During lockdown, this firm’s engineers were classified as key workers, and continued to maintain and repair its broadband networks as well as connect new customers, prioritising vulnerable people without online access. University friends Dana Tobak, 51, and Boris Ivanovic, 50, set up Hyperoptic in 2011, after previously founding another internet service provider, Be Broadband, which they sold to O2 for £50m in 2006. The company operates in 43 towns and cities across the UK, working with social housing providers and councils to provide residents with broadband. Last October, American private equity firm KKR took a majority stake in a £500m deal. Sales hit £39.2m in 2019.