Tech Track 100
2015 Report
3
Introduction4
This year’s companies5 Industry breakdown
6
Regional breakdown7
Employees and job creation8
Key statistics10
15 years of Tech Track 10011
Realising your opportunitiesThis is the 15th year of Tech Track 100, the league table of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology, telecoms and media companies. The league table has title sponsorship from Hiscox, and main sponsorship from Barclays, BDO and Business Growth Fund (BGF). The Tech Track 100 ranks private technology companies based on their growth in sales over the last three years of available data.
The average sales growth for the 100 companies was 86% a year, a total of £2.4bn. They employ 13,000 staff, having added more than 9,000 jobs over the same three-year period, some as a result of acquisitions.
Companies on the table include well-known names such as online flight search engine Skyscanner (51), online fashion portal Farfetch (17) and price comparison website money.co.uk (62). The top company this year is Ve Interactive, an advertising software developer that helps online retailers increase sales. The company grew revenues by 306% a year, from £313k in 2011 to £20.9m in 2014.
Introduction
The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 league table identifies this year’s fastest
growing private technology, media and telecoms companies in the UK.
Sean Duffy
Managing DirectorTechnology, Media and Telecoms +44 (0)7775 548118
This year’s companies
Growth in sales
The number of companies in each range of compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of sales over the latest three years.
>200% 3 175%-200% 3 150%-175% 8 125%-150% 4 100%-125% 7 85%-100% 5 70%-85% 12 55%-70% 26 <55% 32
Top 10 Tech Track 100 companies
1 Ve Interactive Central London 31/12/2014 305.55% 20,891* Yes 840 2009 www.veinteractive.com Ecommerce technology developer
2 Neuven Manchester 31/07/2014 270.98% 36,870 Yes 37 2010 www.neuven.co.uk Staff administration software
3 FanDuel Edinburgh 31/12/2014 261.71% 34,399* No 400 2009 www.fanduel.com Fantasy sports game developer
4 Funding Circle Central London 31/12/2014 195.93% 13,102 No 182 2010 www.fundingcircle.com Peer-to-peer lending
5 RateSetter Central London 31/03/2015 184.36% 12,481* Yes 110 2010 www.ratesetter.com Peer-to-peer lending
6 1 LMAX Exchange West London 31/12/2014 181.30% 26,155 No 120 2008 www.lmax.com e-FX trading technology
7 Palringo Central London 31/08/2014 172.80% 8,398 Yes 34 2006 www.palringo.com Messaging and gaming platform
8 The Media Image West London 28/02/2015 171.10% 8,090* Yes 17 2009 www.the-media-image.com Digital marketing agency
9 Immunocore Abingdon 30/09/2014 168.25% 6,381 No 94 2008 www.immunocore.com Bio-technology developer
10 ImpulsePay Central London 31/12/2014 168.23% 11,599*† Yes 10 2009 www.impulsepay.com
Mobile payment technology
Rank 2 0 1 5 Rank 2 0 14 Compan y
Activity HQ location Financial year end Av. 3-y
ear gr o w th p .a. Sales 2 0 14/1 5 (£000) In pr ofit? Staf f Founded Website
*Supplied by company. †Annualised figure.
Sales breakdown
11 companies reported sales in excess of £50m. They include IT services provider Maindec (44), travel management software developer Click Travel (90) and device impact protection maker Tech21 (26).
Digital marketing agency Essence (100) reported the highest sales on the table of £211.4m. The next highest was fashion portal Farfetch.com (17) which reported sales of £199.2m (although this includes the value of all goods purchased through the site). Market research technology developer ServiceTick (67) reported the lowest sales at £5m.
The top ranked company, advertising software developer Ve Interactive, saw sales growth of 306% a year, from £313k in 2011 to £20.9m in 2014.
Software companies are the largest sector on the league table (23 companies), generating £493.5m of sales and employing 3,790 staff in their latest year.
These range from companies producing workplace management software, such as Neuven (2), whose platform is used by supermarket chains to manage temporary staff to app developers Chelsea Apps Factory (16) and The App Business (24).
Industry breakdown
Software 23%
IT consulting and services 15%
Fintech 11%
High tech manufacturing 9%
Media and entertainment 9% Telecoms services and technology 9%
Advertising technology 8% Online consumer services 5%
Other11%
IT consulting and services companies account for over a sixth of the table (15 companies). These include companies such as CloudReach (20) and essensys (52), which specialise in cloud computing services, as well as Infinity SDC (30), which provides data centres, and companies which combine service provision and expertise with the re-sale of IT equipment, such as GBM Digital (31). Together, the 15 companies generated sales of £330.6m and employed 1,201 staff in their latest year.
11 fintechcompanies feature on the league table, including number four company Funding Circle, which matches businesses looking for loans with investors, and number five company RateSetter, which matches mostly individual borrowers and lenders online.
Industry breakdown
23% 15% 11% 9% 9% 9% 8% 5% 11%“The benefit of the continued growth in software is the employment opportunities
it creates across the UK, up-skilling young talent and creating new innovations,
while helping to protect Brand Britain.”
The next biggest region is the South East, with 15 firms. This covers the areas surrounding the M4 corridor technology hub, and there are a number of companies located in Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire. These include Oxfordshire companies Immunocore (9) which is developing drugs that harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer as well as Fidelity Group (74), a telecoms provider, and mobile phone designer Bullitt Group (12), based in Reading, Berkshire.
Eight companies are headquartered in the Midlands. They include Newark’s Reflex Gaming (45), which develops fruit machine games and INFOMEDIA (37) from Northampton, which enables people to charge small items like car parking and coffees to their mobile phone bills.
Regional breakdown
Greater London is home to the highest proportion of companies,
with just over half (52) of this year’s table based there.
52 6 8 Scotland
5
North West4
North East6
Midlands8
East6
Northern Ireland1
South West3
South East15
Greater London52
Regional breakdown of HQ locations in UK
153 1 6 4 5 The majority of companies on the league table are based in:
Greater London
52
South East
15
Some 9,000 jobs have been added over the past three years. However, as a result of acquisitions, not all of these are new jobs.
The biggest employers on the league table were EDM Group (43), with 1,324 staff, Ve Interactive (1) with 840, and Skyscanner (23) with 583.
13 companies employed fewer than 30 staff, including cloud service provider essensys (52), with 27 staff and sales of £10.3m, and mobile software developer Fonix Mobile (34), with 20 staff and sales of £28.1m.
Number of employees
Number of companies in each employee range.
Employees and job creation
Tech Track 100 companies employed 13,005 staff in 2014/15, which gives
average revenues per employee of £182,972.
“The characteristics we see underpinning the success of high growth tech
businesses are the importance of planning and investment, strong leadership,
attracting talent, knowing your customer and the need to invest in technology.
It’s not all about luck, as it involves a lot of hard work, but the rewards for those
who are successful in the technology businesses are very high.”
Sean Duffy,Managing Director, Technology, Media and Telecoms at Barclays
>100 40
51-100 32
30-50 15
Key statistics
Profitability
Tech Track 100 companies are not required to be in profit. However, 70 companies on this year’s league table reported an operating profit in their latest available accounts, with 11 showing an operating profit margin of more than 20%. The combined profits of the 70 companies were £164.8m in 2014/15.
Financial services comparison website money.co.uk (62) had the biggest profit margin on the league table at 66%.
Telecoms services provider Onecom (79) saw the biggest profits on the league table at £19.4m.
The average margin among the 70 profitable companies was 12.7%.
Rank Company – Activity Sales 2014/15 Latest operating profit Profit
2015 £000 £000 margin
79 OneCom– Telecoms services provider 60,849 19,416* 31.91%
62 money.co.uk– Price comparison website 23,290 15,430 66.25%
51 Skyscanner– Travel search engine 92,897 10,764 11.59%
72 Apical– Imaging technology developer 16,613 8,871* 53.39%
43 EDM Group– Information management services 69,731 6,549* 9.39%
60 Core Group– Telecoms services provider 33,263 5,756 17.30%
12 Bullitt Group– Mobile phone designer 60,924 5,611 9.21%
93 EFC Group– Oil and gas technology developer 34,129 4,917* 14.41%
83 EV– Wellbore diagnosis technology 21,587 4,303* 19.93%
45 Reflex Gaming– Gaming machines manufacturer 14,233 4,301 30.22%
10 companies with the biggest operating profits
“It’s great to see many of our clients being recognised for their hard work
and determination, helping tech in the UK to soar. We congratulate our clients
who have made the Top 100, along with all of the other companies who are
featured – it’s a great achievement.”
Sean Duffy,Managing Director, Technology, Media and Telecoms at Barclays
Sustained growth
47 companies on this year's list have not appeared on any previous Tech Track 100 league table. 20 companies make a second appearance this year, 13 appear for a third time in a row, and four make a fourth appearance. Essence (100) appears for the fifth time, while Skyscanner (51) appears for a sixth consecutive year. A total of 21 companies have been on the Tech Track 100 more than once before.
Tech Track 100 companies are typically young and dynamic, with 90 founded after the turn of the century, and 12 founded in the last five years.
Three companies were founded in 2011: payment systems developer Epos Now (13), which reported latest sales of £5.2m, digital marketing agency Captify (25, £6.3m), and advertising technology company Affectv (11, £5.1m).
Sales
Average growth over three years 86% p.a.
Sales in 2011/12 £4.9m
Sales in 2014/15 £23.8m
Profits
Operating profit in 2014/15 £300k
Number of profitable companies 70
Margin (profitable companies only) 12.7%
Staff
Typical number of staff in 2014/15 130
Typical increase in staff over three years 91
Other
Region Greater London (52)
Sector Software (23)
Founded 2005
Majority ownership Entrepreneur and/or founders (66)
Angel, venture capital or corporate investment 40
Characteristics of an average Tech Track 100 company
15 years of Tech Track 100
Many other Tech Track 100 companies have been sold, such as web security firm MessageLabs, which appeared on the first league table, and was sold to Symantec for $965m in 2008, LOVEFILM, which was acquired by Amazon for a reported £200m, and NET-A-PORTER.com, which was bought by Richemont for £350m, and valued at £1.5bn in a merger announced this year with Italian company Yoox.
The vital statistics of the league table companies have changed significantly over the last 15 years. The total sales figure is over five times as large at £2.4bn, and the total staff has more than doubled. The share of Tech Track 100 companies based in London has grown from 27% to 52%, mostly at the expense of the South East, which has seen the sharpest fall from 32% to 15%.
Tech Track 100 was launched 15 years ago to recognise the success of Britain’s
fastest growing private technology, media and telecoms (TMT) companies by
sales. Since its launch, more than 850 British companies have appeared on the
league table.
Total staff
5,270
2001 2015
13,005 33 91
Average staff increase Total sales
£414m £2.4bn
•
Sophos, the Oxford-based IT security firm, first featured in 2002 with sales of £22.6m, and floated this year valued at £1bn•
Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) featured in 2003 and floated in 2004 with a value of £240m, and was acquired by US group Qualcomm Inc. in August 2015 valued at $2.2bn•
Abcam was valued at £58m when it listed on AIM in 2005, and is now worth £1.2bn•
Ocado, which first featured in 2006, was valued at £937m when it floated in 2010, and is now worth £2bn•
Just Eat was valued at £1.5bn when it floated in 2014, and is now worth £2.6bn•
Zoopla floated at £919m in 2014, and is now worth £1bn.Realising your opportunities
An understanding of the financing options available is crucial for any company looking to expand and we’re here as a financial partner to help ensure that the right growth strategies are in place.
This report was conducted by the Fast Track research team between May and August 2015. Fast Track is an Oxford-based networking events and research company.
The final 100 companies are ranked by growth in sales over their latest three years of available accounts, i.e. between 2011 and 2014, or 2012 and 2015. Companies were selected from a database of around one million private companies in the UK, followed by extensive desk, telephone and case study research.
For the full criteria see www.fasttrack.co.uk
The future holds a lot of potential for this growing market and our Technology,
Media and Telecoms team understand the challenges and opportunities that
these sectors present.
Sean Duffy
Managing DirectorTechnology, Media and Telecoms +44 (0)7775 548118
Lorraine Ruckstuhl
Industry DirectorTechnology, Media and Telecoms +44 (0)7917 503442
[email protected] For further information, please contact:
