Matthew feels the heat in the Dragons' lair

He may have felt the heat in the Dragons' Den but 26 year old Matthew Conridge has turned £600 into a major business.
Matthew has two companies. Mamka, an online retailer of outdoor gear and Creba a catering business. Fours years ago at the age of 22 Matthew founded Mamka which is made up of two online retail stores, Outdoor Leisure Direct and Togga, which sell products such ranging from wetsuits & inflatable pools to camping equipment.
When he first started Mamka Matthew couldn’t catch a break, failing to raise any type of finance from banks, investors even family and friends. All he had was £450 in his bank. Four years later and the revenue has totaled £2.5 million after seeing the most lucrative year generating £1.4million between April 2010 -2011.
Together Mamka Ltd has 15 employees which Matthew hopes to see continue to grow, and is targeting annual revenues in excess £11 million by 2015.
Matthew Conridge’s achievements haven’t gone unnoticed either having won numerous awards including the Express & Echo Young Entrepreneur of the Year award just last week.
With proven revenues Matthew is finding it easier to justify finance and is already looking at expanding his businesses further after raising a cool quarter of a million.
“My two companies generate excellent profits which are reinvested back into them to help them expand quickly,” said Matthew.
“We now have a fully supportive bank who have helped us plan the next stage of our expansion by backing us to the tune of £250,000.”