Bulb cofounders Hayden Wood and Amit Gudka.
Challenger energy-provider Bulb is Britain’s fastest-growing private business, having seen its valuation multiply 351 times during the three years since 2015.
Bulb’s exceptional performance is noted in a new report from market research group Beauhurst and crowdfunding platform SyndicateRoom, which profiled the 100 fastest-growing companies based on how their valuations have grown over the past three years.
“When Amit and I set out in 2015, we did not expect Bulb to grow so quickly,” Bulb cofounder Hayden Wood told Forbes. “We’re humbled by the number of people who’ve joined us on our mission.”
Wood’s company comfortably took the No.1 spot ahead of global fashion search engine Lyst, which saw its valuation increase 134 times, and biotech group ReViral whose valuation multiplied 59 times.
The cofounder also revealed to Forbes that Bulb has just reached 870,000 households signed up to its renewable gas and electricity plan.
It’s an incredible achievement that puts the company on track to soon hit a million customers, helped by soaring energy prices, prompting U.K. incumbents like British Gas and EDF to hemorrhage unhappy customers. For comparison Bulb started 2018 with just 200,000 homes signed up, a figure that had risen to 300,000 when Forbes last spoke to the company in March.
Read more: The Bright Startup That's Shaking Up Britain's £54bn Energy Market
Lyst, ReViral and Bulb all outstripped last year’s winner TransferWise, which took the top spot in 2017 after its valuation grew just 57x since 2014.
Beauhurst’s ranking shows hints of a more diverse U.K. startup scene, with 67 of the top 100 companies based in London, down slightly from the 71 who were based in the capital last year.
Gender diversity among the most successful startups appears to be improving too: 12 companies on this year’s list were established by female founders, up from just 7 last year.
Still, with just 2% of startup funding going to female-founded companies in Europe, a figure that doesn't seem to be improving, the U.K. still has a way to go.
The top 10 fastest growing companies in the U.K.*
Ranking | Company | Multiple increase in valuation 2015–2018
1. Bulb 351x
2. Lyst 134x
3. ReViral 59x
4. Perkbox 52x
5. Behavox 51x
6. CMR Surgical 45x
7. Improbable 43x
8. The Cotswolds Distillery 41x
9. SmartUp 40x
10. Black Sheep Coffee 38x
The entire top 100 ranking can be found here.
*Beauhurst based its ranking on the valuation of companies that raised at least one round of equity funding before June 30, 2015 and at least one round of equity funding after July 1, 2015. If a company's valuation could not be confidently calculated it was excluded.
