In this blog we look at the UK’s B2B Services industry, using our real-time data to highlight the agencies providing specialist lead generation and market research services.
At The Data City, we’re all about helping you understand what companies do, in real time. That’s why we built Real-Time Industrial Classifications (RTICs), our answer to outdated, vague SIC codes and endless manual searches.
Rather than relying on what box a company ticked when it was formed, we use AI and web data to map companies based on what they actually do today.
That means we can track emerging industries, like FemTech, Advanced Manufacturing, and Quantum Technology, in a way that traditional classification systems simply can’t.
Introducing our B2B Services RTIC
Now, we’ve turned our focus to B2B Services, mapping the companies that help businesses find new clients, understand their markets, and drive growth. This RTIC covers two key verticals:
- B2B Lead Generation Agencies – Specialists in targeted outreach, prospecting, and sales acceleration. These companies help businesses identify and convert high-value leads through outbound marketing, Account-Based Marketing (ABM), and demand generation strategies.
- B2B Market Research Agencies – Experts in industry intelligence, customer insights, and competitor analysis. These firms provide data-driven research to support strategic decision-making, market positioning, and business growth.
If you’re looking for market trends, high-growth companies, or investment data, our platform is the perfect place to start. With powerful filters, you can drill down into location, funding, growth, and employment data to find exactly what you need.
Want a snapshot of the sector? Why not download our B2B Services RTIC report.
B2B Services market overview
So, what does the UK B2B Services market look like? Using our ANALYSE tool in our platform we’re able to get a detailed view of the sector.
We can quickly see a robust sector, with over 1,800 companies and 15,000 total employees contributing £1.2B in total turnover.
Our estimated growth rates shows a thriving industry with +8% increase per year.
As well as a view of growth and an estimated total GVA for the industry, we can also look at interest in the industry from investors.
Investment & grant funding
We partner with Dealroom to include investment data for companies in our platform where it’s available. For B2B Services, there’s been over £132 million in total funding across 48 companies in the sector – with a spike of investment in 2021.
Additionally, companies in this RTIC have received just over £4 million in Innovate UK grant funding across 14 grants.
Location
Where are these companies located?
Our data also shows location information for companies, allowing you to see clusters across the UK. For B2B Services, London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham & Wolverhampton, and Glasgow act as hubs for lead gen and market research specialists.
Jobs & skills data
Another key data point we’re able to dig into is jobs and skills data from Lightcast.
This platform upgrade allows us to look at RTICs like B2B Services and access job postings, median salary as well as most popular skills.
For B2B Services, the top job postings are much as you’d expect:
- Marketing associate professional – £29,944
- Sales related occupations n.e.c. – £28,760
- Customer service occupations n.e.c. – £22,883
- Programmers and software development professionals – £40,419
- Managers and directors in retail and wholesale – £29,606
Skills most required also ring true, with Marketing, Business to Business, Customer Relationship Management and Sales Prospecting being the most sought after.
Sector crossover
Our RTIC data in ANALYSE also allows you to see the crossover and relationships between sectors.
For B2B Services, we see companies also classified in Business Support Services, Digital Creative Industries, and Agency Market.
RTIC verticals
As well as mapping the sector, we also have more granular data on verticals. For B2B Services, we’ve split these into B2B Lead Generation Agencies and B2B Market Research Agencies.
You can research and view insights for these individually on our platform. From our data we can see whilst there are more lead generation companies and employees, it’s market research that has received the most funding and contributed the most in turnover.
B2B Services companies
So, we’ve had an overview of the RTIC. Let’s look at the granular data and highlight some of the key companies driving success in the B2B Services industry.
Using EXPLORE in The Data City platform, we’re able to see the full list of companies mapped in our B2B Services RTIC.
Quickly we can look at some of the bigger players or standout companies in the list.
Standout B2B companies
Using the sort by tool, we can look at the companies with the highest estimated turnover. This includes:
MMR Research – MMR Research are a global consumer research agency based in Oxford, specialising in sensory research, product development, and brand strategy. Clients include Nando’s, Peroni, and Nivea. Employee numbers have grown from 772 in 2022 to an estimated 1,000+ in 2024, with a +17.3% growth rate.
Estimated turnover – £115 million / Estimated employee count – 1,041
Savanta – Savanta are a data, market research and advisory company with offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, who work closely with B2B brands, agencies and consultancies and consumer brands.
Estimated turnover – £59.5 Million / Estimated employee count – 421
Operatix – Operatix stands out as a leading B2B lead generation agency, specialising in outsourced SDR teams for software vendors like Cisco and Oracle. Their services span inbound lead qualification, outbound sales development, and marketing. Growing at +30% per year, they were acquired by Memory Blue (US) in 2023.
Estimated turnover – £18 Million / Estimated employee count – 229
High-growth B2B companies
We can also use our filters in EXPLORE to find high-growth companies.
This can be particularly useful for investors and B2B marketers themselves looking for prospects or companies of interest.
Our intuitive filters allow you to tailor your searches for specific sectors, locations, keywords, financial measures, growth information and in-depth company data.
In this case we can use our growth filter to find companies in the B2B Services RTIC that are growing fast.
From this we get companies marked as fast-growing, with an estimated growth rate of over 20%.
Demand generation experts Inbox Insight, LinkedIn and email outreach company The Lead Lab and Account Media, a B2B demand generation supplier for publishers, are among the fastest growing companies in this RTIC.
See for yourself
Whether you’re interested in the size and scale of the sector, or pinpointing individual companies in the B2B space, our platform is the perfect place to understand what companies do.
If you’d like to find out more about the companies in our B2B Services RTIC, why not download our snapshot report.
Keen to dig a little deeper, you can also sign up for a free trial of our platform and see the insights for yourself.
