ScaleUp Institute 2026 Annual Review: 74,670 scaleups generating £1.65 trillion
Author
Martin Croft
PR & Marketing Manager
Add in the 27,925 businesses in the SUI’s pipeline, and the figures would grow to £2.75 trillion or 81% of UK SME output, despite only accounting for 1.9% of the SME business population.
In the introduction to the SUI’s 2026 Review, Margaret Rice-Jones, Chair of the SUI, says:
“Despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, tariffs and inflationary pressures, the UK scaleup economy continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience. There are now more than 70,000 scaleups, a 176% increase since 2013. The UK has also made significant progress internationally, rising from 13th to 3rd in scaleup velocity. The OECD has recognised this momentum, recognising the UK is outperforming the EU in scaling velocity and unicorn creation.”
However, Irene Graham OBE, founder and CEO of the ScaleUp Institute, warns that while the UK’s scaleup ecosystem is thriving, action needs to be taken to keep scaleup companies and the entrepreneurial talent that drives them in the UK.
“Scaleups move quickly and as an ecosystem and a country, the UK must do the same. With six in ten scaling firms considering moving their headquarters overseas, retaining our most innovative and ambitious businesses is a strategic imperative. We cannot afford to lose our future global champions through overseas relocation or premature sale.”
Key findings from the 2026 SUI Review include:
· Scaleups are across all sectors – while 40% are in the IS-8, the core eight technology sectors identified in The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy from November 2025 (Advanced Manufacturing; Clean Energy; Defence; Digital and Technology; Financial Services; Life Sciences; and Professional and Business Services), the majority of UK scaleups operate in sectors outside this list.
· Scaleups are productive - Scaleups are on average 40% more productive than their peers, generating an average of £283,000 turnover per employee.
· Scaleups are innovative - 9 in 10 scaleups have introduced or improved a product/service/process in the last three years, twice the rate of large firms.
· Scaleups are good corporate citizens – 60% scaleups say they are social businesses, and the same percentage offer opportunities to young people through internships/work experience/apprenticeships.
· Scaleups create high-quality jobs - Scaleups help create high-quality jobs with more satisfied employees – employing 6.1m workers.
· Scaleups are diverse - 31% are Women-led Businesses. 34% are Minority Ethnic Group-led Businesses.
Part of the annual SUI Review is a survey of scaleup CEOs. As the Review says:
“This year’s survey of UK scaleup leaders is the largest the ScaleUp Institute has ever conducted. It draws on insights from 1,354 scaleup CEOs whose businesses together generate around £33.23 billion in turnover and employ 249.3k people, with ambitions to grow to £36.61 billion and almost 278.3k employees. They span nearly every sector and region of the UK.”
· 64% of the CEOs in the survey operate in Industrial Strategy sectors.
· 73% are based outside London and the South East.
· Scaleup leaders are diverse, highly innovative, international and productive.
· Around a third of scaleups in the CEO survey are led by women and just over a third are led by people from minority ethnic groups.
· 50% identify as a family business.
· 9 in 10 have undertaken some form of innovation activity in the last three years.
· more than 4 in 10 say their appetite to innovate is higher than last year.
· Nearly 7 in 10 already sell overseas and plan to do so in 2027.
· 5 in 10 see opportunities to expand their physical presence abroad as they build global companies at scale.
· They invest heavily in research and development using the money they raise for R&D; technology developments such as AI (75%) and robotics (59%) are seen as significant opportunities by all of them.
Image: ScaleUp Institute Annual Review 2026
