FT1000: Europe’s Fastest-Growing Companies 2026 ranking

The FT1000 2026, compiled with research company Statista, lists the European companies that achieved the highest compound annual growth rate in revenue between 2021 and 2024.

Topping the list is Healf, a UK-based online wellbeing retailer with a CAGR of 621.7 per cent. In second place is Popeyes UK, a fast-food chain specialising in fried chicken, with a CAGR of 510.9 per cent. In third position is CDC Chain Drive Crane, an Italian company that builds and maintains cable transport systems, with a CAGR of 503.4 per cent.

France, Germany, the UK and Italy account for 75 per cent of the companies in the ranking.

The IT & software category contributes 213 companies to the FT1000, followed by fintech, financial services & insurance with 77 and construction & engineering with 76.

The full FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies report publishes online and in print on March 26, exploring sectors, countries and trends.

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Methodology

The FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies is a list of the Top 1000 companies in Europe that have achieved the highest percentage growth in revenues between 2021 and 2024.

Application phase

The project was advertised online and in print, allowing all eligible companies to register via the websites created by Statista and the Financial Times. In addition, through research in company databases and other public sources, Statista has identified tens of thousands of companies in Europe as potential candidates for the FT1000 ranking. These companies were invited to participate in the competition by email and telephone.

The application phase ran from September 1 to November 30 2025. The submitted revenue figures had to be certified by the chief financial officer, chief executive or a member of the executive committee of the company.

Criteria for inclusion in the list

To be included in the list of Europe’s fastest growing companies, a company had to meet the following criteria:

• Revenue of at least €100,000 generated in 2021*

• Revenue of at least €1.5mn generated in 2024*

• The company is independent (not a subsidiary or branch office of any kind).

• The company is headquartered in one of 35 European countries**

• The revenue growth between 2021 and 2024 was primarily organic (ie “internally” stimulated)

• Companies with three or fewer employees or companies that are not a legal entity were required to deliver further proof concerning their revenue numbers

* Non-euro countries: currency value equivalent as of December 31 of the relevant year

** Eligible to participate were all companies from these countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

Calculation of CAGR

The calculation of company growth rates is based on the revenue figures submitted by the companies in the respective national currency. For better comparability in the ranking, the revenue figures were converted into euros. The average exchange rate for the financial year indicated by the company was used for this purpose.

The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was calculated as follows: ((revenue 2024 / revenue 2021) ^ (1/3)) — 1 = CAGR

Evaluation and quality assurance

All data reported by the companies was processed and checked by Statista. Missing data entries (employee numbers, address data, etc) were researched in detail. Companies that did not fulfil the criteria for inclusion in the ranking were deleted.

The minimum average growth rate required to be included in the ranking this year was 17 per cent.

Disclaimer

The ranking of the FT1000 was created through a complex procedure. Although the search was very extensive, the ranking does not claim to be complete, as some companies did not want to make their figures public or did not participate for other reasons.