The FT 1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies is a list of the top 1000 companies in Europe with the highest revenue growth between 2018 and 2021.
This year, FT 1000 launched its seventh annual ranking of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, and 95 of them are ecommerce businesses. The vast majority of these companies are from Germany, such as WLDOHO and KoRo.
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Quick Overview
With the help of data provider Statista, the seventh annual FT 1000 ranking identifies companies that have experienced growth and expansion. Rankings are based on revenue growth rates for European companies between 2018 and 2021. To make the list, companies had to achieve an average growth rate of 36.2% – slightly less than last time’s 36.5%.
In addition, a company had to meet the following criteria to be included on the list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies:
- At least €100,000 in revenue was generated in 2018
- Revenue of at least €1.5 million in 2021
- It is an independent company, not a subsidiary or branch office
- Between 2018 and 2021, revenue growth was primarily organic, i.e., “internally” stimulated
- Since 2021, a company’s share price has not fallen by 75 percent or more on a stock exchange
FT1000 featured 356 companies from last year’s list, and 125 have been on the list for three years running.
Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies 2023
Source: https://www.ft.com/ft1000-2023
Above, you will find 20 companies that made the list. On the podium are:
- Tripledot Studios (UK)
- Marshmallow (UK)
- WeCo (Italy)
But that’s not all, as the top 20 includes as many as 5 companies from Germany, including:
- Inkitt (no. 8)
- Wall Universe (no. 14)
- Micro-Medical (no. 15)
- Mission Mittelstand (no. 16)
- Freight2Fly (no. 18)
Overall, there are 95 companies in the ecommerce industry on the list. 41 of the fastest-growing ecommerce businesses are located in Germany. These include razor brand WLDOHO (no. 56) and food retailer KoRo (no. 70).
Also, a total of 24 businesses are listed in Italy, followed by 12 in France, 7 in the United Kingdom, and 4 in the Netherlands. Then, Poland, Spain, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic are represented by up to three companies each.
In spite of hosting four of the top five companies in the ranking, the UK remains third with 155 fast-growing companies, behind Italy with 260, and Germany with 217.
The Winners
Source: https://www.ft.com/ft1000-2023
With a CAGR of 794.7 percent, Tripledot Studios tops the FT 1000 list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies. As people turned to PCs and phones for entertainment during the lockdown, mobile game makers profited. The company was one of only seven companies in the leisure and entertainment category, which is once again dominated by IT & software companies.
Insure-tech company Marshmallow comes in second with a CAGR of 659.8 percent, while lithium battery maker WeCo of Italy ranks third with a CAGR of 433.1 percent. These two companies’ growth rates indicate the ongoing digitalization of finance and the shift away from fossil fuels – trends that will only intensify.
The Unsure Future
Investors are becoming more cautious due to persistent inflation, the end of low-interest lending, and a slide in the value of technology stocks. PitchBook reports that venture capital investment fell 16 percent in 2022 to €91.6 bn. The sentiment has been hurt by a “combination of high inflation, rising interest rates, weak economic growth, and renewed geopolitical tension” — which means some start-ups will have to fight harder for funding.
And these drags in growth are set to increase as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues and countries across Europe face economic recession.
Last Words
These are the fastest-growing companies in Europe. Although we have not yet found German companies on the podium, as many as 41 businesses on the list are from that country. And that already means that Germany has the most fast-growing ecommerce companies.
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