FT 1000: the eighth annual ranking of Europe’s fastest-growing companies

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    https://www.ft.com/ft1000-2024

  * Companies marked with an asterisk have been acquired since the ending of the relevant timeframe.

 Raylyst Solar, a Prague-based distributor of solar panels and other photovoltaic products, tops the new ranking, with a CAGR of 824.4 per cent. Launched in 2018, it is one of many businesses in the region to have benefited from heightened demand for renewable power, as governments try to diversify their energy supplies and meet climate goals.

Adagio, a French ad-tech provider, is ranked second with a CAGR of 582.6 per cent, followed by Bidberry, an Italian digital ad agency with 424.4 per cent growth. Both these performances reflect the increase in digital advertising spend over the period assessed for the ranking, as companies sought to reach customers who had migrated online during Covid lockdowns. Spend on digital advertising jumped 30 per cent year-on-year in 2021, according to industry body IAB Europe.

However, companies can never afford complacency. Last year, investment in European technology halved compared with 2022 levels, to roughly $45bn, according to UK venture capital group Atomico. And many companies have complained they are struggling to access financing from the EU’s €800bn pandemic recovery fund.

They have also had to contend with economic headwinds as countries across the region got close to entering a recession, including the UK and Germany.

All of these factors, and the reasons certain companies have overcome them, will be explored in a special report to accompany the ranking, being published on March 25.

IT and software groups will feature prominently as, again, they are the best represented in the ranking, with 188 entries — up from 176 last year. Construction companies are the second most featured, with 94 entries — surpassing last year’s 87 and not yet affected by Germany’s faltering building sector. But ecommerce businesses slip to third place, with 78 companies — down from 95 in 2022 — reflecting a return to physical stores as pandemic lockdowns were lifted.

Companies interested in participating in the next edition of the FT 1000 can register here. The application period will start in October 2024.

Energy and utilities are the fourth best placed, with 69 companies — up from sixth place in the previous ranking. Their rise can be partially attributed to the EU Green Deal, its financing programme to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels, as well as efforts to diversify energy supplies in response to record-high oil and gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Geographically, the best represented countries are the same as last year. Italy maintains its lead, with 309 high-growth companies — a result that extends its lead over its closest competitor, Germany, with 202. The Netherlands climbs to sixth place, and neighbour Belgium enters the top 10 for the first time.

And London has retained its position as the city with the highest number of fast-growing companies for the eighth consecutive year, with 69 businesses on the ranking. That is down on the previous year’s 84, though. Milan moves into second place, with 44, while Paris slips to third, with 39.

Methodology

The FT 1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies ranking is a list of 1,000 companies in Europe with the highest percentage growth in revenues between 2019 and 2022.

The ranking of the FT 1000 was created through a complex procedure. Although the search was very extensive, the ranking does not claim to be complete, as some companies did not want to make their figures public or did not participate for other reasons.

The project was advertised online and in print, allowing all eligible companies to register via the websites created by Statista and the Financial Times. In addition, through research in company databases and other public sources, Statista has identified tens of thousands of companies in Europe as potential candidates for the FT 1000 ranking. These companies were invited to participate in the competition by post, email and telephone.

 The application phase ran from September 1 to November 30, 2023.

The submitted revenue figures had to be certified by the chief executive, the chief financial officer, or a member of the executive committee of the company. Companies with three employees or fewer, or companies that are not a legal entity, were subject to additional checks to verify their revenue numbers.

Criteria for inclusion

To be included in the list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, a company had to meet the following criteria:

• Revenue of at least €100,000 generated in 2019;
• Revenue of at least €1.5mn generated in 2022;
• An independent company (not a subsidiary or branch office of any kind)
• Revenue growth between 2019 and 2022 that was primarily organic (ie “internally” stimulated);
• If listed on a stock exchange, having a share price that has not fallen 50 per cent or more since 2022.

Companies with headquarters in these countries were eligible to participate: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

Calculation of CAGR

The calculation of company growth rates is based on the revenue figures submitted by the companies in the respective national currency. For better comparability in the ranking, the revenue figures were converted into euros. The average exchange rate for the financial year indicated by the company was used for this purpose.

The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was calculated as follows:

((revenue2022 / revenue2019)^(1/3)) — 1 = CAGR The absolute growth between 2019 and 2022 was calculated as follows: (revenue2022 / revenue2019) — 1 = Growth rate

Evaluation and quality assurance

All data reported by the companies was processed and checked by Statista. Missing data entries (employee numbers, address data, etc) were researched in detail. Companies that did not fulfil the criteria for inclusion in the ranking were deleted. The minimum average growth rate required to be included in the ranking this year was 36.3 per cent.

Companies interested in participating in the next edition of the FT 1000 can register here. The application period will start in October 2024.

Source : Financial Times