By Philip Dutton, CEO & Founder
I’m delighted that Solidatus – the UK’s leading data management software company – has made it to position 212 in the FT 1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies 2023 list, as announced by the Financial Times in the UK yesterday.
Delighted, as I say, but not surprised; the three years to the end of 2021, the period for which the FT reviewed companies’ financials, saw intense and focused activity from what was a very small team for much of that time. There were just 21 of us in 2018, but we grew in staff numbers and revenue despite Covid and the tough conditions of the market in which we operate in Europe and beyond.
But what does this mean? Like Solidatus itself, it’s all about context.
Growing is easy when you’re small. But sustaining growth when you’ve hit the €100,000 mark – the first item on the FT’s list of qualification criteria – is the hurdle that, sadly, flaws most start-ups.
But it doesn’t stop there. To earn our place, we also had to generate revenue of at least €1.5 million in 2021 (a figure we exceeded by more than €3 million), and demonstrate that our revenue growth between 2018 and 2021 was primarily organic, which it was.
But here’s some more context, and it’s the stat of which I’m most proud: we were among only 223 companies that also enjoyed a compound annual growth rate of more than 100% during this period. This is a testament to my colleagues’ hard work and the faith our growing body of customers has shown in Solidatus, and it puts us on a pedestal alongside the likes of Kahoot!, PensionBee and many other enterprises that could soon be household names.
Of course, we can’t double every year indefinitely. Grains of rice on chess boards illustrate this point better than I ever could. But I feel confident that we’ll continue on an upward trajectory, and look forward to celebrating this with those of you who join us on this journey.
