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Case Study

How B Lab UK used The Data City to evidence the business resilience of B Corps

Find out how B Lab UK used The Data City to evidence the business resilience of B Corps – uncovering statistically significant results, strengthening their analysis, and getting hands-on support from a team they called “10 out of 10”.

Overview

B Lab UK is the organisation behind the B Corp movement in the UK. It certifies companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. Its mission is to redefine success in business, proving that companies can benefit people and the planet while still being profitable.

To mark ten years of B Corps in the UK, B Lab UK published its 2025 Impact Report, ‘Take 10’. The report aimed to show that B Corps don’t just behave differently, they perform differently too. It explored the impact of B Corps on people, the planet and the economy, with a clear goal: prove that doing business with purpose delivers results.

Anisa Morsi, Data & Insight Analyst at B Lab UK, led the economic analysis in ‘Take 10’. As part of the wider report, she used data from The Data City to compare B Corps to other UK businesses across survival rates and investment performance.

Sector
  • Non-profit
Services
  • Platform License
  • Data Services
Key Results
  • 'Take 10' impact report published
  • B Corps shown to be more resilient than typical UK businesses during COVID

The Challenge

Anisa wanted to understand how B Corps compared to other businesses when it came to resilience and financial outcomes. She already had two groups of companies to work with – certified B Corps, and companies that had engaged with B Lab’s impact platform but weren’t certified.

To strengthen the analysis, she needed a third group, a representative sample of UK companies that had not engaged with B Lab at all. This would give her a true benchmark to compare against.

We supplied a large, random sample of companies active pre-pandemic, which enabled B Lab UK to match the dataset across demographics. Working together enabled B Lab UK to create a robust dataset that allowed for fair comparisons and statistically meaningful results.

The Results

Using this new group alongside internal datasets, B Lab UK conducted a survival analysis to measure how many companies were still active in 2025, five years after the start of the pandemic.

The results were clear:

  • 93% of B Corps remained active
  • 88% of platform-engaged but uncertified companies remained active
  • 84% of the general UK business group remained active

This showed that B Corps were more likely to survive challenging conditions compared to other businesses. The difference between B Corps and the wider business population was statistically significant.

They also used The Data City’s platform to explore growth funding. The analysis showed that over the past ten years, UK B Corps attracted a median of £1.5 million in growth funding from external investors. That’s 18% more than the £1.3 million median for other UK companies.

Both of these insights – survival and investment – featured in B Lab’s 2025 Impact Report and supported its case that B Corps are more resilient, investable businesses.

B Lab UK also highlighted the value of working with The Data City’s team. Jack and Anagha supported with company number matching and data exports to help improve the analysis.

With support from The Data City, B Lab UK was able to clearly evidence that B Corps outperform the wider business population.

You can read the full impact report on the B Lab UK website today.