Indian immigrants co-founded four of UK’s fastest-growing startups: Report

A business survey has found that four of the United Kingdom’s top fastest-growing startups are co-founded by Indian immigrants.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of the UK’s fastest-growing startups have at least one immigrant co-founder, while just 14 per cent of UK residents are foreign-born. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia

Out of immigrant co-founders from 29 different countries, India is listed in the third place after the US with eight, and France with five co-founders in the SyndicateRoom’s Top 100 list.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of the UK’s fastest-growing startups have at least one immigrant co-founder, while just 14 per cent of UK residents are foreign-born.

The top immigrant co-founded financial technology firms based in the UK include: Monzo, Revolut, TransferWise, Indian-origin Rakesh Khosla’s OakNorth, iwoca, Checkout.com and Onfido among others.

Nine of the UK’s 14 privately-held startup unicorns have at least one immigrant co-founder. Video game technology business Improbable, co-founded by India-born Herman Narula, is also on the list.

The fast-growing startups co-founded by immigrants in the Top 100 have attracted a combined GBP 3.7 billion in investment, according to data from Tech Nation’s 2019 report.

The UK attracted five per cent of global scaleup investment, behind only the US, India, and China.