In our recent report with Singer Capital Markets (aptly named The UK’s Most Valuable Growth Companies 2021), we took a look at the most valuable companies in the United Kingdom, examining where they’re based, top sectors, and the most common routes of growth. We also provided a full ranking of the top 100 private companies in the UK by pre-money valuation, based on equity transactions in the last three years. The full methodology can be found on page 3 of the report.
Here, we profile the top 25 companies, outlining their products and services, as well as key company metrics. These leading companies have all weathered the storms of both Brexit and the pandemic, continuing to secure increasing valuations, growing towards becoming the biggest companies in the UK. Of course, it remains to be seen whether these large private market valuations will be substantiated by the public markets, if and when each company lists on a stock exchange (either by a direct listing, IPO or SPAC merger).
Whilst the majority of these companies are London-based, the South West, South East, East of England, North East and Scotland are also represented in the ranking. Given that London is the fintech capital of Europe, it will come as no surprise that the most common sector for these companies is financial services, with insurtech, artificial intelligence and cleantech also featuring heavily in the list.
Download the full report on the UK’s most valuable private companies in 2021
Revolut
Latest pre-money valuation: £23.8b
Total amount raised: £1.27b
Sector: Fintech
Region: London
Incorporated: 2013
Challenger bank Revolut is a payment services provider, originally offering money transfer and exchange, and expanding to enter the cryptocurrency business in 2018. This fintech company has dozens of products which allow customers to make transactions and invest money, varying from free to paid subscriptions. It operates in several countries, expanding most recently to the US in 2020.
Hopin
Latest pre-money valuation: £5.58b
Total amount raised: £743m
Sector: Events, SaaS
Region: London
Incorporated: 2019
Hopin provides a cloud-based event management platform, designed to help businesses to create networking events. The company has a video-conferencing platform and, as of 2020, had hosted more than 80k events. Hopin’s proprietary software combines video with live chat, polling, and randomised breakout rooms to increase event participation and interaction. Its customers include the United Nations, NATO, and Unilever.
SaltPay
Latest pre-money valuation: £5.55b
Total amount raised: £358m
Sector: Fintech, SaaS
Region: London
Incorporated:2019
SaltPay is a fintech company specialising in payment processing technology for merchants. Its products allow merchants to accelerate their efficiency through automation and digitalisation. The company offers card machines for payments, as well as business management software. Its software offering includes data analytics for tracking performance and inventory management tools designed to help small and medium-sized businesses grow.
Zepz
Latest pre-money valuation: £3.38b
Total amount raised: £528m
Sector: Consumer banking and financial services, SaaS
Region: London
Incorporated: 2009
Fintech Zepz (previously WorldRemit Group) provides online money transfer and airtime top-up services, working with WorldRemit and sendwave. Customers can download the app for free and send money online to over 130 countries, in a fast and secure way. In 2020, Zepz transferred over $10b for customers and processed over 50m customer transactions.
Howden Group Holdings
Latest pre-money valuation: £2.98b
Total amount raised: £804m
Sector: Insurance services
Region: London
Incorporated: 1994
Howden Group Holdings is a group of businesses, spanning the insurance value chain. Its trading operations include wholesale and retail insurance broking, reinsurance broking, and underwriting agencies. The Group consists of Howden (an international challenger broker), DUAL (an international MGA – Managing General Agent), and HX (a leading digital, data, and analytics business). It operates in 45 countries across the world.
Snyk
Latest pre-money valuation: £2.88b
Total amount raised: £692m
Sector: Security, SaaS
Region: London
Incorporated: 2015
Snyk offers a cloud-based security platform specifically designed for software development. Snyk’s tools integrate directly into development environments, highlighting security vulnerabilities in real time. By placing security at the centre of software development, Snyk’s platform is an invaluable tool for software security. This is particularly the case for developers working on open source code, where Snyk’s software provides instant alerts for potential security risks.
Arora Group
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.89b
Total amount raised: £68.9m
Sector: Property/land development and construction, ownership and trading
Region: London
Incorporated: 2012
Made up of a group of UK-focused companies, Arora Group is in the business of hoteliers, property development, provision of management services, and service accomodation. It is divided into three divisions: Arora Property (which provides property management and asset management), Arora Hotels (which delivers service and creates revenue), and Grove Developments (specialising in commercial, residential, and hospitality projects).
BrewDog
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.87b
Total amount raised: £317m
Sector: Brewing, Hospitality
Region: Aberdeen
Incorporated: 2006
BrewDog is a brewery and pub chain, operating globally. The company has a portfolio of highly popular beers in the UK, dominating the craft beer market. In the UK, half of the top 10 craft beers sold in the off-trade (retail) market are produced by BrewDog, with an off-trade market share of 21%. The company has four breweries and operates over 100 bars, globally, with plans for further expansion.
Neptune Energy
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.54b
Total amount raised: £7.46m
Sector: Oil and gas
Region: London
Incorporated: 2017
Neptune Energy is an oil and gas exploration and production company. Its portfolio is weighted towards gas, and the company’s specific regions of focus are the North Sea, North Africa, and Asia Pacific. Built by experts from the industry with over 50 years of experience, the company is looking to become an independent leader in oil and gas prospecting and supply.
Graphcore
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.53b
Total amount raised: £528m
Sector: Chips and Processors, Software
Region: South West
Incorporated: 2016
Graphcore is a chip and software technology company, which has developed a machine-learning optimised processor. The company’s Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU) is a new kind of processor, whose architecture is specifically designed for AI. Not only driving new research using AI techniques and its IPU, Graphcore also offers an open source machine learning development framework in C++ and Python.
Download the full report on the UK’s most valuable private companies in 2021
CMR Surgical
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.48b
Total amount raised: £742m
Sector: Medical instrumentation
Region: East of England
Incorporated: 2014
In the business of robotics, CMR Surgical has designed a next-generation surgical robot, Versius. This growth-stage company works to make minimal access robotic surgery which is universally accessible and affordable. CMR Surgical is involved in the development and subsequent marketing and sale of the next-generation universal robotic surgical system, which offers surgeons further precision, accuracy, and dexterity.
Inspired
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.29b
Total amount raised: £347m
Sector: Education
Region: London
Incorporated: 2013
Inspired operates a group of independent schools, with around 50k students globally. Its schools are non-denominational and co-educational, and cover nursery until 18 years. The education services company buys as well as builds schools around the world and, as of 2020, has 64 schools across five continents. In 2021, the group acquired private tutoring company Ostaz.
Causeway
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.23b
Total amount raised: £120m
Sector: Desktop software, SaaS
Region: South East
Incorporated: 2013
Causeway is a global proptech software provider which powers the design, build, operation and maintenance of the built environment. It provides investment funding and financing for high-growth technology, with products that have in-depth functionality at each stage of the process. Causeway’s cloud-based software products allow clients to control every aspect of a project, from infrastructure design to property maintenance.
Bought By Many
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.23b
Total amount raised: £357m
Sector: Insurance services
Region: London
Incorporated: 2011
Bought By Many is an insurtech company, offering insurance products for pet owners. By listening directly to pet owners, Bought By Many’s founders aimed to createinsurance policies that couldn’t be found elsewhere,now covering more than 300k pets.This led to its win as Best Pet Insurance Provider in the 2020 Insurance Choice Awards.
Monzo
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.17b
Total amount raised: £494m
Sector: Challenger bank, Fintech
Region: London
Incorporated: 2015
Monzo operates an online challenger bank, with over 5.78m users. The leading fintech company provides retail banking services through its mobile app, having gained its full UK banking licence in April 2017. Customers accessing its accounts through the app can use built-in features to track and budget their money, instantly open a savings account, and access loans.
Starling Bank
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.14b
Total amount raised: £585m
Sector: Consumer banking and financial services
Region: London
Incorporated: 2014
Winning the award for Best British Bank for consecutive years from 2018 to 2021, Starling Bank is a fintech for businesses and consumers. This challenger bank has an app and online banking platform, with many features and different accounts (including personal, business, joint, and teen) suitable for their 1m customers. It also offers a range of lending products and access to third-party financial services.
OVO Group
Latest pre-money valuation: £1.04b
Total amount raised: £259m
Sector: Clean energy generation
Region: South West
Incorporated: 2009
An energy utilities service, OVO Group provides green energy while investing in new technologies to support its decarbonisation. OVO’s technology will allow grids to be powered by 100% clean and renewable energy, while keeping prices affordable for everyone. OVO Group has developed its ‘Plan Zero’ to drive progress towards zero carbon living to address the climate crisis.
Gousto
Latest pre-money valuation: £779m
Total amount raised: £160m
Sector: Food and drink processors
Region: London
Incorporated: 2012
Gousto provides a food service on demand, supplying recipes and ingredients to its clients, to allow them to easily cook at home. It gives a choice of several recipes and then delivers the correctly measured ingredients to make them with, along with easy-to-follow methods. Gousto partnered with Meatless Farm in 2020, expanding their vegan and meat-free meal options.
Britishvolt
Latest pre-money valuation: £776m
Total amount raised: £59.2m
Sector: Battery technology, EV
Region: North East
Incorporated: 2019
Britishvolt is a startup with a mission to “accelerate the electrification of society”. The company designs and manufactures lithium-ion batteries. Britishvolt is building the UK’s first battery ‘gigafactory’ in the North East of England, having started construction in the summer of 2021. The company is committed to helping the UK reach net zero, and is primarily focusing on the electric vehicle (EV) market.
Thought Machine
Latest pre-money valuation: £668m
Total amount raised: £273m
Sector: Fintech
Region: London
Incorporated: 2017
Thought Machine is a fintech company providing retail banking software through its Vault product. Vault is a cloud-based, end-to-end operating system for banks to centrally manage a range of financial products and offer a software-enhanced banking experience for its customers. Thought Machine’s software allows banks to update their legacy systems, moving to modern, automated banking technology.
Switchee
Latest pre-money valuation: £598m
Total amount raised: £4.93m
Sector: Energy reduction technology
Region: London
Incorporated: 2014
Switchee allows clients to easily maintain their homes by providing remote tools for checking a property’s condition, analysing problems, and scheduling fixes, all in one place. Switchee’s operates in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, withproducts thatcollect and share data. It contributes to the many technologies making ‘smart homes’ smart, helping to reduce energy bills and usage.
Zego
Latest pre-money valuation: £571m
Total amount raised: £169m
Sector: Insurtech, Transport
Region: London
Incorporated: 2016
Zego is an insurance company aimed at the transport and food delivery sectors. It offers insurance products to self-employed drivers through to global fleets, and has been used for 200k vehicles since launching in 2016. The company has technical and data integrations with many of the biggest players in its target markets. These include Uber, Ola, and Bolt on the ride-hailing side of their business, as well as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats in the food delivery market.
Curve
Latest pre-money valuation: £495m
Total amount raised: £146m
Sector: Fintech
Region: London
Incorporated: 2015
Curve is a fintech company “on a mission to simplify the way people spend, send, see and save money”. It offers a payment card which allows customers to combine all of their cards into one, and to switch which one they use via a connected app. Curve’s app offers services for tracking spending, cash back, as well as securely transferring money.
Quantexa
Latest pre-money valuation: £495m
Total amount raised: £182m
Sector: Analytics, SaaS
Region: London
Incorporated: 2016
Quantexa is a data analytics SaaS company. Using AI and big data techniques, its software analyses data to flag for potential illegal activity, such as money laundering. Quantexa’s tools are used by a broad range of companies, and are not just limited to the financial services sector. In fact, their powerful analysis software has led them to clients including governments, healthcare providers, and telecommunication businesses.
Secret Escapes
Latest pre-money valuation: £492m
Total amount raised: £247m
Sector: Consumer travel services
Region: London
Incorporated: 2009
Secret Escapes is an online travel agency which negotiates exclusive rates for luxury travel. Members simply have to sign up with the company to gain access to special rates, which can include discounts of up to 70% off the original price. It aims to offer upper mass-market and luxury travel to UK customers, expanding into several other countries throughout the last decade.
Download the full report on the UK’s most valuable private companies in 2021
