LBS entrepreneurs make Sifted ranking of 250 fastest-growing startups in Europe

Wayflyer, one of the leading European providers of revenue-based financing to e-commerce companies, AR solutions company XYZ Reality, and UK-based luxury retail platform Cult Mia have made this year's Sifted 250, the flagship ranking of the Sifted Leaderboards programme.

The three companies were founded by London Business School alumni and in April of this year made the Sifted 100 Leaderboard for the fastest-growing startups across the UK and Ireland by revenue growth.

The Sifted 250 ranks Europe’s 250 startups with the highest percentage revenue growth over the past three financial years, calculated using a two-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Combined, the 250 startups have generated revenues of €6.86bn over the past three financial years and employ over 25,000 people across the continent. On average, they have raised €70.67m in capital.

To be eligible, startups had to meet the following criteria: headquartered in Europe (excluding Azerbaijan, Belarus, Israel, Russia and Turkey); founded in or after 2014; maximum full-time headcount of 999; private and independent; majority of revenue must be generated by proprietary technology; at least three years of revenue data; and revenue (annualised if necessary) of at least €50k in the base year (2020, 2021 or 2022) and at least €500k in the most recent financial year (2022, 2023 or 2024).

Companies were required to submit signed documentation to support disclosed financial information not publicly available. Some chose not to make their latest revenue figure public information.

Cult Mia

Nina Briance (LBS MBA 2019) is founder and CEO of Cult Mia. Beginning life as an enterprise that had an ambition to identify designs that demanded attention, feeding the appetite for independent fashion, four years on since its launch, Cult Mia has expanded considerably, with the company’s community growing to above 100,000 members by the end of 2023 and achieving a seven-digit turnover figures. In October Cult Mia secured more than €4.6m in seed funding for expansion in high growth markets.

Wayflyer

Entrepreneur Aidan Corbett (LBS MBA 2013) is co-founder of Wayflyer, a company that provides revenue-based financing to e-commerce companies. “We developed a proprietary technology platform that analyses marketing performance on a daily basis and underwrites up to $20m in funding in as fast as 24 hours,” says Aiden, adding that “our growth is, in part, attributable to the proliferation of e-commerce activity during the past decade, and particularly since the pandemic.

XYZ Reality

Born out of a frustration with 2D drawings, widely used by the construction industry, an industry that experiences significant cost overruns and delays caused by correcting errors in the building process. XYZ Reality’s purpose-built integrated Augmented Reality (AR) solution, HoloSite directly addresses these issues.

XYZ Reality and Cult Mia both benefited from the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital (IEPC) Incubator programme.