Healf, a London-based startup that helps customers source high-end health products, tops the third Sifted 100: UK & Ireland Leaderboard — an annual ranking of the 100 fastest-growing companies in the region, in partnership with law firm Marriott Harrison.
In second place is London’s Fuse Energy, which provides customers with energy and develops its own renewable energy assets, including solar power. Third is another London company, Apron, which uses technology to prevent renters from living in cold, damp homes.
The leaderboard ranks 100 companies with the strongest revenue growth over the past three financial years, calculated using a two-year revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
Collectively, the 100 have raised £18.53bn and hired more than 10k people.
Founded by brothers Lestat McCree and Max Clarke in 2020, Healf notched a 1,403% two-year revenue CAGR between 2023 and 2025.
The wellness industry is crowded with bold — and sometimes misleading — claims, alongside a near-endless stream of products. Healf’s approach is to curate what appears on its marketplace, supported by panels of experts across different health categories.
“We used to do Iyengar yoga with our grandmother before school. We weren’t your average young lads in Manchester,” says McCree.
Yoga was only the beginning. Over the years he has tried just about every sport imaginable, from Ironman races to jiu-jitsu.
Today McCree lives the mission behind Healf: bringing high-quality wellbeing products to a wider audience. “I probably take about a dozen supplements a day — everything from magnesium to omegas,” he says. His morning routine begins, he adds, with celery juice.
Alan Chang, the CEO of Fuse who was the third employee at fintech juggernaut Revolut, leads his company to a 900% CAGR.
The Revolut mafia effect continues with third-placed Apron, founded by another alum Bogdan Uzbekov. The company notches a 733% two-year CAGR.
Fintech triumph
For the third year in a row, fintech is the top-performing industry on the ranking with 36 companies, slightly down from 39 in 2025. Despite the climate tech slowdown, a record nine companies made the list.
Nearly a quarter (24) of companies on the ranking are AI-native, up from 16 last year. None feature in the top five; the top-ranked AI-native startup Lawhive is sixth.
The vast majority of the cohort (74) are based in London. Dublin is home to seven companies. Cambridge follows with four.
The average number of employees of the 100 companies has dropped by a third to 102. Average employee growth in the latest financial year is up marginally on the 2025 edition, from 30% to 34.5%. Period-tracking app Flo Health takes top spot for the most employees (681), followed by debt market intelligence platform 9fin (445) and savings app Moneybox (444).
Four unicorns feature, including Fuse, Dublin security automation startup Tines (which hit a $1bn valuation last year), Flo Health and business payments terminal Teya.
Accel is the VC firm that’s backed the most startups on the ranking, investing in seven companies — including Fuse, London AI company Omnea and Dublin software company Nory.
Crowdfunding platform Crowdcube also backs seven, while Founders Factory and Seedcamp each back five.
Seven companies in the top 100 have already raised funding in 2026. Of those, Oxford-based self-driving software company Oxa has raised the biggest sum: a £77.5m Series D. It’s followed by automated protein screening company Nuclera (£63.7m Series C) and legaltech Lawhive (£47m Series B).
The 10 fastest-growing startups in the UK and Ireland
- 1) Healf: Marketplace for high-end wellbeing products
- 2) Fuse Energy: Renewable energy subscriptions for homes
- 3) Apron: Simplified invoice processing for SMBs
- 4) Yaspa: Stripe-like payment processing platform
- 5) Capi: Helps businesses pay foreign suppliers
- 6) Lawhive: Uses AI to reimagine the law firm
- 7) Huzzle: Quickly hire global tech talent
- 8) Omnea: Simplifies procurement with AI
- 9) Kota: Employee benefits in a single unified platform
- 10) Nuclera: Automated protein screening
View the full, digital version of the leaderboard here
How the 100 were chosen
To be eligible, companies had to meet the following criteria:
- Private and independent
- Headquartered in the UK or Ireland
- Founded no earlier than 2010
- Majority of revenue must be generated by proprietary technology
- At least three years of revenue data, either between 2022-2024, 2023-2025 or 2024-2026 depending on filing dates, across comparable accounting periods of at least 26 weeks
- Revenue (annualised if necessary) of at least £42k in the base year (2022, 2023 or 2024) and at least £420k in the most recent financial year (2024, 2025 or 2026)
Companies were required to submit relevant, signed documentation to support financial information disclosed to Sifted not publicly available at Companies House. Some companies chose to keep some of this information private.
Research was conducted by the Sifted Intelligence team to identify and contact relevant, high-growth startups. Applications were accepted on the Sifted website from January 1 to February 13, 2026 and Companies House was used to widen the search.
Sifted Leaderboards do not claim to be exhaustive as private company data can be difficult to obtain. Leaderboards are based on historical financial data and do not guarantee future company performance.
