The index, now in its fifth year, is built from Companies House filings. Nobody applies and nobody pitches, the accounts either show the growth or they don’t. The bar rose this year too: it took annual growth of more than 63% just to make the cut, in a period when the UK economy grew at 0.6%. Updraft’s revenue grew just over 80% a year across the two years measured.
Updraft helps people pay off credit card debt. Our members have cleared more than £850 million in credit card and overdraft balances so far, over a million people getting their cards sorted. So while the Growth Index measures a number going up, the number we stare at goes down. All the revenue growth ORESA counted started out as somebody’s card balance, finally heading the right way.
Card companies are comfortable with a balance that sits still. The minimum payment exists to keep it that way, ticking over and quietly collecting interest. Updraft’s business only works when balances fall. So a growth ranking, for us, is mostly evidence that a lot of balances fell.
Aseem Munshi, our founder and CEO, said: “Growth is a by-product for us. People come to Updraft to clear expensive card debt, and when it works they tell someone. Two years on this list says it keeps working.”
We’re in decent company. The 100 businesses on this year’s list together turn over more than £11.3 billion and grew at an average of 136.1% a year, the highest figure in the index’s five editions.
Finance is the biggest sector once again, and the report’s own analysis files Updraft under debt management, which is the right neighbourhood for us. Retail has come back after some difficult years, biotech features heavily, and the overall winner is an electric powerboat racing championship, which we mention mainly because it’s an electric powerboat racing championship.
Orlando Martins, founder of ORESA, said: “What’s striking is that many of these companies are succeeding despite significant obstacles. We’re seeing founders embrace new technologies, women build high-growth businesses against the odds, and ambitious firms scale internationally. The results suggest Britain is still leaving a great deal of economic potential untapped.”
The full Growth Index 2026 report, with the complete top 100 and interviews with the founders behind them, is available from ORESA.
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Updraft helps people pay off credit card debt. Using open banking and credit data, it shows people what they owe across their cards and overdrafts and helps them build a plan to clear it. More than a million people have used Updraft to pay off over £850 million in credit card and overdraft debt. Updraft is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and operates under Fairscore Ltd.
Updraft helps people pay off credit card debt. It uses open banking and credit data to show people everything they owe across their cards and overdrafts, then helps them build a plan to clear it. More than a million people have used Updraft to pay off over £750 million in credit card and overdraft debt.
No. Updraft is a service for paying off credit card debt. A consolidation loan can be part of how it helps, but it starts by using open banking to show people their full picture and build a plan to pay down what they owe. The goal is getting on top of the debt, not taking on more of it.
Updraft connects to a person's accounts through open banking and reads their credit data to show what they owe and what it is costing them in interest. From there it helps them build a plan to pay it down, which can include bringing higher-interest balances together so more of each payment goes towards clearing the debt rather than servicing interest.
Updraft won in two categories at the 2026 Credit Awards, held at Celtic Manor in Wales on 24 June 2026: Best Marketing Campaign of the Year, for its first television campaign, and Rising Star of the Year, awarded to Micha Panagiotidi, Updraft's VP of Credit and Analytics. The Credit Awards are run by Credit Strategy and judged by an industry panel, so the wins reflect recognition from within the credit and finance sector. Earlier in 2026 Updraft was also named best personal finance app at the British Bank Awards, which is voted for by customers.
Yes. Updraft is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It operates under Fairscore Ltd.