The Scale Up Trailblazer Business of the Year Award
In 2025, the number of UK scale-ups grew to a record 44,595, contributing £2.19 trillion to the UK economy and employing 3.9m people (Scale-Up Institute 2025 Annual Report).
Despite representing less than 1% of UK businesses, scale-ups account for nearly half of the total economic output generated by 5.5m SMEs.
If you have achieved average annualised growth of at least 20% over the last three years, and exceeded expectations over the last 18 months, you deserve the recognition of your peers.
Has your business entered a new phase of growth, with a substantial increase in sales, headcount, profitability, market share or geographical expansion in recent years?
This award recognises scaling businesses that are demonstrating the highest levels of growth and a robust plan to deliver sustained financial success. Open to any UK-based scale-up with a current turnover of not less than £3m per annum and at least 10 employees, judges will look for those best demonstrating:
• Strong financial performance over a three-year period
• Organic growth, effective optimisation of growth capital or acquisition to scale
• Inspirational leadership and effective management
• Innovation in products, services or processes
• Exceptional customer service & engagement
• Engaged and productive employees
• Ethical practice and profit with purpose
SCORING
In this category judges will compare the extent to which each candidate has demonstrated excellence in the following areas:
Employee & Customer Engagement 25%
- How have you attracted, retained, motivated and optimised your team to help you win or retain clients?
- What talent strategies, workforce models or initiatives have improved employee engagement, increased productivity and enabled you to achieve your growth objectives?
- Provide case study examples and top line data to demonstrate how you have increased your customer base or market penetration over the last 18 months.
Leadership & Innovation 25%
- How has innovation supported scale? Provide evidence or case studies to demonstrate how an innovative product, service, solution or initiative has driven commercial success.
- Show how the management structure, leadership philosophy and culture of your company have supported scale or high growth over of the last three years.
Financial Performance & Growth 30%
- Explain your key growth metrics, including financial targets, KPIs, timescales and overall ambitions plus examples of milestones and barriers/challenges that have been overcome. Growth metrics can include adoption, subscription, lead generation, client base, headcount, NPS scores, etc.
- How do you benchmark against your peers in terms of sales, profitability or market share?
- How has your company performed against your growth plan and what will help you to sustain future growth?
- Show examples and/or case studies of what has supported, or will drive further, commercial success.
Purpose Beyond Profit 20%
- How does your guiding mission, values or purpose align with growth objectives?
- What is your company doing to improve environmental, social or governance impact and how are these initiatives aligned with commercial success?
- How does your approach to diversity, equity and inclusion align purpose with profit and how has this differentiated your business or made you more competitive?
