Four South West firms have been named among 50 of the fastest-growing tech businesses in the country.
Bournemouth-based e-commerce firm OnBuy was the highest-placed business from the region on the national list - in 11th, after a 3,402% rise in revenue over the last four years.
The online marketplace, which stocks more than 40 million products from 17,000 retailers, ranked just ahead of sensor specialist Sintela, which has offices in Bristol and Dorset, in 12th place.
Bristol-based developer marketplace platform Deazy ranked 13th on the list, while Loqbox, a fintech also based in Bristol, was placed 45th.
London mobile games developer Tripledot Studios finished top after recording 69,387% revenue growth. According to accounts filed on Companies House last month, the company raked in $111,350 (£94,300) for the six months to December 2021 - up by almost a fifth on the $94,500 (£80,000) it took during the full financial year prior.
Deloitte’s Fast 50 recorded an average three-year growth rate of more than 4,500%, which programme partner Duncan Down said was a marker of the “ongoing strength and resilience” of the UK tech sector, despite “considerable headwinds”.
Deloitte said the 50 firms generated more than £990m in total annual revenues in the year 2021-2022 and employed more than 16,300 people.
The list has previously chartered the rise of travel search engine Skyscanner, food delivery apps Just Eat and Deliveroo as well as fintech Revolut.
Here is a closer look at the four South West firms that made the list:
OnBuy - Dorset
Rank: 11th
Revenue growth over last four years: 3,402%
The UK’s fourth-largest online marketplace, moved into a new HQ in Bournemouth at the start of this year.
Founded by entrepreneur Cas Paton in 2016, the company has previously been recognised for its rapid rise, when it was included on a Financial Times list of the fastest-growing companies in Europe.
According to that chart the expanding business saw revenue grow from £394,000 to £2.2m between 2017 and 2020.
Last year OnBuy recruited more than 80 new staff members, grew the number of sellers on its website by more than 50%, and secured £35m of investment during a series A funding round.
Mr Paton said: “When I launched OnBuy six years ago, I was told time and time again by industry ‘experts’ that taking on the likes of Amazon was a ‘losing battle’ and ‘impossible’.
“While these comments, from people who were ‘in the know’ at the time, gave me pause for thought, I was always steadfast in my belief that there was room for an online marketplace that does things differently. We were told a UK marketplace would never be able to compete with the big hitters, but now look - we have done the ‘impossible’.”
OnBuy added it had “several massive developments” planned for next year.
Sintela - Bristol and Dorset
Rank: 12th
Revenue growth over last four years: 2,829%
With offices in Bristol, Dorchester and the US, Sintela is a global developer of fiber sensor technology, used in national infrastructure, including critical borders, oil wells, pipelines, electricity, rail, road and telecoms projects.
Founded in 2017, the firm has been contracted to deliver over 55,900km of asset monitoring solutions over the past three years.
Chief executive Magnus McEwen-King said: “Being ranked 12th in the 2022 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is a credit to the team at Sintela who have not only designed and built a world leading distributed fiber sensor platform but have consistently met customer performance and scale requirements.
“We are proud to be contributing to the safety and operational improvement of critical national infrastructure alongside our network of leading industry partners.”
Deazy - Bristol
Rank: 13th
Revenue growth over last four years: 2,615%
Recently selected by industry experts Tech Nation as one of 15 South West firms tipped to scale and strengthen the national industry, Deazy has built a global register of software developers who it then matches with businesses based on their requirements.
The business announced at the start of this year it had raised £5m in a Series A funding round.
In a post on LinkedIn, the company said it was an “honour” to reach the top 15 of a list of “so many ambitious, flourishing businesses”.
Loqbox - Bristol
Rank: 45th
Revenue growth over last four years: 875%
Co-founded by Gregor Mowat, a former partner at financial services giant KPMG based in Russia and Kazakhstan, the business provides platforms designed to help users improve their credit rating whilst continuing to save money. The company reports credit repayments to major credit reference agencies
Mr Mowat, who is the company’s co-chief executive alongside Tom Eyre, said: “The growth we have seen over the last four years shows there is a real need and appetite for Loqbox especially during times like now, when financial wellbeing is more important than ever. We are very proud of our team and we are very excited about the future of Loqbox, there’s a lot more to come”.
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