14 March 2024

How to Find Companies on Your Doorstep

How to Find Companies on Your Doorstep Table of Contents At this moment in time, there are over 5.5m businesses in the UK. And while

Words Sarah Cheesman

At this moment in time, there are over 5.5m businesses in the UK. And while the concept of discovering new business opportunities right in your own neighbourhood might seem too good to be true, with advancements in technology and data analytics, it might be easier than you think.

Our clients often comment on how surprised they were to find business opportunities operating just around the corner from them — that they’d never even heard of.

Our own offices, for example, are nestled in the vibrant communities of Brixton and Nottingham. Let’s take a look at both of these business ecosystems in more detail, to give you an idea of the kind of data you could find on your own doorstep.

Lambeth businesses at a glance

Located in south London, Lambeth (Brixton’s borough) is home to 421 high-growth companies, responsible for a total turnover of £1.66b in their latest financials. Together, they have raised £1.9b in equity fundraising through a total of 893 rounds, with 2021 being a particularly busy year (£551m raised through 115 rounds). The majority of these funding rounds were completed by businesses in the seed or venture stage of evolution (90%).

While there is a huge amount of variety within the Lambeth ecosystem, the majority of companies fall under the business and professional services sector, followed by technology/IP-based businesses and industrials.

These Lambeth businesses currently employ nearly 14k staff members. 74% of them have an all-male or majority-male balance of key people within the business, with only 16% majority or all-female.

The top 5 high-growth companies in Lambeth

Based on a company’s registered head office address — here is our countdown of Lambeth’s top 5 high-growth businesses, ranked by the amount they have received in equity and debt fundraising to date.

ZOE utilises machine learning to provide users with personalised dietary recommendations, based on their biological data, taking both the genome and microbiome of the individual into account. The business is a spinout from King’s College London.

To date, it has secured £76.6m in equity fundraising through eight rounds, the most recent of which was in March 2023. This saw it raise £2.07m through Flight Fund, aimed at scaling its science and operations internationally. These funds gave it a post-money valuation of £185m.

Building intelligence platform developers, Infogrid, aims to make buildings more efficient and sustainable with their software that analyses Internet of Things technology. It was an attendee at two accelerators, namely OXFO Elevate in 2018 and the Mayor’s International Business Programme in 2021. It has also appeared on a number of high-growth lists, including the BusinessCloud PropTech 50 in 2022 and 2023, Startups 100 and Rising 100—both also in 2023.

It has raised £87.2m through six rounds of fundraising so far, including a huge £67.0m round in April 2023. This saw investors such as Committed Capital, JLL SPark, Northzone Ventures, Original Capital, Pictet Private Equity, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and TVC Capital invest to help the business expand its dataset, develop its platform and increase functionality.

It also acquired another business, real estate management software company Aquicore, in November 2022.

ClearScore provides financial services via its website and app, specialising in giving its customers free credit scores and reports. It was an attendee at the Future Fifty accelerator in 2017, and has since made 10 high-growth lists, including more recently the FinTech 50, FT 1000, and BusinessCloud RegTech 50.

The business has raised £143m to date through just one round of fundraising, which was completed in June 2021. This was contributed to by Invus, to expand its product offering, create jobs and grow its customer base.

The online florist, Bloom & Wild, sends flower deliveries through the post via orders placed on its website or app. This is another accelerator attendee, completing the Mayor’s International Business Programme and Upscale in 2016, as well as Future Fifty in 2017. It has also been named on a number of high-growth lists, including Top 100 – Britain’s Fastest Growing Businesses in 2019, the FT 100, and The Sunday Times 100 in 2022.

So far, this company has raised £147m through seven rounds of fundraising, with the most recent being in July 2021. This was for £48.9m, giving it a post-money valuation of £505m. It has also made two acquisitions: Bergamotte in July 2021 and bloomon in April 2021.

Quantexa is a cybersecurity firm that develops AI technology to secure organisations’ data and flag illegal activity. It works closely with industries that handle large datasets (such as banking, e-commerce, and the public sector), to create analytical models that uncover data risk, reveal opportunities, and enhance decision-making.

The company is backed by AlbionVC, Dawn Capital, HSBC Enterprise Fund, and Accenture, among others. In its latest funding round, Quantexa raised £104m in investment, one of the 10 biggest deals of 2023 highlighted in our flagship report, The Deal. This took the company’s total fundraisings to £286m.

Nottingham businesses at a glance

Nottingham is a hive of business activity, with 223 high-growth companies currently tracked by Beauhurst. They account for £1.69b turnover in their latest financials, hiring over 30k people in total.

The majority of these businesses are in the seed (26%), venture (20%) or growth (20%) stage, with popular sectors including business and professional services, technology/IP-based businesses and industrials.

When it comes to investment, there have been 246 fundraisings within the Nottingham area to date, representing £416m. 2022 was the biggest year, with 42 fundraisings at £222m. The biggest contributors in this area include Minerva Business Angel Network (8), Seedrs (8), and the University of Nottingham (8).

When it comes to gender balance, 84% of companies in Nottingham have a majority male or all-male lean in their key people, compared to just 8% majority or all-female.

Basildon Council uses BeauhurstImpact to identify high-growth companies, secure funding, and build relationshipsRead the full case study

The top 5 high-growth companies in Nottingham

Using the same parameters as for Lambeth, here are the top 5 high-growth businesses in Nottingham.

Coming in fifth place on our list for Nottingham is Deep Branch, a cleantech company that develops carbon storage technology that converts carbon dioxide into single cell proteins. With headquarters near Nottingham University, it also operates in the Netherlands. It has attended three accelerators, including EIT Food Accelerator, Unreasonable Impact UK & Europe, and We Are Pioneer Group Business Accelerator.

So far, this business has gone through five fundraising rounds, totalling £12.7m. The most recent of these was in February 2024, raising £2.81m through DSM Venturing B.V., Fredericiagade Holding APS, Novo Holdings, Sundvænget Invest APS, and £8.54m through five rounds of grant funding.

Myzone has developed fitness software and a mobile app, in addition to wearable products and apparel, to provide real-time data about exercise activities. They have completed just one round of fundraising to date, for a huge £12.8m. This was invested in by BGF Growth Capital and other business angels.

Lockwood Publishing is an award-winning creator of entertainment software, such as Avakin Life, for both mobiles and tablets. It has been featured on a number of high-growth lists, including FT 1000, The Northern Tech 100, Fast Track Tech 100, and Lazard T100 European Venture Growth Index.

The company has raised £20.4m to date via five different funding rounds. Its most recent round was in November 2020, raising £20m through Novatar Partners, Tencent and other business angels. This gave a post-money valuation of £92.2m.

Worn Again provides recycling technologies for textiles and PET plastics, which can be used to create eco-friendly products, such as clothing. It has attended one accelerator, namely Unreasonable Impact UK & Europe in 2020.

This company has raised a total of £43.9m through eight funding rounds, the largest of which was in October 2022. This £27.6m investment came through undisclosed investors with the aim of opening a new textile recycling facility.

Topping our list, Phenna Group operates as a holding company for a range of companies in the testing, inspection, certification, and compliance (TICC) sector. Its ideology centres around being free of the inefficiencies and bureaucracy seen in larger corporations, allowing it to focus on quality service delivery for its customers.

Despite only being through two rounds of fundraising, the company has raised a total of £100m to date. This was secured through Arcmont in March 2022 with the aim of accelerating its acquisitions strategy. This strategy appears to be working, with the company acquiring 39 businesses so far.

How to find relevant business opportunities in your area

If, like us, you’re curious about other businesses within your area, Beauhurst has just the solution you need. Our BeauhurstInvest platform was developed to help our clients get the most out of the data that’s available to them, breaking large data sets down into actionable contact lists of your ideal target audience.

Our team of dedicated Account Managers and Customer Experience Managers are also on hand to help you get the most from the platform, using their broad industry knowledge to help you build out searches and create alerts that keep you on top of your game at all times. To find out more, book a demo or speak to a member of our team today.