What is the definition of a high-growth company?
High-growth companies are organisations experiencing rapid expansion, typically measured by increased revenue, workforce, or market share. These firms often lead innovation, penetrate new markets, and contribute significantly to economic development.
Traditionally, identifying high-growth companies relied on static classifications like SIC codes, which are outdated and fail to capture dynamic sectors like AdTech, Quantum, or Engineering Biology.
With The Data City’s Real-Time Industry Classifications (RTICs), you can find these companies using real-time data, pinpointing growth areas that traditional tools overlook.
Why should you look into high-growth companies?
Understanding high-growth companies is crucial because they are the driving force behind economic development, innovation, and investment opportunities.
These businesses create jobs, attract funding, and signal emerging trends across industries. Whether they’re pioneering new technologies or scaling rapidly within existing markets, identifying them early can unlock strategic advantages for a variety of stakeholders.
A wide range of stakeholders rely on insights into high-growth companies to drive decision-making and strategy. Government bodies and economic development organisations use them to shape policies, attract investment, and measure impact.
Investors and financial institutions leverage this data to identify opportunities and manage risk, while corporate strategy teams track high-growth businesses for potential acquisitions and partnerships.
Data providers and market intelligence agencies can enhance their offerings with these insights, and professional services firms use them to deliver tailored advice and support to scaling businesses.
How to navigate our platform to find high-growth companies
The Data City platform simplifies the process of locating high-growth companies through a simple, user-friendly interface powered by machine learning.
Here’s how you can use it:
Using ‘Sort by’ on EXPLORE
When a user selects Company Growth: high to low from ‘Sort by’, it will sort companies based on their growth rate.
The growth percentage is based on an average of the estimated employee growth and the estimated turnover growth. If only one value is available, it only uses the single property for the overall growth score.
Use spinout data
Spinout data can also be a strong indicator of high-growth potential because spinouts typically originate from research-intensive environments such as universities, R&D institutions, or corporate innovation hubs. These companies are often built around cutting-edge technologies, intellectual property, or groundbreaking research, giving them a competitive edge in emerging markets.
Tracking spinout data helps identify businesses with high growth trajectories early, offering insights into which sectors are experiencing innovation surges and where future market leaders may emerge. For investors, policymakers, and corporates, this data provides a strategic advantage in spotting opportunities before they gain mainstream attention.
You can read more about our spinout data here
Search with RTICs
Utilise our proprietary Real-Time Industry Classification (RTICs) system to classify companies in real-time, going beyond outdated SIC codes. Maybe you want to focus on Renewable Energy or AdTech? You can build a tailored classification in seconds by simply selecting the RTIC you want.
By utilising RTICs, you can:
- Spot emerging sectors: Identify industries experiencing rapid expansion, from GreenTech to Quantum Computing.
- Track innovation clusters: See where high-growth companies are concentrated geographically and sectorally.
- Monitor sector trends: Get real-time insights into market movements, new entrants, and scaling businesses.
- Validate investment opportunities: Ensure high-growth potential by using accurate, data-driven sector intelligence.
How do we calculate company growth?
Our main measure of growth is based on the growth in employees. We’re careful to only calculate a growth rate where we have enough data and it is appropriate to do so. This means we need at least 3 years of employee data to calculate a growth rate for a company.
Our growth rate is the average annual change in employees and the method we use helps minimise the effect of missing values. View our full explanation of our growth rates on our Knowledge Base.
We adapt this approach for companies in a list, or a sector. Across the companies in a list, or sector, we sum the number of employees by year. We calculate the average annual change in employees, again using a method that better handles missing values.
We’ve mentioned that the main measure of growth is based on employees. On a company page, we will also show the growth in turnover, where appropriate. Turnover data is not reported as widely as employee data, which is why we prefer employee data.
Discover growth with a free trial
Curious about how you can identify and leverage data on high-growth companies? Start your journey with The Data City today.
Sign up for a free trial and unlock the tools to navigate the industries shaping tomorrow.
