Who are the Future Fifty class of 2018?
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The Future Fifty programme showcases some of the fastest growing late-stage digital tech companies in the country. Through a network of peer advice, expert-led classes and workshops, the Future Fifty programme aims to give the selected companies a higher profile within the tech community, providing them with a platform to take their businesses to the next level. With Tech City UK having recently announced a new cohort of 26 fast-growing tech companies joining Future Fifty, we’ve taken a closer look at some of the exciting new participants as well as a broader look at the programme’s impressive statistics.
Fintech at the forefront
The 26 new tech companies announced to be joining the programme span a variety of areas across the tech industry. Given last year’s surge in fintech investment it is no great surprise to see four of the 26 new companies coming from this sector. Having only launched in 2012, Checkout is already establishing itself as a leading international provider of online payment solutions. Currently processing 150+ currencies and with an impressive portfolio of customers that includes the likes of Samsung, Transferwise (incidentally also a current Future Fifty member), EasyGroup and Virgin, Checkout is certainly one to keep an eye on for the future.
Cybersecurity
Another eye-catching participant in this year’s programme is cybersecurity company Darktrace. Already one of the world’s fastest-growing cyber defence companies, Darktrace was founded by world-class machine learning specialists with some of the world’s largest companies now relying upon their sophisticated self-learning platform.
SaaS, Edtech and More
Also worthy of a mention are SaaS companies Masabi and Click Travel as well as the Edtech company Firefly Learning. Firefly offer a teaching support platform for schools, parents and students from around the world, and are continuing to grow at an impressive rate.
Featurespace is the world leader in Adaptive Behavioural Analytics, having developed their own software platform to analyse complex behavioural data. Headquartered in both the UK and the US, their current clients include credit card giants Visa and MasterCard. Meanwhile Memrise have developed a free language learning app with over 20 million registered users, having won a host of awards including Top Developer Badge and Best App of 2017.
The Future of the Fifty
Being named a Future Fifty participant is not only a ringing endorsement of a company’s success so far, but also a huge vote of confidence on their prospects for the future. Over the past five years, Future Fifty companies have raised over £5.5billion between them, with around £1.7billion of this coming in 2017 alone. Alumni from the programme have employed 27,000 people in 56 countries and have been involved in 23 mergers and acquisitions as well as 5 IPOs on the London Stock Exchange. This list includes household names such as Shazam, Skyscanner, Photobox and Zoopla – to name just a few.
Future Fifty’s class of 2018 has only recently been announced, but you can safely bet that you will be hearing much more from some of these names in the future. Watch this tech space closely. We certainly will be.
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