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Ranked: Britain's fastest-growing companies

Green energy brand Bulb logo
The fastest-growing company of 2019 is green energy supplier Bulb. Photo: Bulb

Green energy supplier Bulb has come out on top for the second consecutive year in a new ranking of the UK’s fastest-growing companies.

A new report by online investment platform SyndicateRoom uses new data from independent research firm Beauhurst to create a league table of the 100 private UK companies that have most increased in value in the last year.

The fastest-growing company of 2019 is Bulb, the single-tariff energy supplier whose electricity comes from 100% renewable sources, having increased its valuation by a huge multiple of 318x since 2016.

Bulb has signed up over a million households across the UK since it was set up in 2015.

Fintech challengers Revolut and Nutmeg took the second and third place positions, having grown their valuations by 239x and 135x respectively. Nutmeg clocked in the greatest multiple increase in valuation, going from 19.6x to 125.1x.

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The report shows that the tech industry is booming with more than three-quarters (77%) of the top 100 falling into the category of technology/IP-based businesses, up from just 44% in 2017. These include clean energy, security services, fintech, mobile apps and medtech, among others.

UK tech firms gained a record amount of foreign investment (£5.5bn) in the first half of 2019, according to figures from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), putting the UK ahead of the US for the amount of investment per capita.

British companies are also attracting more tech talent than ever. Data from Tech Nation’s 2019 report shows that the UK employs 5% of all high-growth tech workers globally — placing it ahead of Japan, France and India.

London has seen a drop in the number of start-ups calling the capital home, however. Only 60 of the top 100 companies were founded there, down from 71 in 2017.

Several of the fastest-growing business are based in university cities such as Cambridge, Oxford, and Manchester, perhaps because of the amount of new talent to be found around these top institutions.

Graham Schwikkard, CEO at SyndicateRoom said: "The East of England is on the rise. It’s now home to 12 of the UK’s fastest-growing companies, compared to just five in 2017. We find that seven of the top 100 companies are based in Silicon Fen: Cambridge. The university city has built an impressive cluster of medical and deep-technology companies."

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Another trend on the rise is female-led business with the number of companies in the top 100 founded by women doubling since 2017, rising from seven to 14.

Henry Whorwood, head of research & consultancy at Beauhurst said: "This research we’ve carried out for SyndicateRoom identifies a uniquely exciting cohort. These are businesses that have raised multiple rounds of investment and at increasing valuations: these businesses are achieving their ambitions to an extent that their investors are willing to pay a lot more for a stake in them.

“Not all of these companies will survive, but those that do are inventing the products and services of tomorrow.”

Britain’s top 10 fastest-growing companies

1. Bulb

2. Revolut

3. Nutmeg

4. Lyst

5. Monzo

6. Elvie

7. Black Sheep Coffee

8. Pollen

9. FACEIT

10. Privitar