About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

Top 100 tech companies

The new line-up of top 100 UK tech companies shows just how disruptive and exciting this market can be.

The Guardian Tech Media Invest (TMI) 100 has just been launched.

It's a feature on 100 leading UK tech businesses that highlights the fast pace of change and excitement in this market – take a look at Tech Media Invest to see the full line-up.

There are some interesting thought pieces in there and the list of 100 companies highlights a number of things:

  • That  there are some established players now in the top 10 who regularly feature and are building valuable businesses and looking to really disrupt markets – Spotify, Wonga and Shazam for example.
  • That this list always sees lots of change – this year there are around 40 new entrants – some of these will succeed but for some this is their time for being perceived as ”hot” and they simply won’t build sustainable businesses or get acquired. All of these businesses have to capitalise on the fact that they are now grabbing attention.
  • That the list captures such a wide range of activities highlighting how creative and innovative the UK can be. Sectors like music, advertising, fashion, gaming and mobile where the UK has a long history of success but where new innovation always comes along - these sectors can help generate future UK growth.

It also reminds me why it’s such fun to be a VC. We have two companies in this list, Skimlinks and Light Blue Optics, but why don’t we have more?

Why don’t I know all 100 companies in this year’s list already? More importantly, which will be the 40 new entrants next year?

And how can I find them to invest in them now?!

Author

Matt Mead

Matt Mead

Matt Mead

Chief Investments Officer

Matt led the venture investing team which manages a £25 million portfolio which currently has 20 live investments and five limited partner positions. Following Nesta’s transition to ch…

View profile