More than half of the UK’s 100 fastest growing businesses were founded by someone from overseas.
At 54%, it’s the joint-highest annual figure since the Entrepreneurs Network began the analysis in 2019.
The 54 companies have a combined pre-money valuation of £15.84 billion, 70% of the total for the top 100.
Of the 225 founders and co-founders behind the 54 firms, 98 (44%) were born overseas, up from 42% last year. That is more than double the foreign-born share of the population, which the Migration Observatory put at around 19% in 2024.
The founders were born in 35 countries across six continents, up from 29 last year. The US was the most common country of birth, with nine founders, followed by Italy (eight) and Germany and India (seven each).
A consultation on earned settlement, which proposed doubling the standard qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain from five years to 10 for most work routes attracted more than 200,000 responses, but the government has yet to respond.
With net migration falling from a peak of 944,000 in the year to March 2023 to 171,000 in 2025, the Entrepreneurs Network said it “weakens the case for further sweeping restrictions that also catch the small number of people who start and scale the companies Britain needs”.
The report made several recommendations including publishing the consultation response with a firm implementation date, widening the rankings used to set eligibility for the High Potential Individual.
The group also said the cost foreign-born founders coming to the UK and being hired should be cut.
A founder moving to Britain alone on the Innovator Founder visa pays £6,862, rising to £18,694 with a partner and two children, it said, so visa fee reimbursement, now available only to established scaleups, should be extended to companies with fewer than 10 employees for their first three sponsored hires, and fees on founder and high-talent routes should be frozen for the rest of this Parliament.
Philip Salter, founder of The Entrepreneurs Network, said:
“Year after year, our analysis shows foreign-born founders building a disproportionate share of Britain’s fastest-growing companies. This year they’re behind more than half of the top 100 and 70% of its value. These are exactly the people a government with a growth mission should be competing to attract.
“Net migration has already fallen sharply, and more than half the public back making it easier for skilled people to move here. Yet founders and the people they want to hire are being asked to make ten-year decisions against settlement rules that still don’t exist.
“The home secretary should publish the consultation response and confirm that founders, exceptional talent and their families keep a fast track to settlement. None of our recommendations would materially increase net migration – they would simply make sure the people who build Britain’s fastest-growing companies choose to do it here.”
