Deliveroo tops Deloitte’s ranking of the UK Technology Fast 50 companies

Deloitte has announced the winners of the 2017 UK Technology Fast 50 awards with Deliveroo named the overall winner with an average growth rate of 107,117 per cent over the last four years. The awards, now in their twentieth year, recognise and rank the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the UK, based on the last four years of revenue growth. Supporting Deloitte’s initiative for the UK’s fastest growing companies are the award sponsors DLA Piper, Oracle NetSuite and Silicon Valley Bank.

• Deliveroo tops Deloitte’s annual ranking of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies with a four-year revenue growth of 107,117% – a new record;
• The average four-year growth rate recorded for the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 companies is 3,756% in the year 2016/17;
• The Fast 50 companies generated c. £1 billion of combined revenue in 2016/2017, employing more than 9,000 people, including 1,800 in R&D alone;

20th edition of the Fast 50 awards analyses trends across all 662 unique Fast 50 winners.

This year’s winner: Deliveroo

Deliveroo has been named the overall winner of the 2017 UK Technology Fast 50 awards. The London-based online food courier service achieved a staggering average growth rate of 107,117 per cent over the last four years. In the twenty-year history of the Fast 50, no other company has ever grown at a faster rate. Bloom & Wild (average growth rate of 13,818 per cent) and MoveGB (6,063 per cent) completed the top three.

David Cobb, lead partner for the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 programme, comments: “The achievements of this year’s winner are truly remarkable: Deliveroo is now the fastest-growing technology company in the history of the competition. Their relentless growth has justifiably added them to the exclusive list of UK ‘unicorns’. Everyone wants a slice of the online takeaway business, but very few have found success in the same way that Deliveroo has.”

Since being founded in 2013, Deliveroo has been disrupting the food takeaway industry by bringing restaurants closer to customers. Deliveroo now operates in 150 cities, employing 27,000 riders. They recently raised $385m in new funding.

Dan Warne, General Manager UK and Ireland, explains Deliveroo’s approach to technology: “We have always had a clear strategy – it has been a food tech company from the start. Technology is very important for us and it allows us to operate more efficiently, which means faster orders for consumers, higher sales for restaurants and more earning potential for riders. It’s win-win for everyone. Our logistics algorithm is key, improving all the time to ensure our fantastic offer gets better and better.”

On being competitive, Warne adds: “The UK is an exceptional breeding ground for ambitious technology companies – and so there will always be competitors. Our focus is always on our customers, riders and restaurants, making sure we’re delivering on the things that matter to them. That’s the best way of remaining competitive.”

Two decades of fast-paced growth, and learning from mistakes

As part of the awards process, Deloitte has analysed information submitted by 147 Technology Fast 50 entrants and surveyed 93 CEOs from these fast-growing companies.

Learning from experience was a recurring theme amongst CEOs. According to the survey, nearly 60 per cent of CEOs had previously founded, or been part of the founding team of another start-up and almost one-fifth of respondents stated that they have built their success on lessons learned from previous failures.

According to the survey, 44 per cent of respondents cited ‘learning from failure’ in the top three most important experiences from starting their own business, following only to ‘the need to attract and retain talent’ (73 per cent) and ‘product testing’ (52 per cent).

When asked for the primary reasons for starting their own business, more than half of CEOs said that there was an opportunity to do better than the market incumbents (57 per cent). 56 per cent of CEOs said that their product or service did not previously exist.

Cobb adds: “The evolution of the UK Technology Fast 50 over the past 20 years demonstrates that there is no single secret formula for success.

“Yet, while much has changed over two decades, many of the characteristics that makes a Fast 50 winner remain. Winners tend to be those that have spotted, and capitalised on, market opportunities for tech-enabled growth in new and existing sectors.

“And when looking across all of the 662 unique winners over the last twenty years, it is easy to see that having a great product or service, knowing your customer and employing excellent staff are the common ingredients to help ensure fast-pace growth.”

Regional picture: London’s calling

The regional make up of this year’s Fast 50 is dominated by representatives from London. In 1998, Scotland was the biggest contributor to the Fast 50, providing 11 companies. However, since the middle of last decade, London-based Fast 50 companies have risen from eight in 2005 to 32 of this year’s Fast 50. Move GB (6,053 per cent) and Coull (1,915 per cent), both from the South West, were the only non-London-based companies to feature in the top ten fastest growing technology companies.

Cobb adds: “The UK capital has some fundamental strengths when it comes to infrastructure, connectivity and access to top talent, which makes it an attractive place for tech start-ups.

“More than a third of tech start-up CEOs highlighted talent as the biggest influence on deciding on the location of their business, reaffirming the importance of having a strong tech hub capable of attracting highly skilled practitioners.”

Software reigns supreme, for now…

For the last two decades, the software sector has provided more winners than any other category, averaging 44 per cent of the Fast 50 over the period. However, whilst software contributed 36 per cent of 2017 Fast 50, the research found that emerging sectors were on the rise, including FinTech (20 per cent), Media & Entertainment and Internet-based companies (both 16%).

Cobb comments: “Software continues to be an important sector for rapid growth, but we are seeing growing proportions of entrants from other technology fields, in part due to the scalability of the business models they typically adopt. FintTech in particular has accelerated over the last five years, and now represents a fifth of the Fast 50.”

In addition, more than two-thirds (70 per cent) of respondents said that revenue growth was a more important objective than profit (30 per cent) over the last few years. However, the research found that as businesses mature, CEOs predict that the focus will shift, with profitability expected to become the more important factor for 60 per cent of businesses over the next five years.

Cobb concluded: “Successful pursuit of growth is an implicit characteristic amongst Fast 50 companies, but this is a far from simple feat. As their growth propels them to scale-up status, CEOs need to find the right balance between growth and profitability, always keeping stakeholder interests in mind.”

Click here to read about the Deloitte Fast 50 2017 Winners