Upcycled Fashion, AI Travel Agents and Racing Coaches: 3 UK Startups Changing How We Shop, Travel and Play

Making Second-Hand Fashion Feel New

Fast fashion has trained shoppers to expect low prices and constant newness, and the result is a mountain of discarded textiles. Resale apps help, but most simply move the same clothes from one wardrobe to another.

Alterist takes a more creative route. Founded in London by Hannah Standen and Martina Sorghi, who met in 2019 while campaigning on the fashion industry’s environmental impact, it launched in late 2022 as a marketplace for upcycled fashion. The pieces on offer have been redesigned by independent designers from pre-loved clothing and surplus materials, so each item is one of a kind.

The idea has grown well beyond an online shop. Alterist runs pop-ups, a concept store at London Fashion Week and community events and workshops, and it works with brands, manufacturers and charity shops on creative uses for excess stock. It has featured in the Startups 100 index and Entrepreneur UK’s London 100. Its appeal is simple: upcycling gives designers a route to market, gives waste a second life and gives shoppers something they won’t see on anyone else. In a sector where sustainability claims are often vague, a model built on reusing what already exists is easy to understand.

Travel Planning That Doesn’t Take Weeks

Planning a trip usually means a dozen browser tabs, conflicting prices and a lot of guesswork. Booking through a traditional agent can solve that, but at a cost and a pace that doesn’t suit everyone.

Holiwise is a London-based AI travel agency aimed at premium travellers. Founded in 2024 by Albin Eriksson Lippe and Kristian Lexeklint, it is building an AI travel agent that can plan and book personalised itineraries, including accommodation and curated experiences, for individuals, groups or business trips. The idea is to offer the attention of a luxury travel adviser with the speed of a modern online platform.

In 2025 the company raised a €1.45 million pre-seed round and announced integrations with travel industry platforms including HBX Group and Amadeus. It also holds travel industry licences, which matters in a field where trust is vital, and it was named among FutureTravel’s top travel startups in 2024. The company says its users save time and money, though as with any such claim it is worth treating as self-reported. The underlying bet is that AI can handle the tedious parts of planning, such as comparing options and keeping an itinerary in sync, while leaving travellers free to decide what they actually want to do.

A Coach for Every Racer

Elite drivers have engineers, data analysts and coaches. Everyone else, from sim racers to weekend track-day enthusiasts, usually has a stopwatch and a hunch.

Track Titan aims to change that. Founded in 2021 by Max Teichert, a gamer who became a finalist at the Gran Turismo Academy and went on to work in driver coaching with Porsche, it is an AI-powered coaching and community platform for sim and real-world racing. It captures driving data, analyses telemetry and shows drivers where and why they are losing time, with support for titles such as EA’s F1 series and iRacing and for real-world sessions.

The company raised a $5 million seed round in December 2025, co-led by Partech and Game Changers Ventures, and reports more than 200,000 users. It has also built integrations with hardware makers such as MOZA and Fanatec, and some professional teams use it for off-track training. It has been described as a “Strava for motorsport”, which captures the idea well: a social, data-driven way for ambitious amateurs to get better and compare notes with a global community. With sim racing growing as a route into real motorsport, tools like this could change how the next generation of drivers learn.

The Common Thread

At first sight a fashion marketplace, a travel agent and a racing coach have little in common. Yet each takes a consumer activity that used to depend on experts, money or luck and makes it more accessible.

• Alterist gives unwanted clothing a second life and gives independent designers a platform.
• Holiwise uses AI to cut the effort out of planning premium travel.
• Track Titan brings professional-style coaching to ordinary racers.

All three also build community around the product. Alterist connects designers with shoppers, Holiwise supports group trip planning and Track Titan lets drivers compare progress with others. That combination of smart technology and a loyal community is a common trait of consumer startups that last.

For UK founders in consumer and lifestyle businesses, these three show that strong ideas often begin with a personal pain point, and that applying AI, creativity or data to a familiar habit can still open up something new.