million journeys, each of which it takes a cut of. To date it has raised over $50 million in funding.

Horizon Discovery

Cambridge-based biotechnology firm Horizon Discovery has developed a unique way of modelling diseases on a cellular level that has the potential to bring down the costs and accelerate the process of drug discovery.

Founded in 2007, the company expects to enter profitability by the end of the year and chief executive Darrin Disley has said Horizon plans to float sometime nextyear.

Huddle

No, not Tesco’s new tablet, Huddle lets businesses share and edit work between staff and across devices by storing them in the cloud – a bit like a Google Docs for businesses. Huddle's platform has been used by more than 100,000 organizations worldwide, including Diseny, Kia, Diageo and the UK government.

Based between London and San Francisco, the business was founded here in 2006. Turnover last year was up 85% at £2.9m.

Lumi Mobile

Lumi Mobile helps businesses get live feedback from users via mobiles, tablets and computers across the world during meetings or events. The company, which has offices in London, Hong Kong, New York and Helsinki, works with the likes of ABC, EMI, eBay and YouGov.

The company was founded in Finland in 2003 and Sir Martin Sorrell’s advertising giant