The Fastest-Growing Companies in Wales | 2026

Earlier this year, we looked at England’s fastest-growing companies, followed by Scotland’s — the first two parts of our series exploring the nations of the UK. Now, we’re turning to Wales.

Wales makes up around 3.2% of the UK’s active companies. Among them are some well-known names that first started out here. Iceland Foods Ltd was founded back in 1970, moneysupermarket.com became a familiar name in the world of price comparison, and Coffee #1 began as a single café before growing into a chain.

In this third part of the series, we’ll take a closer look at Wales’ business landscape today, from the companies driving growth to the broader trends shaping activity across the nation.

Discover the Welsh business landscape

Before we get into the companies that made the list, let’s take a wider look and explore Wales’ business landscape overall.

Currently in Wales, there are currently 148k active true companies. Out of those active companies, 43.1k are headquartered in Cardiff — just under 30% of the total.

Industries and sectors

Diving into industries we can see some overlap with England and Scotland, in particular over three industries, two of which have featured in all three nations’ top three industries, and one of which featured in two.

Wales top five industries:

• Property development and construction – 8.1%
• Tradespeople and trade services – 6.5%
• Restaurants, pubs, cafes and takeaways – 6.2%
• Cars, motorcycles and other road vehicles – 4.5%
• Application software – 3.9% 

Property development and construction also came in first place for English companies, and made the top three for Scotland. Tradespeople and trade services makes second place for Wales and England. And restaurants, pubs, cafes and takeaways reached number three in Wales, whereas it took the top spot for Scotland. 

Foundations and cessations

Looking at Welsh company foundations and cessations, there’s a deviation from what we saw with England and Scotland. Wales had a record high number of cessations in 2025, 86.6k, much higher than last year’s total of 48.6k. From 2023, cessations have been increasing rapidly.

And we’re seeing a similar story with company foundations. Foundations in Wales climbed every year from 2016 to 2024, where Wales had an all-time high of 65.8k. However, they have since begun to drop each year, and in 2025 there was only 42.1k. 

Equity investment in Wales

Our recent report, The Deal 2026, we looked at equity investment across the UK in 2025. According to our data, Wales had the toughest year of the devolved nations, with the number of announced deals falling by 26.0%. Total investment and average deal sizes also dropped, suggesting a slowdown in investor activity across the country. 

Early signs in 2026 suggest an initial bounceback, per the Barclays Eagle Labs Regional Investment Map: and our team will track the findings through the remainder of the year. 

Scotland painted a more positive picture in 2025. While deal numbers only increased slightly (up 0.86%), businesses still attracted £1.11b in equity investment, a 31.5% increase compared with the previous year.

Discover more on the UK’s equity funding ecosystem in our annual report: The Deal 2026.

Wales’ fastest-growing companies

To make our list of Wales’ high-growth companies, we’ve used data from the Beauhurst platform, 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.

Four Welsh companies made the list in 2026 — read on to find out who they are.

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.

Wales’ fastest-growing companies by sales growth

Access live data on the UK and beyond

If you want to stay ahead of the curve and keep an eye on Wales’ most exciting scaleups, as well as fast-growing businesses across the UK and major European hubs like Germany, Beauhurst has everything you need. Our platform delivers up-to-date intelligence on ambitious companies, helping you spot the organisations driving the economy of the future.

With advanced search functionality, real-time company alerts, and extensive coverage of the UK’s and Germany’s economic and innovation landscape, you’ll always have the inside track on opportunities others might miss.

To explore our data and discuss subscription options, get in touch. Or take a virtual tour of the platform.