Which sectors grew during Covid?
Not all of our fastest growing companies were rooted in science and technology. The fastest-growing sector among Growth Index companies was in fact Arts & Media.
Good growth: Business with purpose
Purpose has assumed a central place in business thinking over the past five years. Gone, at least, are the days when CEOs could comfortably defend Milton Friedman’s famous position that their business exists only to make a profit for its shareholders.
Why growth matters
It’s not always popular to say you believe in growth. Environmental and social activists have rightly called into question the desirability of pursuing economic growth at all costs, while others have pointed out that raising GDP is a poor policy objective, because it fails to account for social inequality or…
When will we see levelling up?
The premise behind the government’s levelling up agenda is that, for far too long, economic opportunity and prosperity have been concentrated in London and the South East, leaving other regions to languish.
Babylon Health: Scratching the surface of a $10tn industry
Babylon, which was founded in 2013 by Anglo-Iranian entrepreneur Ali Parsa, now has a presence in 15 countries. It helped a patient every six seconds in 2021, and is one of the world’s fastest-growing digital healthcare firms.
Beauty Pie: The pandemic forced us to grow quickly
Beauty Pie, the online beauty membership service founded by the serial entrepreneur behind Soap & Glory and FitFlop, saw turnover increase 140% during the Covid-19 pandemic as Britons quickly adapted to shopping online for makeup and skin products.
Methodology
Companies are ranked by compound annual growth of revenue over two years. To be included, companies must be registered in the UK – however, their ultimate holding company may be offshore.
Interview – Jeremy Annis
The company, which helps governments and organisations automate the detection and investigation of threats from criminal activity such as money laundering, has been on a growth spurt since raising £28m in September 2020 in a funding round led by US-based private equity firm Long Ridge. Annual revenue surged by 61% to £7.9m in the 2020 financial year and employee numbers have jumped by 45% in the past 18 months to 100.
A conversation with…Susie Ma
What started as a tiny market stall business in 2004, when 15-year-old entrepreneur Susie Ma wanted to help her mum with the bills, has grown to become a multimillion-pound skincare brand.
Winner Profile – The Ralph
Shailen Jasani’s veterinary referral hospital, The Ralph, focuses on three key elements – core values, culture and mission – which have helped propel it to become Britain’s fastest-growing company over the past two years.
