Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has today announced the winners of the 2016 UK Technology Fast 50. The awards, now in their nineteenth year, recognise and rank the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the UK, based on the last four years of revenue growth. Supporting Deloitte’s initiative for the UK’s fastest-growing technology companies are the award sponsors Netsuite, Silicon Valley Bank and Taylor Wessing.
The 50 fastest growing technology companies in the UK generated £884 million in total annual revenues in the year 2015/16, employed more than 7,100 people and recorded an average four-year growth rate of 1,240%.
This year’s winner: Brainlabs
Brainlabs has been named the overall winner of the 2016 UK Technology Fast 50 competition. Based in London, the performance marketing agency delivered a staggering growth rate of 8,255% over the past four years.
Since being founded in 2012, Brainlabs has helped advertisers extract the maximum amount of value from their campaigns through the company’s expertise in automation and data analytics. Whilst the adtech company has been able to achieve this remarkable growth, the most demanding task of all has been the recruitment of almost 100 new people with the necessary skills to ensure they always provide a high quality service for clients.
Daniel Gilbert, CEO and founder of Brainlabs, explains: “The UK has one of the richest technology ecosystems in the world, with amazing conditions in terms of skills and technical capabilities, funding, advisors and ease of doing business.
“However, finding the right talent – and quickly – is a perennial problem for fast-growing tech companies such as ours. We want people who are willing to join us on a journey in which they are constantly enriching and broadening their perspectives.
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“We don’t know what we will look like in six months’ time and could be a completely different business by then. This industry is constantly changing, so we have to as well.”
Regional picture
The regional make up of this year’s top ten is more diverse than in previous years, with representatives from the South East, the Midlands and Scotland featuring. London continues to dominate as the biggest producer of fast-growth tech companies, being the headquarters of six of the top ten and 54% of the winners (up from 50% last year). Scottish-based Exsel Group came third overall, recording a strong growth of 3,936%. The remaining regional winners in the top ten are occupied by the South East regional winner, Nervecentre Software (5th, 2,702%), and the Midlands regional winner, Peppermint Technology (7th, 2,331%).
The broader regional split is also more evenly distributed compared to 2015. The Midlands has seen the biggest increase in its number of winners in the top 50, up eight percentage points from last year.
