🚀 Your Weekly Slice of UK Consumer Startups

Challenger brands are dominating London's streets right now 👀

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The Startup Slice
January 25, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Hey 👋

This week we're spotlighting some serious OOH activations across London, particularly on the TfL network.

Challenger brands are dominating the capital's advertising landscape this January (things we love to see).

Let’s get into it 🤝

👀 ICYMI: Brand Moves Worth Watching

💦 Paddy Cavanagh-Butler (Founder of Punchy) & Ncuti Gatwa (New investor)

⚡️ Punchy Lands Ncuti Gatwa as Investor: the Doctor Who and Sex Education star joins in the brand's latest funding round.

🧊 STOCKED Lands National Waitrose Listing: marking a major milestone for the frozen category. The brand has now sold over 6 million Blocks since launching with a mission to shake up the frozen aisle.

🎤 Seep's Community Strategy - The Power of Voice Notes: Eco-cleaning brand Seep has started sending personal voice notes to customers in DMs rather than automated replies. The approach has transformed casual followers into long-term brand loyalists and word-of-mouth ambassadors.

💡 Startup Spotlight: January OOH Takeover on TfL

This January has seen a mega shift in London's advertising landscape. The TfL network and streets across the capital have been dominated by challenger brands in the health and wellness space.

MOJU brings on the Boom 💥

Brands like MOJU, TENZING, Lucky Saint, DASH Water, Biotiful Gut Health, and Karma Drinks have seized the moment with high-impact OOH campaigns (just look at these pics 🔥). What's particularly striking about these activations is the seamless integration of strong calls-to-action, making it incredibly easy for consumers to find the nearest store.

It's a great reminder of how much the visibility and accessibility of these challenger brands has improved. Just a few years ago, finding great alternatives to support a shift in habits was tough. Today, we're witnessing a real democratisation of premium shelf space on London's most visible advertising real estate.

DASH + TENZING on TfL 🚝

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