deloitte-uk-defining-fast-tech-growth-fast-50-2015

Defining fast tech growth
2015
www.fast50.co.uk
#ukfast50

Contents
Foreword 1
Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 winners 2015 2
Burgeoning growth in a positive economic climate 4
Disrupting traditional industries with new technology 7
Creating an environment for success 8
Seizing opportunities in international markets 14
Conclusions 17
Fast 50 top three and regional winners’ case studies 26
Additional Deloitte thought leadership 38
Endnotes 39

With the technology sector due to represent 14 per cent of GDP
by 2016 and a record two million new businesses registered
at Companies House since 2011, there has never been a more
exciting time to be a young technology company in the UK.1,2
The progress in technology and entrepreneurship has been supported and nurtured
by both public and private initiatives; helping to supercharge the growth and success
of new businesses across the country. In June this year, the Government launched
the fourth edition of the StartUp Britain campaign, aimed at inspiring and supporting
would-be entrepreneurs across the country.3
The incubation and accelerator community
is also in rude health, with over 59 programmes now operating in the UK, over half of
which launched during the last three years.4
For 18 years, the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 programme has recognised the
achievements of businesses who have demonstrated skill, passion and dedication to
deliver high-paced revenue growth over a four-year period. Participants hail from across
the UK and include some of the most disruptive players in all areas of technology. This
year’s cohort does not disappoint; collectively employing over 7,400 people to deliver
£820 million of revenue in 2014/15,i
at an average growth rate of 1,883 per cent.
A companion to the UK Fast 50 programme, this report profiles the winners across
the regions and sectors, offering a perspective on their success based on our insight
into the industry. Our findings are based upon information submitted by 166 entrants
and a survey of 93 CEOs from across these businesses. This report offers insight into
this special group of rapidly growing technology firms. It does not attempt to be
representative of the technology industry or the community of small and medium sized
businesses as a whole.
This report will explore some of the key factors enabling growth in this select group
of businesses and comment on the challenges they have had to face and overcome
to thrive. Following four years of fast paced growth, we should not underestimate the
success this year’s winners have enjoyed, compared with the harsh reality whereby
more than half of new businesses do not survive to celebrate their fifth birthday.5
Foreword
i 2014/15 revenue
is aligned with the
stated fiscal year of
each business
1Defining fast tech growth 2015

Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 winners 2015
Ranking Company Growth Region Sector
1 WorldRemit 20385% London Software
2 Skyscape Cloud Services 13391% South West Communications
3 Secret Escapes 7818% London Media
4 Grove Group 6649% London Communications
5 Kimble 5127% London Software
6 FanDuel 4632% Scotland Media
7 LMAX Exchange 2894% London Software
8 Funding Circle 2491% London Software
9 Touchnote 2312% London Software
10 RateSetter 2199% London Software
11 Azzure IT 2089% North East Software
12 StarLeaf Ltd 1637% London Communications
13 Carfinance247 1468% North West Media
14 Nervecentre Software 1392% South East Software
15 Fairsail 1150% South East Software
16 Performance Horizon 1131% North East Software
17 Ebury 1087% London Software
18 BookingBug Ltd 1074% London Software
19 Money Saver Telecom Group 916% North West Communications
20 Prepaid Financial Services 832% London Software
21 VoiceHost 818% Cambridgeshire and East Communications
22 Green Man Gaming 771% London Media
23 SIPHON 644% South East Communications
24 Fireproof Studios 623% South East Media
25 Zuto 617% North West Software
2

Ranking Company Growth Region Sector
26 LDeX 596% London Communications
27 Vacancy Filler Limited 546% Midlands Software
28 Infinity SDC 541% London Communications
29 Brandwatch 480% South East Software
30 Skimlinks 472% London Software
31 Managed 24/7 441% South East Communications
32 dotmailer 434% London Software
33 Agenor Technology 432% Scotland Software
34 True Potential LLP 431% North East Software
35 Zopa 417% London Software
36 Ozaroo.com 404% Northern Ireland Software
37 Quill 396% London Media
38 Skyscanner 392% Scotland Software
39 JUST EAT plc 364% London Software
40 Maindec Group 364% South East Hardware
41 Cake Solutions 359% North West Software
42 Wifinity 344% South East Communications
43 RocketMill 338% South East Media
44 Simplify Digital Ltd 338% London Software
45 essensys 328% London Software
46 QubeGB 322% Scotland Communications
47 Sonocent Ltd 321% South West Software
48 mobilewebadz 320% London Media
49 New Star Networks (NSN) 315% London Communications
50 Fonix 294% London Communications

Burgeoning growth in a positive
economic climate
The Technology Fast 50 winners of 2015 have delivered another
year of exciting levels of growth in a positively-minded economy
that continues to grow, despite losing some momentum in recent
months. The make-up of entrants continues to be dominated by
businesses in the software sector, and from a regional perspective
London appears to have reasserted itself on the overall rankings.
Headline growth rates amongst the winners are always impressive and 2015 is no
different. This year we measured the growth of companies over four years rather
than five, yet this year’s winner, WorldRemit, grew at a staggering 20,385 per cent,
almost double the winning growth rate of the previous year. Similarly, the average
growth rate of the Technology Fast 50 also increased relative to the 2014 cohort by
188 percentage points to 1,883 per cent. Cumulative revenues were recorded
at £820 million, delivered by 7,400 employees.
Although the fortunes of early-stage businesses are not as explicitly linked to
economic performance as larger private and public companies, improving economic
conditions have helped create a positive environment in which they can flourish
and grow. In 2014, the UK economy grew at just under three per cent,
the fastest rate since the global financial crisis. Whilst this growth rate has not quite
sustained itself during 2015, the economy has now seen ten successive quarters of
sustained growth.6,7
This trend is also reflected in the UK business confidence index,
which remains firmly in positiveii
territory.8
Coupled with this, the perception of the UK as one of the most entrepreneur-
friendly economies in the world demonstrates that many of the underlying factors
that enable new businesses to succeed are already in place. The UK ranked first
of European countries and fourth globally, in a study conducted by The Global
Entrepreneurship and Development Institute; and performed strongly in a similar
study by the Legatum Institute.9,10
ii The business
confidence index
now stands at
+15.6 in Q4 2015
iii A billion dollar
(USD) start-up
from Europe
4

However, despite this positive backdrop, UK technology companies make limited
appearances in rankings of the largest global public and private companies and the
search for eurocornsiii
continues to prove challenging.11,12
This year saw one billion
dollar (USD) valuations of UK-based firms Shazam, TransferWise, and Farfetch
however funding rounds and IPOs continue to be dwarfed by events in Silicon
Valley, where Uber has raised over £5 billion, at a valuation in excess of £33 billion,
despite being just six years old.13,14,15,16
Entrants to the Technology Fast 50 programme herald from diverse sub-sectors
of the technology industry, such as FinTech, cloud computing and security.
Nevertheless, as with previous years, rankings are biased towards businesses in
the software (54 per cent), communications (22 per cent) and media (16 per
cent) sectors. This trend is also evident in our top ten winners. Software continues
to lead the way, providing the overall winner, WorldRemit, and five additional
members of the top ten. Communications and media businesses each contribute
two of the top ten, including the South West and Scottish regional winners
respectively.
From a regional perspective, it is unsurprising that London contributes the largest
number of winners with 25 of the total Fast 50. Its representation in the top ten is
greater still, providing eight of its constituents. The remaining places in the top ten
are occupied by the South West regional winner, Skyscape Cloud Services (ranked
second overall), and Scottish regional winner FanDuel (ranked sixth overall).
Outside the top ten, the South East has been the biggest regional mover year on
year, increasing its representation in the top 50 to 18 per cent (up from 10 per cent
in 2014).
Figure 1. UK Technology Fast 50 winners headline statistics, 2015
Winning four-year
growth rate
20,385% £820m
Total revenues
generated
7,400
Total
employees
1,883%
Average four-year
growth rate

Whilst some observers might be concerned by the strong representation of
London-based businesses in the rankings, their relative strength must be interpreted
in the context of the UK economy. First, London contributes 22 per cent of UK total
Gross Value Added to the overall economy and seven percentage points more than
the second-placed South East region.17
Second, whilst government initiatives such
as StartUp Britain and StartUp Loans have had an impact across the whole of the
UK, a supportive ecosystem has developed significantly faster in the capital. As an
example of this ecosystem 36 of the 59 accelerators and incubators active in the
UK have set up in London.18
However, there is strong evidence to suggest that Britain’s digital economy at large
is also prospering outside the capital. The recently published Tech Nation report
concluded that regional technology clusters are growing rapidly. As examples, since
2010 the relative increase in new start-up incorporations in Bournemouth and
Liverpool has outpaced Inner London, at over 210 and 110 per cent respectively.19
London
50%
Cambridgeshire and East
2%
North East
6%
Northern Ireland
2%
North West
8%
Midlands
2%
South West
4% South East
18%
Scotland
8%
Figure 2. UK Technology Fast 50 winners by region, 2015
6

Observations from our own Technology Fast 50 cohort and new
businesses globally confirm that no industry is immune from
disruption or innovation.
People often perceive a technology start-up to be an innovative player developing
new technology and creating new markets. Whilst the notion of being innovative
may be a prerequisite for high growth businesses, the idea that a new business
must break new ground to be successful is not always true. Often, reinventing
demand and supply levers in an industry can be sufficient to bring about disruptive
and radical change.
Undoubtedly, there have been examples of new technology creating new industries
and markets. The rise of social media has penetrated the global population to
an extent that few would have predicted a decade ago. Over two billion people,
or circa one third of the world population, now access at least one social media
account on a monthly basis.20
Similarly, the creation of modern tablets added a
new category of consumer device that struggled to gain traction before 2010.
Global tablet adoption is now forecast to exceed one billion in 2015 and sales are
expected to overtake traditional PCs for the first time in 2016.21
Drawing a parallel between the ways in which the accommodation and taxi
markets have been transformed by new entrants, many of this year’s winners have
also spotted an opportunity to disrupt a traditional industry. Remittances have
always flowed around the world, however, WorldRemit has made transferring
money internationally as easy as sending an instant message. Similarly, Funding
Circle (ranked eighth overall) is helping to reinvent financial lending with its online
marketplace for business loans that matches borrowers with investors. Touchnote
(ranked ninth overall) is reinvigorating the post card industry by offering a simple
mobile application through which customers can send personalised cards from
across the globe.
These are just three Technology Fast 50 businesses which have successfully evolved
the key levers in their respective industries to unlock fast-paced growth in a
traditional space. First, they have created new sources of supply for remittances,
loans and postcards that did not previously exist. Second, they have helped
create new behaviour amongst consumers by changing the way in which they
procure traditional products. Evolving the supply and influencing demand in these
traditional industries has allowed them to compete where others failed to spot the
opportunity.
Disrupting traditional industries
with new technology

All businesses, irrespective of size or stature, will face challenges
hiring the right people for their teams, effectively motivating
them, creating a culture that facilitates growth and identifying
appropriate means of financing themselves.
However, unlike large corporates, many young companies do not have the necessary
resources to circumvent these issues and instead must rely on more innovative methods
to achieve the same results. The class of 2015 has employed a number of these
methods and demonstrated their ability to create an environment for success.
Hiring and enabling talent
A lack of new talent is considered to be the single biggest threat to the continued
growth of the technology sector over the next 12 months, according to over a third
of our CEO survey respondents. Whilst this reduces to a quarter of respondents
over a five year period, it remains the primary concern of our business leaders, who
fear that they will not be able to scale their businesses in line with their ambitions
unless they can attract the right talent, and quickly.
Creating an environment for success
Figure 3. CEOs views on biggest threats to growth
Question: “What is the biggest threat to growth in the UK technology sector in the
a) next 12 months b) the next ﬁve years?”
Source: Deloitte UK Fast 50 CEO survey, October 2015. Sample: all respondents (93)
Per cent of CEOs
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Lack of new talent with
relevant skills
Increased competition from
larger industry corporations
Economic climate
Limited access to capital
Excessive government
regulation
Increased competition from
existing developed countries
Threat to growth in next 12 months
Threat to growth in next 5 years
35%
25%
10%
14%
10%
10%
10%
8%
9%
9%
9%
5%
8

Delving deeper into this topic reveals that 60 per cent of CEOs believe that hiring
deep technology specialists is the biggest people challenge facing their business
today, followed by traditional commercial roles at 24 per cent. Typically, the main
reason behind this specific challenge is a lack of specialist experience or industry
knowledge in applicants.22
Nervecentre Software (South East regional winner and ranked 14th overall) decided
to take an alternative approach to hiring as they built a business providing hospitals
with real-time patient information through mobile technology. CEO Paul Volkaerts
explained that recruiting during the early days was often a challenge, as he sought
individuals with a deep understanding of clinical processes and a technological
understanding of how his solution can help. He opted to provide the technological
training to those with a nursing background, reasoning that the technology
skills can be taught; whereas caring qualities and a deep empathy towards the
healthcare system cannot.
Similarly, Carfinance247 (North West regional winner and ranked 13th overall), an
online motor finance broker, has recently secured a Knowledge Transfer Partnership
grant with a local university. This enables the company to work with a graduate in
machine learning, accessing sought after skills that would otherwise be difficult to
find in the market.
These are but two examples of the Technology Fast 50 attaining the skills and
talent in a non-traditional manner to enable business growth.
Increasing acceleration through diversity
Our cohort is not alone in the small business community in recognising the benefits
that diversity can bring to an organisation. An external survey of start-ups across
Britain concluded that diversity is a key driver in their acceleration, with over
78 per cent declaring that it helped change their business and 71 per cent agreeing
that it helped them find new markets.23
Considering diversity through an international lens reveals that the Technology
Fast 50 winners and entrants are well placed relative to the average workforce
in the UK. Almost half of businesses surveyed contained a minimum of 20 per
cent of employees born outside of the country they work in, whilst one quarter
of respondents reported that this was the case for at least 40 per cent of their
employees. This compares favourably to the UK working population as a whole in
which just ten per cent of employees were born outside the UK.24

“I passionately believe that if you actively recruit talent from diverse
sources, you’ll not only strengthen your team and bring on
additional expertise, you’ll also experience more growth as
a result.”
Gary Stewart, Director Wayra UK Wayra UnLtd25
Extending this comparison to gender demonstrates that some of this year’s entrants
are ahead of the curve, but that overall, women account for a small proportion
of the employee base. Four-fifths of surveyed businesses confirmed that female
employees made up at least 20 per cent of the workforce, with one-third reporting
that women comprised at least 40 per cent of all employees.
Although lagging the UK workforce as a whole, these figures appear more in line
with technology-focused industries. For example, women currently make up just
over a quarter of the digital workforce in the UK (down from one-third in 2002).26
This is forecast to rise at a slow rate to 30 per cent by 2022, suggesting that the
sector as a whole has struggled to implement effective solutions to date. In an
economy that is expected to require an additional 1.2 million digital workers over
the same timescale, a fundamental need exists to ensure that we are nurturing the
next generation of female talent and offering them appropriate opportunities to
get involved in technology initiatives from an early age.27
Creating a productive environment
The financial reality facing many young companies often necessitates that they
initially locate themselves in an inexpensive yet attractive environment as they set
out on the path to growth. There are advantages to both shared and exclusively
occupied premises but the ambitions are similar. The prevailing logic is that open
spaces foster a constant and crucial exchange of ideas, enable easy access to
expertise and help facilitate serendipitous interactions that can often be the starting
point for many great innovations.28
Respondents from the CEO survey are strongly aligned to this hypothesis,
confirming that an attractive working environment (60 per cent), encouraging
employees to bring and develop their own ideas in the workplace (58 per cent),
coupled with a flexible approach to autonomous working (49 per cent) are key
priorities for them as they seek to create a positive working environment and
culture in which their workforce can thrive.
10

Figure 4. CEOs views on creating an attractive working environment
Question: “How have you created a stimulating, attractive working environment and culture for your employees?”
(Tick all that apply)
Per cent of CEOs
Office is an attractive environment
(e.g. collaborative, flexible space,
ability to bring pets)
Ability for employees to bring
and develop their own ideas
Employees can work autonomously
and flexibly
Training and development
programmes are available
Relaxation spaces are available and
‘play’ encouraged in the
work environment
Access to additional facilities
(e.g. gym, social events)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
60%
58%
49%
48%
37%
34%
Leveraging finance options
The Technology Fast 50 entrants and winners have employed a wide array of
means to finance their businesses over the past five years. However, whilst the
requirements of each and every business are different, four key sources of funding
have proven to be the most popular options for our CEO survey respondents.
Self-generated cash flow has been the most common source of funding, with
78 per cent of survey respondents reporting they had used this measure to fund
their business. This was followed by tax savings or refunds at 43 per cent, bank
debt at 34 per cent and private equity or venture capital investment at 29 per cent.

Figure 5. CEOs views on funding sources
Question: “Over the last five years, how have you typically financed your company?” (Tick all that apply)
Source: Deloitte UK Fast 50 CEO survey, October 2015 and October 2014. Sample: 93 respondents for 2015;
68 respondents for 2014
Note: Tax savings/refunds are likely to represent RD payable credit claims, grants and incentives
Per cent of CEOs
Self-generated cash flow
Tax savings/refunds
Bank debt
Private equity/venture capital
Shareholder loan
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
2015 2014
78%
76%
43%
15%
34%
31%
29%
24%
26%
18%
Comparison with CEOs from the 2014 cohort reveals that the use of self-generated
cash, bank debt and private equity or venture capital funding has not changed
considerably year on year. However, the percentage of CEOs who have employed
tax savings or refunds over the past five years has almost tripled from 15 per cent in
2014 to 43 per cent in 2015. Greater awareness of tax savings and refund schemes
such as EIS/Seed EIS, Entrepreneurs’ Relief and the Research and Development tax
relief (which saw further improvements take effect from 1st April this year) are likely
to be the main drivers behind this substantial increase.
12

“It is encouraging to see the Government continue to support
young fast growing technology businesses. A range of tax
incentives with the further enhancements to RD relief this year
and a consultation aimed at making it easier for young companies
to claim the relief is particularly welcome.”
David Cobb, Tax Partner, and Lead Partner for the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 programme
Tellingly, the use of private equity or venture capital as the primary source of
funding dominates this year’s top ten with 60 per cent of responses. Beyond
injecting much needed capital into a business, these firms often provide valuable
experience at board level, assist with additional fundraising and help to unblock the
aforementioned challenge of recruiting new talent. Extending this view to provide
a regional comparison also reveals that this type of funding is concentrated in
London. Over half of the winners and entrants based in the capital confirmed that
this was their primary source of funding, against a wider trend whereby London
has commanded 80 per cent of all venture capital investment made in Britain
during 2015.29

Many of our Technology Fast 50 winners and entrants have
sought to generate revenue from overseas markets to satisfy
growth ambitions. The wide variety of funding sources available
to start-ups and SMEs in the UK has made international expansion
a realistic goal, even at the early stages of a business.30
Over three quarters of survey respondents recorded at least some revenue from
outside the UK, highlighting the international nature of their businesses.
60 per cent of businesses generated revenue from the USA and 55 per cent from
the Euro area. This indicates a slight shift compared to last year’s cohort, whereby
69 per cent recorded at least some revenue from the Euro area and 51 per cent of
businesses generated revenue in the USA.
Crucially, Technology Fast 50 CEOs have successfully determined if and when it
is appropriate to expand internationally. For example, Skyscape Cloud Services
concluded that international expansion was not necessary at this stage, given
the large addressable market in the UK and the importance of data sovereignty
to Government clients. CEO Simon Hansford comments; “The UK public sector
accounts for 42 per cent of GDP…so working in a single market is not really
a limitation in our case.” In contrast, WorldRemit’s global expansion has been
essential to growth. At least 60 per cent of its revenues are generated outside the
UK as it operates in 50 countries on the “send-side” and transfers remittances to
127 different countries.
We have also observed specific trends within sub-sectors of our Technology Fast 50
winners and entrants. Of the FinTech businesses, 44 per cent have revenues solely
in the UK. Conversely, this applies to only 14 per cent of the Technology Fast 50
software businesses. These trends are likely to be explained by the density of target
customers. London is a global financial hub, meaning that FinTech businesses can
expect to generate significant revenue in this market alone, whilst the inherent
scalability of a software business naturally extends itself to international expansion.
Looking to the future, the Technology Fast 50 winners and entrants anticipate
further growth abroad, with 95 per cent of respondents stating that they are
considering international opportunities to drive growth (up from 87 per cent in
2014). In addition, over a quarter of businesses identified international expansion
as the number one activity to raise finance for over the next 12 months, with North
America (66 per cent) and Western Europe (61 per cent) remaining the main focus
of these efforts.
Seizing opportunities in international markets
14

To help cater for these international ambitions, the UK is offering increased business
support from both private and public sources. Venture capital funding has increased
at a compound annual growth rate of 23 per cent since 2010, to
£1.45 billion in Q3 2015, and start-ups are developing alternative financing options
such as peer-to-peer lending and crowdsourcing to help young businesses.31
The department for UK Trade and Investment is also working with high street banks
to help businesses secure funding to fuel their international agendas.32
With these
supporting mechanisms in place, we expect international expansion to remain
a prominent trend amongst future Technology Fast 50 cohorts.
“The UK has a reputation as the leading technology hub in Europe
and there is terrific demand worldwide for innovative UK tech
companies. It is encouraging to see that some of the fastest
growing tech companies in the UK recognise the opportunity
presented by international expansion and the UKTI is fully
supportive of these ambitions.”
Dr. Catherine Raines, Chief Executive of UK Trade Investment

Note: CEOs not considering international growth = 5%
5%
5-10%
11-20%
21-50%
50%
Other
Figure 6. CEOs views on geographical markets for future international expansion
Question: “Which geographical markets outside of the UK represent the best opportunity for your company to signiﬁcantly
grow over the next three years?” (Tick all that apply)
Western
Europe
61%
Central and
Eastern Europe
17%
Africa
3%
Middle East
6%
China
14%
Asia Paciﬁc
34%
Russia
1%
Brazil
5%
India
6%
North
America
66%
16

This year’s UK Technology Fast 50 winners have enjoyed
considerable success as both individuals and a collective, and
they have made significant contributions to the technological
advancement of the UK economy.
Whilst recognising there is still progress to be made, our cohort has overcome
many of the challenges faced by all businesses through hiring talented teams,
embracing diversity and creating a culture geared towards fast paced growth.
In an economy that is increasingly receptive and supportive of new enterprises,
we expect that this year’s winners will continue to benefit from a positive social
and economic environment in which to grow their businesses both in the UK and
increasingly, abroad.
What sets these businesses apart is their ability to identify and seize opportunities
where others cannot. Their commitment and focus has enabled them to grow
rapidly in an environment where many similar businesses have failed, and their
success should serve as inspiration to entrepreneurs and organisations both big and
small. All of these businesses began somewhere and those seeking to emulate the
Technology Fast 50 should find comfort in the words of Nervecentre Software CEO
Paul Volkaerts:
“Founders of fast growing businesses are incredibly hard working;
however they are not superhuman. It often feels like starting a
company is something that only other people do, but would-be
entrepreneurs should turn to the phone directory and remember
that every business in there was started by an individual.”
Conclusions

WorldRemit Founder and CEO Ismail Ahmed became aware of the shortcomings of global
remittance services while studying for his post-graduate degree in the UK. In an experience
that is typical for many migrants, he had to make regular, time-consuming journeys into central
London to send money to his family members in Somaliland, paying a small fortune in fees
for transferring even modest amounts of money.
“It’s absurd that in the 21st century, with all the advances we’ve had in global
communication, that remittance companies should expect their customers
to physically withdraw cash from an ATM machine, go to a high-street transfer
agent, stand in line, fill out forms, and pay a punishing rate for the service,” Ahmed
explains. “This is an industry that has been stuck in the past until very recently, and
has been getting away with delivering a very poor service to its customers.”
Some years afterwards, Ahmed’s work as an advisor to the United Nations brought
him into contact with remittance businesses struggling to comply with tough new
anti-money laundering regulations that emerged in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. In 2010, he decided it was time to shake up the stagnant remittance
services market with a transformational online service that would make sending
money as simple as sending an instant message.
“I wanted to achieve two things: first of all, to offer a remittance service that
wasn’t slow and inconvenient to use and didn’t require customers to go to a store
and fill out forms. Secondly, I wanted to build a business that could efficiently
comply with anti-money laundering regulations. WorldRemit achieves both those
aims. Most importantly, it is a low-cost remittance alternative for those that need
it the most, while also being quicker, easier and more secure,” he says.
In 2010, Ahmed partnered with his co-founders Richard Igoe and Catherine Wines
to set up WorldRemit. Richard Igoe, a technologist who used to work for Dell,
could build the platform and develop the company’s online marketing strategy.
Catherine Wines, had operational experience in the money transfer industry and
managed the day-to-day running of WorldRemit’s service. It took them most of the
year to develop the platform, which was licensed and launched by November 2010.
Fast 50 top winners’ case studies
20,385%
Overall winner
London regional winner
Software sector winner
18

Today WorldRemit is available to customers in 50 countries, offering transfers
to more than 125 destinations across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the
Americas through a wide network of correspondents, banks and exchange
bureaus. The platform allows customers to instantly send money abroad to friends
and family, using only a computer, smart phone or tablet. The money can be
received as a bank deposit, cash pick-up, Mobile Money, or as a mobile airtime
top-up.
Beyond the strength of its platform and distinctive offering, Ahmed attributes the
firm’s success to the dedication of the people at WorldRemit.
“For us, the commitment and cultural diversity of our people is one of our greatest
strengths. If you walk down our office corridors you will see that all our major
customer groups are represented in our staff,” he says. “We want people who
understand the language and culture of our customers, and we’ve always been
very conscious of having the right cultural fit.”
Future growth will come from geographical expansion, most notably across the
US, and from innovations that respond to the changing ways in which people are
connecting with each other and using their money, says Ahmed. For example,
millions of people now rely on Mobile Money services instead of bank accounts,
which have made it a key growth area for the company, accounting for an ever-
larger portion of international remittances.
“Mobile Money is just one area with big potential. More broadly, we are
in a $600-billion global market, of which we have barely scratched the surface,”
he says. “Even in our biggest remittance corridors such as UK and India, we only
have a fraction of the market infrastructure. The industry is also highly fragmented,
so there’s a tremendous amount of space to explore.”
WorldRemit’s potential has not gone unnoticed by investors. In 2014, the service
announced a $40 million backing from Accel Partners, one of the world’s most
high-profile investment companies, and an early funder of Facebook, Dropbox and
Spotify. This was followed by another $100 million investment early this year, led
by Technology Crossover Ventures.
Pushing the boundaries of what he describes as “one of the last commercial
frontiers of the internet,” Ahmed is confident that WorldRemit will continue
to grow rapidly in the years ahead, as it develops new and innovative ways
of sending and receiving money.

13,391%
Second place
South West regional winner
Communications sector winner
Farnborough-based Skyscape Cloud Services was founded in 2012, in direct response
to the UK government’s ICT strategy (2011), which set out the need to invest in
technology as a way to boost efficiency and reduce costs within the UK public sector.
At a similar time, the G-Cloud Framework was launched to encourage the adoption of
cloud-based computing capabilities by easing the ways in which public sector bodies
can buy and use ICT services. G-Cloud aims to dramatically reduce costs for the public
sector, increase agility and break up the oligopoly of large IT suppliers that absorb
the majority of its spend by encouraging the participation of small and medium-sized
businesses, such as Skyscape Cloud Services.
Skyscape recognised the opportunity and entered the market with a
portfolio of assured cloud services. These have been designed to be
easy to adopt, use and leave, without any start-up or exit fees. Skyscape
charges by the hour, allowing departments to scale up or down based
on their needs, and only paying for what they use. In November 2015,
the company announced its eighth successive price drop, thanks to its
growing economies of scale, which have led to storage costs falling by
90% this year alone.
“We saw an opportunity to bring a disruptive business model to the
UK public sector by offering assured, agile and cost-effective cloud
services,” said Simon Hansford, CEO at Skyscape. “Our standardised
pricing plus easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave model became
the vehicle to provide quality cloud services to the public sector,
ultimately benefitting each and every UK citizen.”
After building and selling a previous business, which had developed an
embryonic cloud, Hansford was looking to connect with a group of like-
minded people with whom to drive forward a new concept. With that
came Skyscape Cloud Services, the brainchild of Jeffrey Thomas, Jeremy
Saunders, Phil Dawson and Simon Hansford.
20

The shareholders of Skyscape Cloud Services invested some £25 million to create their
ground-breaking cloud platform, and built it specifically to address IT procurement and
security issues within the UK public sector. Its advanced cloud platform supports encrypted
active-active workloads running across two UK-based data centres, with an 80 mile
separation.
“We are a UK sovereign company, and our staff all undergo rigorous security clearance,” said
Hansford. “Our services are ISO9001 and ISO27001 certified, and we are recognised as one
of the highest certified cloud providers in the industry.”
Hansford estimates that over 50% of the company’s 110 staff have been at the company
for less than 10 months, and believes the single greatest reason for its success has been the
ability to attract the right people. When hiring for the business, he looks to find people with
the right attitude and the ability to learn fast.
“When you grow a business, very quickly you’ve got to take time to establish a culture with a
clear mission. Our core values are embedded in everything we do,” Hansford explained. “We
believe in doing what’s right, being honest and transparent, being innovative and disruptive,
and we do that by focusing on simplicity, community and partnership.”
In just three years, the G-Cloud Framework has transformed IT procurement in the UK
government for companies like Skyscape, which could not have existed before hand. In the
years ahead, the company hopes to continue being disruptive and innovative and intends to
more than double its size and further accelerate its growth in the public sector.
The Skyscape Cloud Alliance, formed of partners; QinetiQ, VMware, Cisco, EMC and Ark
Data Centres, is a collaborative resource that drives innovation and our technical product
development programme.
Launched in August 2013, Skyscape’s dedicated channel partner programme now consists
of more than 180 organisations. Focused on delivering secure, high quality yet cost-effective
cloud services at scale, Skyscape’s solutions provide a building block for many of its partners’
offerings.
“We’re committed to providing the UK public sector with our cost-effective and secure cloud
services through the G-Cloud Framework and dedication to our partner programme,” said
Hansford.

7,818%
Third place
Media sector winner
Secret Escapes negotiates exclusive rates for luxury hand-picked hotels and holidays in the
UK and abroad, at up to 70% off the price that customers would pay by booking anywhere
else. The site features four and five-star hotels and resorts good enough to recommend to its
members, and which give it exclusive rates.
Co-founders Tom Valentine and Alex Saint realised the enormous untapped
potential in the market for the concept in 2010 while running online businesses
in the hotel price search and fashion industries respectively. Since then, the
members-only online travel agent has become a vital marketing channel for the
global networks of the company’s hotels and suppliers, having sold over two
million room-nights since launching in early 2011.
“Getting a significant and real discount on a luxury hotel is an incredible consumer
proposition,” says Chief Operating Officer, Tom Valentine. “The majority of our 300
people work on the supply side getting deals from the hotels. The UK market
is ‘discount cynical’ and it takes us a lot of work to establish that a hotel deal
is real. We hammer down on these prices and check that they’re not available
anywhere else.”
Hotels tend to be only partially occupied due their desire to avoid unnecessary
discounting to customers that would pay full price. Secret Escapes’ success is due,
in a large part, to being able to demonstrate to hotel partners that their existing
trade will be safe and won’t be cannibalised by using Secret Escapes.
The website is designed to feel as much as possible like a simple online booking
process, although beneath the waterline, it is very complicated, Valentine explains.
The major area the company is addressing is the fact that its business is becoming
more and more focused around mobile devices.
“It’s very mixed. Some people want to purchase deals on their phones, but others
just do an initial check, which they then check in more detail on their laptops later
in the day,” says Valentine. “The challenge for us is that the same customers may be
viewing and engaging with us from three or four different devices, and execution
gets harder and harder as you add multiple sites and currencies.”
22

Secret Escapes opened their first overseas office in Sweden in 2013, to see if
they could replicate the model in a smaller market that is similar to the UK. The
experience has been positive and given them the confidence to launch in new
markets including Germany, Poland, the rest of the Nordic region, Belgium,
Netherlands, Italy and Spain. In late 2014, the company launched its business
in the US.
“We see these markets as following the trajectory of our UK business. Metrics
improve significantly when you optimise your set up for a local market, and we
take a very pragmatic approach to these launches,” he notes.
As rapid growth has continued, successful recruitment has come to represent
a bigger challenge. Success begets success when it comes to hiring, says Valentine.
The business has learnt to pay more attention to the people it hires and to its
HR practices, as it scales. The challenge is to keep the spirit of excitement and
entrepreneurialism alive across the company as it expands.
“What defines Secret Escapes is a culture of execution,” says Valentine.
“Success is down to a commitment to the graft of slowly improving metrics
everyday. Today our key metrics are about four or five times better than before
because we’ve understood how to improve. This is something we’re really proud
of, and we strive to keep people motivated and incentivised everyday.”

4,632%
Sixth place
Scotland regional winner
FanDuel is the pioneer and global leader in online daily fantasy sports, with over one million
active paying users in North America. The company has offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, New
York, Orlando and LA. In total, it employs over 500 people.
The business began in 2009 after its five co-founders identified a gap in the fantasy
sports market for shorter, faster-paced contests that lasted just one day as opposed
to the traditional season-long format. They took the idea to investors, and initially
raised US$ 4 million from Pentech Ventures, Piton Capital and the Scottish
Co-investment Fund.
“The main factor behind our success is having introduced this brand new concept
to fantasy sports that gives users a faster-paced, more exciting platform that
completely disrupts the way in which fantasy sports are played and real time sports
are experienced,” says CEO and Co-founder of FanDuel, Nigel Eccles. “Another
factor has been having a really strong team of skilled people who are passionate
about our product and the business.”
As the business has grown to cope with spikes in site traffic during peak times, and
infrastructure has been scaled, FanDuel has looked to nurture a culture of trust,
transparency and equality across the organisation. Employees’ contributions are
measured by their productivity, not the number of hours spent behind a desk, and
everyone is kept up to speed on company activities through a weekly company call.
Senior management are readily approachable and everyone is encouraged to share
their ideas and opinions.
“FanDuel was originally a small startup and we’ve strived to maintain that same
close-knit team environment as the business grows,” says Eccles. “Maintaining
the same company culture we had when we started out in 2009 is a challenge
but we have a great talent team in the UK and the US who have implemented
a series of measures including company surveys, lunch and learns, on-boarding,
and are generally making sure that a feedback culture is retained and employee
communication remains a priority.”
24

While the company culture plays an important role in retaining staff, FanDuel
also provides attractive employee benefit packages. Learning and development
starts from the first day of employment and is reinforced through new hire
onboarding, leadership and management classes, role specific classes, performance
management, and coaching.
“We offer interesting technical challenges to software engineers, an exciting
product that involves creative marketing and the opportunity to be part of a
business that reaches millions of consumers across North America,” says Eccles.
“In terms of securing talent, we’ve actually found that as our profile has grown
outside the US, so has our appeal to potential candidates and we’re getting a lot
of applications from London and across Europe.”
FanDuel’s product is available only in North America, but the company is looking
at opportunities to grow internationally. The UK has been identified as a key area
and the company is currently developing a product for the local market that will
be launched within the next 12 months. The company wants to make sure that it
offers something that fits the UK market and isn’t just a duplicate of its US product.
Over the years, FanDuel has also benefited greatly from the support mechanisms in
place for digital startups in UK, where 160 of its staff are based.
“I think that the UK does a great job in supporting tech startups, particularly so in
Scotland,” says Eccles. “We were fortunate enough to receive support from Scottish
Enterprise and its investment arm, the Scottish Investment Bank, as well
as Edinburgh University’s Informatics Ventures programme.”
In the coming years, FanDuel will also focus on the growing eSports market
following its recent acquisition of eSports platform AlphaDraft, and while investing
in its core product to ensure that it continues to make sports exciting for its users.

2,089%
11th place
North East regional winner
Multi-award winning Azzure IT was founded in 2011 to provide small and medium-sized UK
businesses with fully scalable Enterprise Resource (ERP) solutions using Microsoft technology,
either cloud-based or on-premise. The company develops tools to help businesses increase their
efficiency and productivity across a wide range of industries.
At the time of its launch the market mainly comprised traditional players, offering
either simple or highly complex solutions, of which only a few were fully scalable.
“Businesses want solutions that are going to expand as they grow,” says Craig Such,
founder and Managing Director of Azzure IT. “There were some cloud solutions
starting to appear when we arrived, but the traditional vendors didn’t really have
a proper offering. We came in with solutions, cloud or on-premise, which could
evolve over time without the client having to move to another offering.”
Such had previously exited a business providing similar services and went
on to start Azzure from scratch with his wife Sharon. They were soon joined
by Tim Elliott, a former business partner, who became Technical Director. They
invested some £200,000 of their own capital in the business, and received a further
£200,000 from a regional growth fund grant based on adding on new jobs, which
they used to fund accelerated sales and marketing.
“I wanted to focus back on solutions that provided good returns for clients, but
with a business that was all about the people. This is something that had been lost
sight of in my previous business,” he explains. “Even today we don’t sub-contract
because we believe that to build a strong business you have to employ your own
staff because that’s what builds loyalty and strength from the business outwards.”
In 2013, the Sheffield-based company became Microsoft’s dynamics NAV Partner
of choice for businesses looking to improve the efficiency and productivity of their
business operations. The accreditation broke records, as Azzure became Microsoft’s
fastest-growing partner in the UK, and the fastest-ever to achieve Microsoft Gold
Partner status; within just 15 months, compared to the three or more years it
usually takes.
26

“We’re immensely proud to be the number one partner for Microsoft Dynamics
in the UK,” says Such. “We’ve achieved this by anticipating customer needs and
being agile in responding to them. We enhance the platform with additional
functionality to bridge the gap between Microsoft’s platform and how the business
needs the solution to work for them.”What started as a two-person business now
employs 36 people, and has additional offices in Reading and Newcastle. To service
its rapidly growing customer base, Azzure has had to significantly intensify its
recruitment efforts and its learning and development processes.
“The majority of our staff are customer-facing, and our culture is one of team work
and a ’can-do’ attitude,” notes Such. “We’ve been through quite a steep learning
curve with our recruitment, and so now we go to great lengths to make sure we
are more scientific about how we recruit the right people. Our people must have
the right technical skills, but more importantly, they need a mindset that fits our
culture. Anything short of that only damages our business.”
The company mainly employs people who have previously worked with Microsoft
Dynamics solutions or with comparable solutions that may give them other skills
or insights. It enjoys high retention rates and offers staff a pension scheme and
private healthcare, and regularly organises a number of team-building social
events. A recent employee satisfaction survey gave Azzure an unprecedented net
promoter score of 100%, meaning that every single staff member said they would
recommend working for the company.
“People think the IT sector is awash with talent, but a large proportion of the more
experienced people are usually set in their ways and not very adaptable,” says
Such. “What we’ve done is to take on more of a mix of experienced people plus
graduates and apprentices and cross train them through an academy programme.
For more senior roles, we find that going via personal recommendations is what
seems to work best.”
Having invested heavily in UK sales and marketing in 2015, Such is excited
by the prospect of some overseas growth in 2016. Azzure is currently building its
worldwide network, as a growing number of clients ask for solutions to be rolled
out globally across their subsidiaries.

1,468%
13th place
North West regional winner
Now the UK’s most visited car finance website, Manchester-based Carfinance247 has shaken
up the car finance market, helping customers to secure enviable finance deals online and ahead
of their car purchase – freeing up customers to choose their car from any reputable dealer
nationwide.
The company was founded in 2006 by brothers Reg and Louis Rix, third-generation
motor industry entrepreneurs. While operating an online car classified business,
which they later sold to the RAC, the brothers spotted a gap in the car finance
market. In particular, recognising the difficulties customers were having in locating
the right financing solution when coming online.
Carfinance247 offers a quick and easy online application, with 50% of customers
receiving an approval within minutes and the remaining within the hour. Customers
are assigned their very own dedicated advisor who is on hand to help guide them
through the journey.
“There is nothing fundamentally new to what we do – people have always
bought cars on finance. What we have done is change how customers do it,”
says Managing Director, Reg Rix. “Before Carfinance247, car buyers would
have to find a car first, place a deposit, and then arrange financing. Now, with
Carfinance247 you have the finance set up before seeing the car. The advantage
is that with the loan in place you can behave like a cash buyer, and nine out of
ten times, negotiate a better price.”
The business’ financing model is unique in that customers apply directly through
the site and are automatically matched to the best rate and most suitable product
for their individual circumstances. As the most visited car finance site with twice
the number of visitors than its nearest competitor (circa 5 million per year), the
company can access highly competitive rates and deals from a large panel of
lenders.
“Initially, some lenders were quite nervous about the new concept, concerned that
anything to do with the internet had a high degree of risk and fraud,” says Rix,
“but many others were open and forward-thinking. They understood that this
was a gateway to a whole new audience.”
28

Proprietary technology has always been at the heart of the business. The company
brought on in-house developers at an early stage, many of whom have been at
Carfinance247 ever since, and currently has a 15-strong development team.
The business is now looking at how to give instant decisions to customers online.
It recently secured a government grant, in partnership with the University of Salford
in Manchester, to develop a software program that will allow it to harness the
power of machine learning to predict outcomes, and thereby giving customers
instant decisions.
The company is also finding new ways to work with dealerships. Dealers
normally have direct relationships with two or three lenders, but by working with
Carfinance247 they can diversify financing options in exchange for an increased
exposure to Carfinance247’s large customer base. The company only works with
reputable dealerships that pass its internal setup process. This helps to protect the
consumer, lender and Carfinance247 themselves.
The market leader in its field, Carfinance247 approves some 17,500+ applications
each month. It has also cemented its place as one of the fastest growing
employers; the organisation, which now employs more than 200 people, was
recently named as one of the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to work for.
Rix finds that he spends most of his time on recruitment matters whilst also
looking at ways to increase the productivity and efficiency of the business.
“Despite its strong growth and market leading position, we believe the business
is still in the start-up phase. More and more people are coming online to arrange
financing, and so the business will grow organically,” says Rix. “Recruitment is
a big challenge, we have just employed another 60 people, and are constantly
expanding. However, as the business continues to scale, we are fully aware
that we need to further embrace technology, so as to reduce the dependency
on headcount.”

The use of mobile technology for clinical applications in hospitals is a recent phenomenon
that has rapidly taken hold as clinicians discover better ways to manage and share patient
information. When Wokingham-based Nervecentre Software launched in 2010 to develop
applications for portable devices across National Health Service (NHS) hospitals, smart phones
had only just reached the market.
“The general view back then was that mobile phones interfered with medical
equipment,” says Paul Volkaerts, Founder and CEO of Nervecentre Software. “There
wasn’t a clear view on how they could help improve clinical processes. It is also
an area that requires specialist knowledge to develop the right solutions,
so in some ways the sector was a bit behind the times.”
A professional software developer, Volkaerts first considered the benefits that
mobile technology could provide hospitals while working as a software consultant
for a large technology company within the NHS. Most significantly, he observed,
if doctors and nurses could instantly access a single platform from their mobile
phones while moving about the hospital, they could communicate and collaborate
more effectively, and leverage the hospital’s resources.
As patients’ information constantly changes, it is normally left to medical staff
to sign-in and update records on a desktop computer whenever they find time
to do so. This often means that updates are done in large batches during lunch
breaks and other spare moments. By providing hospitals with a fully scalable
communications platform for mobile devices, the software enables staff to instantly
access, update and share information wherever they are. The platform can deliver
electronic observations, handover, task management and clinical assessments;
and allows governance and escalation management to be added to any hospital
process.
“It was clear to me that mobiles could revolutionise the way that healthcare
processes were run,” says Volkaerts. “My own background is in collaboration
technologies, which are those that enable people to work together. The NHS
is a huge organisation and needs tools like these to do complex tasks more easily.”
1,392%
14th place
South East regional winner
30

Volkearts left his job and set out to develop the platform and launch the company
in 2010 and within some months had won his first contract with Nottingham
University Hospitals NHS Trust. He re-invested his profits and recruited his first team
member; an experienced nurse. This was followed by a full time software developer
to share the technical work, and allow him to spend more time speaking to his
customers, who had begun to occupy most of his attention.
“When I didn’t have customers I could spend most of my time writing software,
but after the first contract that all changed.” he says. “We began hiring quite
rapidly and once we were up to about eight people we knew we had to start
putting processes in place and begin to communicate differently.”
Volkaerts has found recruiting to be challenging, as he looks for local people with
a deep understanding of clinical processes but who also have the vision
to understand how technology can help.
“A nursing background comes first, because to some extent we can teach them
to bridge the gap into IT,” he explains. “What is actually most important for us is
that everyone here has a deep empathy towards the NHS and demonstrates caring
qualities. We not only spend an incredible amount of time in hospitals talking
to our customers, we’re also very motivated by the fact that the work we do is
helping the NHS to save lives and this is a cause that really unifies us.”
Today, the company’s 27 employees are divided up equally into development, sales,
clinical and technical roles. A strong and diverse culture has been a focus from
the start with women making up half of the management team at Nervecentre
Software, which is unusual for a technology company.
Nervecentre’s product is used extensively by hospitals across the NHS today, and
the company is a UK market leader in its field. More recently, the company has
hired two people to look at the potential for growth overseas, although Volkaerts
acknowledges that it is something that will take time to develop beyond the UK:
“When we go into new countries and show our product in hospitals, they have
simply never seen anything like it.”
Looking to 2016, Nervecentre is excited by the impact that its software platform
can have on detecting risks of sepsis, a condition that kills some 37,000 people
each year. Its solution uses a combination of clinical results to make a crucial
early diagnosis and immediately alerts doctors and nurses when a risk has been
indentified, thereby greatly increasing the chances of survival. It is also focused
on using the enormous amount of data it captures, to help hospitals better analyse
how costs are being incurred and how they are performing.

818%
21st place
Cambridgeshire and
East regional winner
VoiceHost was launched in 2006 to provide intuitive and cost-saving Voice over IP (VoIP)
services for businesses in the UK. The main focus of its cloud based, on-demand platform is to
deliver a ‘self-service’ experience that allows customers to quickly and easily build their own
communication solution, without heavy reliance on technical support. The platform was built
around the ethos of “The best possible service at the best possible price.”
“The idea was conceived from our previous companies’ need for a dynamic
telephony solution which was followed by the realisation that our need was echoed
by every other growing business” says Managing Director, Ross Beer.
The company offers a platform with all the functionality of a traditional private
branch exchange (PBX), but without substantial upfront costs. The wholesale portal
provides all the same functionality, but gives communication providers the ability to
manage customer estates in a white-labelled environment. All of the customer and
partner portals are intuitive, easy to use, and configured in real time.
“Everything that is chargeable is available to add and remove as the user sees fit.
This gives dynamic scalability without complicated licencing, or hardware and
software limitations. Users can connect from anywhere with a data connection.
The limitations of geography are removed as users can access our network on
demand” says Beer.
Over the years, the business has invested heavily in its data network to also provide
direct connectivity to its UK customers. “In 2012 we rolled out our own data
network, and that means we can control the end-to-end quality of calls. We have
also introduced a new team to run the network on a day-to-day basis,”
says Beer. “We’ve based our business around delivering a quality service, which
wasn’t possible some years ago because of the lack of bandwidth that used to
make real-time products very unreliable.”
With its own network in place, VoiceHost has seen rapid growth since 2012 when
it began selling wholesale to white-labelled re-sellers, and created a dedicated
portal for them. They login to an account and set up a solution which enables their
customers to login and enjoy all of the features and management capabilities.
“We like to say we’re the best kept secret in the wholesale telecom industry,”
says Beer.
32

The business has expanded to 24 people to date; with dedicated teams for sales,
support and development across wholesale and retail. Increasing staff as the
network grows has been the biggest challenge, with the majority of employees
possessing degrees in computing, or coming from a computing background.
To maintain its cohesive, customer-focused culture, all staff members go through
support training, which includes bringing on new customers, managing the existing
ones, and encouraging them to grow. The company also provides a number of
benefits and team-building activities to motivate staff, and encourage them to
develop their careers at VoiceHost.
“The management team all share the same office. We are surrounded by the
development and operations teams, and know what is going on all the time,”
says Beer. “We have a permanent open-door policy that encourages any member
of staff to come and talk to us whenever it’s needed.”
VoiceHost plans to continue its customer-centric development focus so that it
can create and shape the network based on customers’ needs and hold one of
the quickest turn-around times for new features in the industry. Its ambition is to
cultivate wholesale channels and gradually expand into Europe and beyond.

Loughborough-based recruitment software provider Vacancy Filler was formed in 2008 when
CEO and founder Alex Khakbiz set out to find a cost-effective way to recruit good people to
help him grow his business. Using his experience in the IT and education sectors, he partnered
with developer Mitesh Chauhan to create a sophisticated cloud-based solution that enables
businesses to side-step recruitment agencies and hire effectively by themselves.
“Recruitment agencies can be effective, but they charge anywhere between
15-25% of the candidate’s salary, which is extremely expensive, especially when
you consider that some hires won’t work out,” says Tony Brookes, Sales Director
at Vacancy Filler. “Alex was looking to by-pass them via the use of dedicated job
boards, but the problem there is that you’re quickly overwhelmed by the large
number of applicants, many of whom are clearly unsuited.”
The software they developed, which is fully accessible from mobile devices, enables
HR teams, front-line managers and senior managers to implement a consistent
and reliable recruitment process across their organisation. They can post vacancies
to the widest possible audience, segment them by region both on the company’s
website and on job boards and leading social media sites. It includes configurable
application forms or CV parsing, the ability to assign pre-hire tests, and integrated
video interviewing and psychometric testing, among other tools.
“It doesn’t just save time and money for clients, it also strengthens their brands
by improving the candidate’s experience,” says Brookes. “Recruitment becomes
more automated, faster and collaborative between all areas of a business. This is
important in a candidate’s market like today’s because quicker decision-making
increases your chances of getting the right candidates on board.”
As a cloud-based recruitment platform it can be implemented quickly. The
company estimates that the product delivers 80% of the functionality of a ‘tier one’
recruitment software product, but at 20% of the cost. While agencies are starting
to fight back with similar products, Brookes believes they retain the competitive
advantage of being able to develop features and functionality very quickly based
on customer requirements, providing unlimited customer training and support, and
through having complete ownership of the infrastructure, as they no longer out-
source their hosting.
546%
27th place
Midlands regional winner
34

“We used to use a third party to host our software, but it had outages, one which
lasted an entire day and that is totally unacceptable for us. We also couldn’t make
changes at the speed that we wanted,” he explains. “Having migrated to Amazon
Web Services, we now have complete control and reliability, and an infrastructure
that allows us to execute very quickly. We can do updates and add in features
pretty seamlessly without taking customers offline at all.”
The investment paid off a few months back when the company secured its biggest-
ever order with Aldi stores, an account that Vacancy Filler would not have been
able to service without the right infrastructure behind it. The company, which
began by focusing on recruitment in the education sector (over 30 establishments
as clients), has branched out rapidly into retail, transport and the public sector.
“We are trying to do more in the public sector, they have specific requirements
that they adhere to, such as confidential shortlisting. We were accepted onto the
government’s G Cloud framework (the government programme to promote cloud
computing),” says Brookes. “And look forward to expanding our presence in this
segment.”
The Vacancy Filler team has grown to 45 people today, of which approximately
10 are dedicated to sales support, 18 to development and 17 to Sales, Marketing
and general office management. To ensure the continuity of its customer-centric
culture, the existing employees have a say on new hires in their area and the
company organises a number of regular social and sports activities. In 2014,
Vacancy Filler was ranked 4th best UK tech company employer by popular job
website Glassdoor, which in turn has helped to drive its recruitment further. At the
same time, it is building relationships with universities in the area and taking on
apprentices.
Six weeks ago, it began its international expansion with the opening of an office
in Toronto, Canada, to begin targeting the region’s educational sector. The North
American education sector has a similar approach to recruitment that would
benefit from the platform and the company is looking to establish a foothold
in Canada and reference further customers from there.
“The company has the advantage in that it is self-funded”, says Brookes, “and does
not have to seek approvals from a large group of shareholders for its investment
or expansion decisions.”
“There are five shareholders and we all work together in the business,” he says.
“That gives us flexibility and we also have a culture in which we are allowed
to learn from mistakes and from one another, which maximises our strengths.”
As it looks to 2016, the company expects to continue expanding its footprint and
increasing its turnover, while putting in additional technological processes and
systems to support its growth.

From humble roots in Belfast, multi-award winning e-commerce company, Ozaroo.com, has
rapidly become one of the nation’s fastest-growing technology companies. It won Northern
Ireland’s fastest-growing start-up award at the Deloitte Technology Awards in 2014 and in 2015,
it ranked as Northern Ireland’s second fastest-growing tech firm, ranking 15th across the whole
of Ireland. The company, which originated from a small-time hobby for Managing Director
Chris Martin, remains a proud family-run business today, employing many people from local
communities. Ozaroo.com has become one of the UK Ireland’s fastest-growing online retailers.
“Money was tight as my mum had three children to support on her own, so I
worked in part-time jobs from the age of 13 and throughout my teenage years and
even ran a sweet shop from my locker in school. I was interested in computing and
computer games and started selling some of my old games and pieces of hardware
on eBay,” says Chris, who was still living at home at the time and founded the
company in 2010, operating it out of his bedroom at his mum’s house. “What
I discovered was something of a niche market in Australia, where Australians were
looking to buy computer games online from abroad at much cheaper prices than
they could do locally. I took a chance and invested all the money I had saved-
up into a few ideas that I had. There was no business plan and no big financial
aspirations whatsoever.”
Chris’ second-hand sales hobby quickly mushroomed into a small-sized business
sending out up to 40 parcels of locally purchased products each afternoon. Soon
after its launch, Chris diversified the product range and began retailing smart
phones, baby products and electronics which could be purchased more cheaply
online by Australians thanks to the favourable exchange rate. Within a few months
of founding the company, Chris’ 16-year old brother Conor had stepped in to help
him cope, earning up to £100 per week at busy times.
“Every afternoon we’d load the orders into my old hatchback car and drive
down to the local post office to send the packages off. The stock didn’t fit in my
bedroom anymore, so we had to move it into a spare room and garage and were
soon receiving pallets of goods to the house,” he explains. “As well as marketing,
purchasing, picking and packaging, we had to cope with increasing sales and
customer service enquiries, which Conor would do after school.”
Within the first 6 months of establishing the company, Chris had enlisted his
mother’s help to run the business and had to overcome his reluctance to take
on overheads, moving into a small mechanic’s garage at a nearby business park.
404%
36th place
Northern Ireland regional
winner
36

Limited funds made it difficult to keep up with the growth and to find space for all
the products. Moving six times in just five years, it wasn’t long before the company
upgraded to a 22,500 square foot modern distribution centre in October 2014.
From the start, the vision for Ozaroo.com was to use a multi-sales channel
approach through a broad range of websites in addition to its own website.
As one of eBay’s fastest-growing accounts, Ozaroo.com was chosen to launch
the eBay Click Collect from Argos service. The Ozaroo.com team joined British
touring car champion, Colin Turkingon, at Argos’ flagship store in Belfast to launch
eBay Click Collect. Customers love the service as it means not having to wait
at home for a delivery. Today Click Collect orders account for 5 to 10% of orders.
It was not until the middle of last year that the business employed its first team
members from outside the family: dispatch operatives, who were quickly followed
by its first marketing and operations assistant. The team is continually growing
and today the company employs and contracts work to over 20 people from local
communities. The business receives hundreds of applications for every job post
that it advertises, which Chris believes shows the sheer number of people who are
unemployed or who want a change of career.
“It is very difficult to find people who are as dedicated as us and who fit in with our
hard-working ethos, but we’re always learning and finding out the best way
to do things,” says Chris. “I work up to 90 hours a week and, while I don’t expect
our employees to work even half that amount, we do hope that the people we
employ have the right attitude and put their best efforts into the tasks at hand.
I never liked working for other people, so I try to ensure that the things I disliked
about other workplaces were not part of my workplace. We like to ensure that
team morale stays high by ensuring that the workload is kept fairly balanced
between the entire team. We’ve recently introduced rewards and bonuses for
those who give it their best shot.”
Originally solely serving the Australian market, Ozaroo.com expanded into the
rest of the world including the UK and Irish markets a number of years ago. With
increasingly stronger partnerships with leading brands, custom-built IT software,
increased buying power, choice of delivery and collection options, and efficient
dispatch techniques, Ozaroo.com can deliver market-leading products at low prices
to customers across the globe.
“We’re growing every month and we hope this continues into 2016 and beyond,”
says Chris. “Increasing our product ranges and deepening our supplier and partner
relationships will bring even more competitive prices to our customers and will
allow us to secure employment and opportunities into the future. Sponsoring good
causes and donating to charities is also important to us and we hope to do more of
this kind of work going forward.”

Additional Deloitte thought leadership
Mobile Consumer 2015
Game of phones
www.deloitte.co.uk/mobileuk
Media Consumer 2015
The signal and the noise
www.deloitte.co.uk/mediaconsumer
TMT Predictions 2015
(2016 coming soon)
www.deloitte.co.uk/tmtpredictions
Deloitte CFO Survey
Q3 2015
www.deloitte.co.uk/cfosurvey
Deloitte Consumer Review
Consumer data under attack:
The growing threat of cyber crime
www.deloitte.co.uk/consumerreview
London Office Crane Survey
– Winter 2015: Construction
activity boost
www.deloitte.co.uk/cranesurvey
38

End notes
1. Source: Scene is set for UK startups to make it big, Raconteur, 12th March, 2015.
See: http://raconteur.net/business/scene-is-set-for-uk-tech-startups-to-make-it-big
2. Source: Number starting a business in 2012 rises 10%, startups, 22nd October 2013 and Start-up business record
smashed in 2014, startups, 6th January 2015. See: http://startups.co.uk/number-starting-a-business-in-2012-
rises-10/and http://startups.co.uk/start-up-business-record-smashed-in-2014/
3. Source: Britain hits record number of startups as more aspiring entrepreneurs take the plunge, The Telegraph,
23rd June 2015. See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/11692123/Britain-hits-record-number-of-
startups-as-more-aspiring-entrepreneurs-take-the-plunge.html
4. Source: The rise of the UK accelerator and incubator ecosystem, Telefónica, November 2014.
See: http://cdn.news.o2.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/12/O2_WAYRA_Report_121214.pdf
5. Source: Half of UK start-ups fail within five years, The Telegraph, 21st October 2014.
See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/11174584/Half-of-UK-start-ups-fail-within-five-years.html
6. Source: World Economic Outlook Database, IMF, October 2015.
See: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2015/02/weodata/index.aspx
7. Source: UK economic growth picks up to 0.7 per cent in second quarter, BBC, 28th July 2015.
See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33686358
8. Source: Business Confidence Monitor Q4 2015, ICAEW and Grant Thornton, October 2015.
See: http://www.icaew.com/~/media/corporate/files/about%20icaew/what%20we%20do/business%20
confidence%20monitor/2015/bcm%20q4%202015.ashx
9. Source: The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute, 2014.
See: http://thegedi.org/can-the-united-kingdom-be-number-one/
10. Source: The Legatum Prosperity Index, 2015.
See http://www.legatum.com/philanthropy/investing-in-policies-ideas/the-prosperity-index/
11. Source: The top technology companies of the Fortune 500, Fortune, 13th June 2015.
See www.fortune.com/2015/06/13/fortune-500-tech/
12. Source: Fortune’s The Unicorn List, Fortune, 25th August 2015. See http://fortune. com/unicorns/
13. Source: Shazam joins billion dollar startup club after $30m funding round, City A.M., 21st January 2015.
See: http://www.cityam.com/207600/shazam-joins-billion-dollar-startup-club-after-30m-funding-round
14. Source: TransferWise valued at $1bn by top Silicon Valley venture capital fund, Independent, 26th January 2015.
See: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/transferwise-valued-at-1bn-by-top-silicon-valley-venture-
capital-fund-10002618.html
15. Source: London tech startups are taking almost all the VC money in the UK, Business Insider, 8th October 2015.
See: http://uk.businessinsider.com/london-startups-bag-75-percent-of-uk-investment-2015-10
16. Source: Luxury online fashion retailer Farfetch valued at $1bn, Financial Times, 4th March 2015. See: http://www.
ft.com/cms/s/0/e20f6c92-c1d0-11e4-abb3-00144feab7de.html#axzz3sUdHU5YV
17. Source: Regional Gross Value Added (Income approach), Office of National Statistics, December 2014.
See: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_388340.pdf

18. Source: The rise of the UK accelerator and incubator ecosystem, Telefónica, November 2014.
See: http://cdn.news.o2.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/12/O2_WAYRA_Report_121214.pdf
19. Source: Powering the digital economy, Tech Nation, February 2015.
See: http://www.techcityuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Tech%20Nation%202015.pdf
20. Source: Digital, Social Mobile Worldwide in 2015, we are social, 21st January 2015.
See: http://wearesocial.net/tag/statistics/
21. Source: Gartner says tablet sales continue to be slow in 2015, Gartner, 5th January 2015.
See: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2954317
22. Source: Three-quarter of employers struggling to fill roles says CIPD, Ri5, 17th June 2015.
See: http://www.ri5.co.uk/site/news/article/threequarters-of-employers-struggling-to-fill-roles-says-cipd/
23. Source: Can diversity drive acceleration?, Simon Fanshawe, June 2015.
See: http://startupdna.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/startupDNA-executive-summary-Final.pdf
24. Source: UK Labour Market, June 2015, Office for National Statistics, 13th May 2015.
See: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/june-2015/statistical-bulletin.html#tab-3--
Employment-by-nationality-and-country-of-birth--not-seasonally-adjusted--first-published-on-13-May-2015-
25. Source: UK startup ecosystem more diverse than US but there’s still work to be done, Tech World, 17th June 2015.
See: http://www.techworld.com/news/startups/uk-startup-ecosystem-more-diverse-than-us-but-still-work-be-
done-3616179/
26. Source: Sector insights: skills and performance challenges in the digital and creative sector, UK Commission for
Employment and Skills, June 2015.
See https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/433755/Skills_challenges_in_
the_digital_and_creative_sector.pdf
27. Source: Proportion of women in UK digital workforce falls to 27 per cent, The Guardian, 9th June 2015.
See: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/09/women-uk-digital-workforce
28. Collaborative Workplaces: What Startups Can Teach Large Companies, Wired, 12th February 2015.
See: http://insights.wired.com/profiles/blogs/collaborative-workplaces-what-startups-can-teach-large-
companies#axzz3rD4sLs5P
29. Source: UK tech sector receives record funding, and it’s largely thanks to London FinTech, CityAM, 2nd July 2015.
See: http://www.cityam.com/219336/uk-tech-sector-receives-record-funding-and-its-largely-thanks-london-fintech
30. Source: Increasing number of UK tech startups looking stateside, Techworld, 15th April 2015.
See: http://www.techworld.com/news/startups/increasing-numbers-of-uk-tech-startups-looking-stateside-3607901/
31. Source: Record Venture Capital investment in UK Tech sector over last 9 months, London Partners,
8th October 2015.
See: http://www.londonandpartners.com/media-centre/press-releases/2015/20151097-record-venture-capital-
investment-in-uk-tech-sector-over-last-9-months
32. Source: UK businesses aiming to expand internationally doubles, Startups, 27th March 2015.
See: http://startups.co.uk/santander-finds-number-of-uk-businesses-aiming-to-expand-internationally-has-doubled-
since-2013/
40

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Designed and produced by The Creative Studio at Deloitte, London. J3109
Contacts
Researched and written by:
Tom Struthers
Portfolio Strategy Manager
Deloitte Innovation
020 7303 4203
tstruthers@deloitte.co.uk
David Cobb
Lead Partner, UK
Technology Fast 50
and EMEA 500
020 7007 2996
dcobb@deloitte.co.uk
Adam Stonell
Consultant, Digital Strategy
020 7007 2986
astonell@deloitte.co.uk
Talal Al-Nawab
Analyst, Monitor Deloitte
020 7007 2899
talnawab@deloitte.co.uk
Ed Shedd
Partner, UK Head
of Technology, Media
Telecommunications
Industry
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