The Fastest-Growing Companies in England | 2026

In the first part of our updated series, we’re looking at England’s fastest-growing companies.

When you Google “what is England famous for?”, a number of things come up. Pubs, Stonehenge, the royal family, the NHS, even rain. But despite its small geographical size, England is a commercial powerhouse competing with the USA, China, India, and more.

It’s also home to some huge global businesses such as BP, Shell, and Unilever, as well as providing a platform for startups and SMEs: just think of Revolut, Deliveroo, and Monzo, all started in England. In this latest article in our series of the UK’s fastest-growing companies, we’ve taken a deep dive into England’s rich high-growth ecosystem.

Discover England’s business landscape

Before exploring the companies that make the list, let’s take a closer look at England’s business landscape in general.

In England, there are currently 4.04m active True Companies. Out of those active companies, nearly a third are located in the nation’s capital (1.26m). Following on from this in second and third place, 600k of active companies are located in the South East and 457k are in the North West.

Industries and sectors

Looking at industries, property development and construction has the most active companies in England equating to approximately 7.3% of all English companies.

Tradespeople and trade services are in second place making up 5.8% of English Companies. 

In third place is application software which makes up 5.1% of English companies. Under the umbrella of application software, we see a range of subsectors such as SaaS. There are currently 14.7k active SaaS companies in England.

It’s all worth mentioning artificial intelligence which also often comes under the application software umbrella. There are currently 15.2k companies in the active AI industry in England, a big jump from the 6.99k recorded in our 2025 version of this article.

Gender balance of founders

When it comes to gender balance of founding teams, for companies that have reported its gender balance, 76.1% of companies have an all-male founding team whereas just 11.9% of active UK companies have an all-female founding team.

Foundations and cessations

We also looked at English company foundations and cessations. So far in 2026, there’s been 375k foundations and 296k cessations. Overall, in 2025 there were 735k foundations and 648k cessations. These numbers have been relatively steady since 2020, with cessations increasing each year.

Equity investment in England

When looking at equity investment, England secures the top spot out of the UK’s four nations in 2025 for number of deals made (6,032) with the highest amount invested (£27.9b). In fact, England comprises 91% of the UK’s deals and 92% of the total amount raised in 2025. Of England’s regions, London comes out in the top spot for both, with 48% of deals and 55% of amount raised.

England’s (and London’s) dominance in equity investment is consistent and long-running, comfortably claiming the top spot since we began reporting in 2011. Discover more on the UK’s equity funding ecosystem in our quarterly report, The Deal Q1 2026.

Ranking methodology

To make our list of England’s high-growth companies, we’ve used data from the Beauhurst platform, which was used in conjunction with research from the Sunday Times to create the Sunday Times Hundred. This ranking, published in the Sunday Times on 5th June, ranks the UK’s fastest growing companies by sales growth over a three year period.

What is The Sunday Times Hundred?

The Sunday Times Hundred is a ranking of the UK’s 100 fastest-growing companies.

This high-growth list is compiled using a combination of our data and independent research from the team at The Sunday Times. It highlights exceptional UK companies that meet strict criteria:

• £5m+ turnover
• Independent, privately-owned and UK headquartered companies
• Have four years of accounts, with sales growth measured by CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the latest three financial years

To create this article, we have used the same dataset. This means every company on this list has also featured on The Sunday Times Hundred 2026.

The UK’s top 10 cyber security companies

All this data and more

If you’re keen to discover fast-growing companies in England and throughout the UK, Beauhurst provides the ideal solution. Our platform delivers comprehensive insights into emerging and ambitious businesses, ensuring you stay ahead of the competition.

Identify market trends, streamline your research efforts, and capitalise on opportunities with our extensive dataset. Our platform covers a wide range of industries and regions, giving you a complete perspective on the UK’s business environment.

To learn about subscription options and experience our platform firsthand, schedule a demo by completing the form below.