{"id":702178,"date":"2026-01-17T13:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/702178\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T13:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:30:13","slug":"the-uks-100-fastest-growing-tech-companies-revealed-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/702178\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s 100 fastest-growing tech companies revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain\u2019s economy urgently needs new businesses and jobs to replace the old, cried Downing Street\u2019s favourite think tank, The Resolution Foundation, in its new year outlook this month<\/a>. <\/p>\n

They need look no further than our second annual Sunday Times 100 Tech ranking of Britain\u2019s fastest-growing privately owned tech companies. <\/p>\n

Most of the businesses were set up by their founders in the past ten years, and in the past three years alone the 100 companies have created 11,600 new jobs, taking their total workforces to over 23,100 people. The majority are planning to continue to hire this year, adding a further 4,300 roles. <\/p>\n

These are well-paid jobs. The salary range at the London-based AI voice agent specialist PolyAI<\/a> for entry-level software engineers is \u00a380,000 to \u00a3100,000 a year. The specialist drug maker Cycle Pharmaceuticals<\/a> says it plans to expand its clinical drug development team in Cambridge this year, with entry manager-level roles typically in the \u00a370,000 to \u00a3100,000 range. Our survey of the 100 companies that feature suggests first-time job hunters for all roles can expect at least \u00a340,000 a year from the majority.<\/p>\n

They will be exciting, and demanding, places to work. The founders and management teams are steering them through a period of hypergrowth. <\/p>\n

Richard Tyler on Times Radio explaining Evaro and other fast-growing UK companies<\/p>\n

The companies grew on average by 128 per cent a year for their past three years of trading to revenues of \u00a33.7 billion. <\/p>\n

We split our ranking between software companies<\/a>, which typically grow the fastest, and hardware and life sciences firms<\/a>, which often have to invest more capital to achieve the same rates of growth. Our software firms, which include financial and AI services, clocked up average annual growth rates of 151 per cent a year \u2014 and the minimum rate of growth at 80 per cent a year is significantly higher than the 65 per cent required to achieve a place on this table last year.<\/p>\n

Our hardware companies, from satellite and rocket makers to those supplying electric batteries and charging stations as well as life sciences firms \u2014 typically drug makers \u2014 averaged a still remarkable 105 per cent average growth a year.<\/p>\n

More than half the companies have their headquarters in London, with 11 in the east of England, many clustered around Cambridge, four in Northern Ireland and three in Scotland. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Interactive maps: the UK tech firms hiring graduates \u2014 and paying \u00a340k plus<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Only 16 of the businesses were founded or are led by women, but this small number does include our No 1 ranked firm, the fintech Abound<\/a>. Its cofounder Michelle He, 44, has helped to lead it to profitable revenues of \u00a366.8 million last year, up a staggering 490.24 per cent a year. We also feature eight remarkable Ones to Watch companies<\/a>, all founded or led by women. There are 14 university spinouts \u2014 including 10 from Oxford and Cambridge, such as the quantum security specialist PQShield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sixty-two of the companies reported a loss in their latest financial year, with those losses covered by relatively patient investors. More than 90 of the companies have secured external investment, raising \u00a311.3 billion. Our 50 hardware companies raised twice as much as their software counterparts. Large rounds raised by fibre broadband providers such as Netomnia<\/a> and CityFibre<\/a>, as well as the battery tech firm Zenob\u0113<\/a>, skew the overall total.<\/p>\n

The investors range from the British taxpayer \u2014 the government\u2019s Covid-era Future Fund has a stake in the Glasgow digital pharmacy Phlo<\/a> \u2014 to the US chip maker Nvidia, which has a stake in PolyAI and also the AI video creator Synthesia<\/a>, valued at about $2.1 billion last year. It is expected to soon close a new round at an even higher valuation. <\/p>\n

Synthesia is one of eight companies valued at more than $1 billion by their investors. We add two more as achieving that milestone: Cycle Pharmaceuticals and Halo Service Solutions<\/a> \u2014 based on the companies\u2019 profitability or approaches from other firms wanting to acquire them.<\/p>\n

The London-based fintech Revolut, a former No 1 company, is now too big to feature \u2014 we impose a \u00a3250 million revenue maximum. Other companies busting through that threshold and which appeared on last year\u2019s ranking include the digital healthcare firm Cera, the insurance technology business Marshmallow and the neobank Zopa. The consumer electronics firm Nothing, founded in 2020 and already valued at $1.3 billion, also escapes our grasp. It has rocketed from sales of \u00a318 million in 2021 to \u00a3420 million in 2024. <\/p>\n

Eagle-eyed readers will also notice the absence of the datacentre newcomer Nscale, which is working on large-scale projects in the UK with the US giants OpenAI, Microsoft and Nvidia. It is simply too young. Other highly valued firms such as ElevenLabs, which creates highly realistic synthetic voices for business use, also do not have sufficient years of trading to meet our criteria \u2014 nine such stars feature on our AI Ones to Watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sunday Times 100 Tech 2026
Top 5 software companies<\/p>\n

1. <\/b>Abound<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 490.24%<\/b>
Lending fintech<\/b>
Michelle He and Gerald Chappell launched this lending business during the Covid lockdowns. It reached profitable revenues of \u00a366.8 million in 2025 and surpassed \u00a31 billion in loans last September.<\/p>\n

2. <\/b>Vertice<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 437.37%<\/b>
AI procurement platform<\/b>
The brothers Eldar and Roy Tuvey started Vertice in 2021 to help companies manage their software subscriptions. They have secured $100 million from investors and opened hubs around the world.<\/p>\n

3. <\/b>Oxbury Bank<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 399.21%<\/b>
Banking fintech<\/b>
Specialising in loans for farmers, the Chester-based Oxbury has lent more than \u00a31.5 billion and attracted \u00a32.5 billion in savings since it secured its banking licence in 2021.<\/p>\n

4. <\/b>BondAval<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 334.47%<\/b>
Credit insurance<\/b>
The former professional rugby player Tom Powell cofounded this insurance software firm with Sam Damoussi in 2020. The pair count Shell and BP among their customers.<\/p>\n

5. <\/b>Lindus Health<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 265.74%<\/b>
Clinical trials platform<\/b>
Michael Young and Meri Beckwith set up Lindus Health in 2021 to fix what they describe as the \u201cbroken\u201d clinical trials process. Investors include Peter Thiel, the billionaire cofounder of PayPal.<\/p>\n

\u2022 See the full list here<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Top 5 hardware\/other companies<\/p>\n

1. <\/b>Fuse Energy<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 484.09%<\/b>
Energy supplier<\/b>
Founded in 2022 by two former Revolut executives, Alan Chang and Charles Orr, Fuse supplies energy as cheaply as possible. The start-up hit a $5 billion valuation last year.<\/p>\n

2. <\/b>E1<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 470.15%<\/b>
Electric raceboat developer<\/b>
Proprietary electric propulsion systems power the racing boats used by the global sports media firm set up by the Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag. The 2026 season starts next week.<\/p>\n

3. <\/b>Netomnia<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 352.78%<\/b>
Fibre broadband provider<\/b>
Backed by more than \u00a31.6 billion in funding, this Tewkesbury-based full-fibre broadband provider plans to reach five million premises next year. It is led by the chief executive Jeremy Chelot.<\/p>\n

4. <\/b>Magic AI<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 342.16%<\/b>
AI personal trainer<\/b>
This company\u2019s high-tech mirror is used by 24,000 fitness enthusiasts who follow training sessions led by athletes including the Team GB sprinter Desir\u00e8e Henry and the cricketer Alastair Cook.<\/p>\n

5. <\/b>Autifony Therapeutics<\/b><\/a>
\u25b2 200.34%<\/b>
Nervous system disorder drugs<\/b>
Founded in 2011 as a spinout from GSK, the Stevenage-based Autifony signed a deal in 2023 worth up to $770.5 million to develop drugs tackling serious diseases of the central nervous system.<\/p>\n

\u2022 See the full list here<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Explore the Sunday Times 100 Tech<\/a> \u2014 interviews, company profiles and more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s economy urgently needs new businesses and jobs to replace the old, cried Downing Street\u2019s favourite think tank,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-702178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115910687380731489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}