Do you qualify?

The eligibility criteria for entering the UK Fast 50 ensures the programme remains objective and unbiased. Companies who enter the awards have to fulfil all of the eligibility criteria set out below:

1

The company must have accounts covering a minimum of four years (i.e. four full twelve month financial periods)

2

The company must be considered a technology company which, for this purpose, is defined as a company that meets at least one of the following four criteria:

  • Owns proprietary intellectual property or proprietary technology that contributes to a significant portion of the company's operating revenues;
  • Manufactures a technology related product;
  • Devotes a significant proportion of operating revenues to research and development of technology;
  • Is technology intensive, or uses its own unique technology to solve problems.

NB: Companies using third party technology or intellectual property in a unique way does not meet this definition. Consulting companies, professional services firms, resellers and others who don't rely on proprietary technologies to generate their revenue are not eligible.

3

The company must have its headquarters in the UK.

NB: Companies headquartered in Northern Ireland can take part in the UK OR Irish programme, but need to choose one or the other and cannot enter both.

4

The company must not be a subsidiary of a larger group.

If there is more than one trading company in a group of companies, the nomination should reflect consolidated revenue for year 1 and 4 and not the revenue of a particular company within the group.

5

The company must have base-year (year 1) operating revenues of £42,000 (€50,000) and a current year (year 4) operating revenue of at least £850,000 (€1,000,000).

Operating revenue figures must be calculated on a consistent basis. Please disclose in your application any change in revenue recognition between the year 1 and year 4 accounts. For the purposes of your application, operating revenue does include grant income.

NB: the accounts for the base-year must have an accounting period ending 31 March 2021; and the accounts for the most recent financial year must have an accounting period ending 31 March 2024. Management accounts may be submitted in instances where the companies statutory reporting date is not 31 March.

For the 2024 programme, we also ask for operating revenues for year ending 31 March 2020. This is to track the impact of COVID-19 on the 2024 Fast 50 cohort. By default, we will measure revenue growth using the Year 1 and Year 4 revenue figures, so this figure does not need to meet the Year 1 revenue threshold criteria. See our privacy statement for how we use this data.

6

All submissions must be accompanied by accounts for the first and last financial year being measured in the competition.

Where accounts are not audited, a cover letter (PDF | DOCX) must be provided. This cover letter should be on company headed paper, signed by a director (as per Companies House) of the company, stating and confirming the revenue figure per the accounts. Where only abbreviated accounts are available (with no profit and loss statement shown), please provide alternative financial information supporting the revenue figure presented, for example, management accounts used by the company, along with the cover letter described above.

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