RateSetter and Zopa named among fastest-growing European firms
TWO of the UK’s largest peer-to-peer lenders have made it onto the Financial Times’ FT 1,000 list of the fastest-growing companies in Europe.
Zopa was number 571 on the list, with revenue growth of 304 per cent and a revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 59.3 per cent between 2014 and 2017. Its 2017 revenue was reported as €54.6m (£47.1m).
RateSetter came in at 944th position thanks to absolute revenue growth of 173 per cent and CAGR of 39.8 per cent between 2014 and 2017. Its 2017 revenue was listed as €40.3m.
Alternative property lender LendInvest, which used to be a member of the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association before it stopped accepting retail money directly through its platform, came in at 113th place. It recorded absolute revenue growth of 1,042 per cent and CAGR of 125.2 per cent between 2014 and 2017. Its 2017 revenue was listed as €41.8m.
The list ranked 1,000 Europe-wide companies based on a variety of factors including compound annual growth rate, revenue growth and employee growth rates.
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UK-based car financing firm Blue Motor Finance was ranked at the top of the chart, with absolute revenue growth of 51,364 per cent over the past year. Food delivery firm Deliveroo came in second place, with revenue growth of 15,749 per cent, while Estonian ride-hailing app Taxify was placed third with 12,231 per cent revenue growth.
The authors of the report noted that the companies on the list have been growing at a faster rate than ever before.
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“The hurdle to securing a place was a little higher this year,” the authors said. “The bottom-ranked company achieved a growth rate of 37.7 per cent, compared with 34.6 per cent last year.”
149 of the companies on the list were in the technology sector, and a further 19 were fintech firms.
For the second year in a row, Germany was home to the majority of the FT 1000 companies, with 230 headquartered there.
However, London was still the most popular city for fast-growing firms, with 63 businesses based there, down from 74 last year.
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