Rankings · Outside France

Top 25 publishers — United Kingdom

Editorial ranking, updated on September 12, 2026 (source: our editors).

  1. 1. Sage Group

    Newcastle upon Tyne · founded in 1981 · Software & SaaS

    Britain's accounting and ERP giant for small and mid-sized businesses, listed on the London Stock Exchange for over 40 years.

  2. 2. AVEVA

    Cambridge · founded in 1967 · Software & SaaS

    Industrial software for engineering, operations and digital twins, delisted in 2023 to become a wholly owned Schneider Electric subsidiary.

  3. 3. Darktrace

    Cambridge · founded in 2013 · Cybersecurity & Identity

    AI-driven cybersecurity, spun out of the world of British intelligence.

  4. 4. Sophos

    Abingdon · founded in 1985 · Cybersecurity & Identity

    One of the country's oldest endpoint and network security vendors, now owned by Thoma Bravo.

  5. 5. The Access Group

    Loughborough · founded in 1991 · Software & SaaS

    Business-management software for the mid-market, one of Britain's largest software vendors, backed by private-equity firms Hg and TA.

  6. 6. IRIS Software Group

    Slough · founded in 1978 · Software & SaaS

    Accounting, payroll and school-management software for British practices and SMBs, owned by Leonard Green & Partners and Hg.

  7. 7. OneAdvanced

    Birmingham · founded in 2008 · Software & SaaS

    Formerly Advanced, a vendor of sector-specific business software for healthcare, legal and education, owned by BC Partners and Vista Equity Partners.

  8. 8. Civica

    London · founded in 2002 · GovTech · Public Sector & Defense

    Software for local government, health and public services in the UK and Australia, bought by Blackstone from Partners Group in 2023.

  9. 9. Canonical

    London · founded in 2004 · Cloud, Infra & DevTools

    The company behind Ubuntu, founded by Mark Shuttleworth, monetizing support and cloud tooling around the Linux distribution.

  10. 10. Ideagen

    Nottingham · founded in 1993 · Software & SaaS

    Governance, risk and compliance software for regulated industries — aviation, healthcare, finance.

  11. 11. GBG (GB Group)

    Chester · founded in 1989 · Cybersecurity & Identity

    Online identity and location verification, used by thousands of businesses worldwide.

  12. 12. Alfa Financial Software

    London · founded in 1990 · FinTech · Banking & Payments

    Asset-finance and auto-leasing management platform used by banks and captives, listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2017.

  13. 13. Quantexa

    London · founded in 2016 · AI & Data

    Decision-intelligence platform that links data and entities for banks and governments, a London unicorn since 2023.

  14. 14. Snyk

    London · founded in 2015 · Cybersecurity & Identity

    Developer-first security platform covering open-source dependencies, containers and code, born in London and now run from Boston.

  15. 15. Thought Machine

    London · founded in 2014 · FinTech · Banking & Payments

    Cloud-native core banking (Vault), founded by an ex-Googler and adopted by Lloyds, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered.

  16. 16. Zellis

    Bristol · founded in 2018 · HRTech · HR & Payroll

    Payroll and HR for large UK and Irish employers, the former NGA UK business, sold by Bain Capital to Apax in 2024.

  17. 17. Kerridge Commercial Systems

    Hungerford · founded in 1976 · Software & SaaS

    ERP for distributors, wholesalers and builders' merchants, active in around ten countries and backed by Accel-KKR.

  18. 18. Craneware

    Edinburgh · founded in 1999 · HealthTech · e-Health

    Revenue-cycle and hospital-pharmacy software sold to US hospitals, strengthened by the 2021 Sentry acquisition, listed on London's AIM market.

  19. 19. Synthesia

    London · founded in 2017 · AI & Data

    AI-generated corporate video with synthetic avatars and voices, a London unicorn since 2023.

  20. 20. Matillion

    Manchester · founded in 2011 · AI & Data

    Data integration and transformation for cloud warehouses like Snowflake and Databricks, a Manchester unicorn since 2021.

  21. 21. Paddle

    London · founded in 2012 · FinTech · Banking & Payments

    Merchant of record for software companies, handling billing, sales tax and compliance on the vendor's behalf.

  22. 22. Ocado Technology

    Hatfield · founded in 2000 · E-commerce & Retail

    Ocado's software and robotics arm, licensed by grocery chains around the world.

  23. 23. Improbable

    London · founded in 2012 · Media, Gaming & Entertainment

    Large-scale simulation technology spanning gaming and digital twins.

  24. 24. Tractable

    London · founded in 2014 · InsurTech · Insurance

    Computer vision for estimating car and property damage claims, used by major insurers.

  25. 25. ElevenLabs

    London · founded in 2022 · AI & Data

    AI voice synthesis and cloning, founded in London by two Polish entrepreneurs and a unicorn as early as 2024.