A Bristol-based defence engineering firm has been named the fastest-growing technology company in the South West. Rowden Technologies placed first regionally on the Sunday Times 100 Tech list.
The league table ranks Britain’s fastest-growing private technology businesses, shining a spotlight on the entrepreneurs and teams driving their success.
It is a sister ranking to The Sunday Times 100, a ranking of the UK’s fastest-growing private companies. To qualify, businesses must be independent, privately owned and headquartered in the UK.
Rowden Technologies was established in Bristol in 2016 by a former Army corporal to help the government become less reliant on multinational defence contractors. The business uses cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and edge computing, which is computing done at or near the source of the data, to enable the armed forces to do their jobs more effectively.
Its founder, Rob Harper, 37, is a former military communication systems engineer, who grew the company’s sales of £20.4m last year.
The second-fastest growing firm in the South West is online marketplace OnBuy, which is based in Bournemouth. The company, also set up in 2016, has a platform that is home to thousands of retailers, ranging from small independents to retail giants such as Sports Direct, selling more than 40 million products. In 2023, OnBuy was named Europe’s fastest-growing e-commerce business.
Devon-based direct mail platform Stannp was ranked in third place on the South West list for growth.
Jim Armitage, business editor of The Sunday Times, said: “The government has pledged to kickstart economic growth in 2025. The Sunday Times 100 Tech shows that Britain’s technology entrepreneurs are already making progress, creating high-value jobs and delivering cutting-edge goods and services.
“These businesses are proof that Britain remains a powerhouse for innovation. The rapid development of AI represents one of the biggest economic opportunities since the internet. We have seen the government embrace AI this week, but we still need the right support structures put in place to help the entrepreneurs who are harnessing AI to thrive.”
The research for The Sunday Times 100 Tech found that collectively the 100 companies on the national list generated sales of £3.2bn, up by £2.6bn in the last three years.
In total, the companies employ 20,700 people, having created 11,200 new jobs in the last three years. Of those ranked, 82 said they were planning to make additional hires in the next 12 months, with 4,200 jobs planned in total.
Nearly a fifth (17) of the businesses are founded or led by women and three-fifths (61) were founded in the last decade.
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