100 fastest-growing tech companies in Britain revealed

This ranking (Software/Hardware) may prove timely for the Labour government, which recently consulted on its ten-year industrial strategy. To succeed, such central planning needs building blocks — and in the world of tech this means agile, ambitious companies that are already achieving commercial scale and could become winners on the global stage.

Our researchers have scoured publicly available records and contacted hundreds of privately owned businesses to ask them to share their financial performance to create this unique ranking and showcase their success.

We have placed software companies (such as financial, insurance and AI services) and those selling their own hardware (such as batteries, electric-vehicle charging, robots and sensors) or other technology (such as life sciences) on separate lists to reflect the comparative ease of expanding asset-light ventures.

The 50 software companies recorded an average yearly growth of 156 per cent, while their hardware/other peers clocked an impressive 87 per cent of growth.

Two thirds of the 100 companies reported a loss in their latest financial trading year: the losses were covered by patient investors, with more than 90 of the companies having secured external investment, collectively raising £10 billion. Some 12 tech “unicorns” feature — these are businesses valued at more than $1 billion by their investors, and they include the insurer Marshmallow (No 22, Software) and the digital health services provider Flo Health (No 49, Software).

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Overseas corporate investors sensing opportunities with British technology include the US chip maker Nvidia, which has backed PolyAI (No 8, Software), the AI-powered voice-assistant specialist, as well as JX Advanced Metals and SoftBank, both from Japan. JX has a stake in the University of Oxford spin-out Alloyed (No 16, Hardware), a metals specialist, while SoftBank, which also owns the star British chip designer ARM, backs CMR Surgical (No 17, Hardware), the Cambridge-based medical robotics firm.

A doctor using a robot-assisted surgery system called Versius, which was developed by CMR Surgical (No 17, Hardware)

CMR SURGICAL

In life sciences, Enara Bio (No 27, Hardware) is developing cancer immunotherapies and has caught the eye of the drug giant Pfizer. Among the more active venture capital investors are Oxford Science Enterprises (five investments), Seedcamp (four), Index Ventures (four) and Entrepreneur First (three).

Even with cash in the bank, commercial success when developing new technology is far from certain, as illustrated by the recent fate of the battery firm Britishvolt, Reaction Engines (the hypersonic aviation pioneer) and the electric van developer Arrival.

While London dominates the software side of the ranking, being home to 42 of the 50 companies, our overall highest-ranked company is based in Manchester. Evergreen Life provides digital health services to the NHS and private providers, and recorded a whopping 554 per cent a year increase in its revenues to £36.1 million last year. Over the same period it took its headcount from 50 to 500 people, and plans to add a further 100 roles this year.

On the hardware side of the ranking, those using proprietary know-how to develop equipment, drug discoveries and even space rockets and satellites are spread across Britain, with at least one hardware company in each region, with the exception of Wales.

Men are much more likely than women to have founded or be running the companies: this year, 17 have female chief executives, founders or co-founders. They include Dame Dawn Childs, the chief executive of our top-ranked hardware company, Pure Data Centres, and Caroline Shaw, the chief executive of our overall number one, Evergreen Life.

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While promising industries such as battery technology, AI and genomics all feature, the most notable new cluster of companies are those selling security and defence-related kit. Among them are the Hampshire-based Paradigm, which provides satellite communication to the military (No 34, Hardware), Rowden Technologies, a Bristol-based company that has beaten multinational defence groups to Ministry of Defence contracts (No 13, Hardware) and the data visualisation specialists Hadean (No 30, Software), which is working with the British Army to help train its leaders using virtual battlefields. It has even attracted Dawn Meyerriecks, a former science and technology director at the CIA, to its advisory board.

The military-industrial complex is one of the toughest places for innovative start-ups to thrive, dominated as it is by a few large players. Some may be snapped up by overseas acquirers, but not all the entrepreneurs see that as success: Rob Harper, the founder of Rowden Technologies, joined the army at 16 and was awarded an MBE in his twenties for supporting counterterrorism operations overseas. He hopes to build a venture that will last.

“Us selling to a US company in three years’ time should be viewed as a failure,” he said. “That is not the plan. I really want to build something and be able to say that in a country with incredible engineering heritage, with really good universities and brilliant available talent, it was possible to grow a multinational engineering company.”

The Sunday Times 100 Tech 2025

Top 5 software companies

1. Evergreen Life
▲ 554.09%
Digital health services
This Manchester-based health services firm assists the NHS with digital therapeutics and diagnostics. The founder and serial entrepreneur Stephen Critchlow leads the business.

2. Allica Bank
▲ 536.98%
Banking fintech
Targeting small and medium-sized companies that it says are underserved by traditional banks, Allica passed £3 billion in lending and £4 billion in deposits last month.

3. UrbanChain
▲ 334.39%
Green energy marketplace
Led by its co-founder and chief executive Somayeh Taheri, UrbanChain provides traceable energy exchange for small-scale renewable generators. It is raising £50 million of investment.

4. Peppy Health
▲ 329.10%
Employee benefits platform
Founded by Mridula Pore, Evan Harris and Max Landry in 2018, this employee benefits platform is now used by three million people at more than 350 businesses in the US and UK.

5. Zilch Technology
▲ 327.17%
Lending fintech
Since its 2018 launch, the fintech unicorn Zilch has attracted four million customers. Led by the co-founder and chief executive Philip Belamant, it is considering a stock market listing.

Top 5 hardware/other companies

1. Pure Data Centres
▲ 373.72%
Data centre provider
With £1 billion of equity capital and £1 billion of borrowing facilities, Pure builds and operates data centres for the hyperscale tech giants. Its chief executive is Dame Dawn Childs.

2. YouSeq
▲ 332.67%
Molecular diagnostic tests
From a single test, YouSeq’s kits can identify the DNA of 100 different molecules to spot infections. Its sales of £8.1 million in 2024 came almost entirely from overseas.

3. Evolito
▲ 279.02%
Electric motor technology
Spun out of the electric motor manufacturer YASA in 2021, the Oxfordshire-based Evolito develops motors, control units and batteries for a range of aircraft. Its chief executive is Chris Harris.

4. toob
▲ 270.73%
Fibre broadband provider
The former Vodafone directors Nick Parbutt and Mike Banwell founded this full-fibre broadband provider in 2017. It recently expanded into Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Leicestershire.

5. Utopi
▲ 182.87%
Property smart sensors
This Glasgow company’s smart sensors feed back data from buildings to help cut waste. The business reached a landmark of 100,000 devices installed globally last year.

Explore the Sunday Times 100 Tech — interviews, company profiles and more