January 2023

23 Jan

Posted at 08:14h in Investment Opportunities

Based on an eight-point criterion, Beauhurst tracks more than 45,000 ambitious* private companies in the United Kingdom for the period between 2020 and 2021, to identify some of the fastest growing businesses in every UK nation, while also shed light on the range of popular sectors and trends and methods of growth.

 

Beauhurst is a searchable, data-driven platform, that helps discover, track, and understand high growth companies in the UK, in a variety of sectors, from education to law, while also unearthing information on unpopular funding opportunities and other key events in the UK.

The United Kingdom has an exquisite start up ecosystem attracting entrepreneurs and investors from all nooks and corners of the world, building world class businesses and products. To be classified a high-growth company in the Beauhurst dataset, it must meet at least one or all the eight-points criteria, called the triggers of growth, that ranges from equity investment to venture debt.

The current outlook published in January this year is based on the 45k+ companies tracked by the platform, and the current analysis focuses on these Beauhurst registered companies with a turnover of at least £100k between 2020-2021. It revealed a majority (88%) of the businesses to be based in England, with just 7% in Scotland, 3% in Wales and 2% in Northern Ireland.

While equity investment remains the common growth method for businesses, the relative percentage of companies that have looked into accelerator programmes for development are much lower in England compared to other countries.

Business and Professional sectors has been identified as the most sought sectors across UK: England (44%), Scotland (38%), Wales (41%) and Northern Ireland (37%)., with fintech being the most popular focus area in England making up for 3.5% all English businesses. 74% of all fintech startups are also headquartered in London.

For London in 2021, the previous High Growth in London 2022 report by Beauhurst had shown fintech emerges as the most popular high-growth industry, accounting for 14% of all active companies in the region representing a whopping 69% of all high growth fintech companies in the UK, followed by artificial intelligence and digital security. The current report repeated the trend in the tech sector with Fintech companies making up 3.5% of the English businesses. Read more of the report and to know the top companies in all nations in the UK.

20 Jan

Posted at 10:41h in Events

The West London Skills Summit will bring together local employers and skills/training institutions to contribute to an informed and represented London Local Skills Improvement Plan, an initiative funded by the Department of Education to ensure higher education/skills suits local labour market needs.

The London Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) aims to build a stronger and more dynamic relationship between the employers and skill providers within the local skills system, and plays a crucial role in tackling technical skills shortages. This is of utmost importance in the current economic climate, in an exceptionally tight labour market.

West London Business and West London Alliance own the credit for the sub-region’s annex to the London LSIP. The West London Skills Summit will provide the stage to ensure the representation of diverse voices to contribute to LSIP.

The Summit is a fully catered, all-day event with networking events in between hosted at the West Hall, University of West London. The entry fee is £10.

Follow the link to register or contact Charlie.Boyd@westlondon.com for any queries.

12 Jan

Posted at 17:38h in Heathrow

Virgin Atlantic is all set to launch its first net zero flight powered by sustainable fuel. The airlines will resort to Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF made predominantly from agricultural and forestry waste, rather than fossil fuels, which has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 70 per cent.

Virgin Atlantic won the competition and 1£ million in funding to pioneer powering a 100% sustainable aircraft launched by the Department of Transport of the UK Government, in partnership with Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency in December last year. They will be supported by Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, Rocky Mountain Institute and ICF.

Aviation has been one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise and is set to be the highest-emitting sector by 2050 unless properly intervened. The Jet Zero strategy was published by the UK Government to tackle the crisis, which set the airlines’ approach for decarbonising the sector and SAF acts as one of the main tools for the same. 

One of Virgin Atlanta’s flagship, Boeing 787s will fly from London Heathrow Airport to the John F Kennedy airport in New York. The flight is set to take off from the UK this year. The SAF, fuelling the flight is made primarily from waste oils and fats, such as used cooking oil. While this reduces carbon emissions by 70%, the airline will have biochar credits which will offset the 30% by absorbing additional CO2 back from the atmosphere to remove the greenhouse gas potential.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said,

“For decades, flying from London to New York has symbolised aviation’s ability to connect people and drive international progress. It’s now going to be at the forefront of cutting carbon emissions from flying”

Shai Weiss, the CEO of Virgin Atlantic also mentioned,

“As an airline founded on and committed to innovation, we’re proud to lead a cross-country consortium of partners to make aviation history by operating the first ever 100% SAF flight across the Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural flight in 1984 was to New York and continues to be one of our popular routes … the research and results will be a huge step in fast-tracking SAF use across the aviation industry supporting the investment, collaboration and urgency needed to produce SAF at scale”

Apart from contributing significantly to the sustainability of the environment, the production of SAF also has the potential to improve fuel security and support green jobs. It is expected to create a UK industry with an annual turnover of £2.3 billion by 2040, also creating up to 5,200 jobs by 2035.