13. ForrestBrown

Founder: Simon Brown
Founded: September 2013
Website: http://forrestbrown.co.uk/

ForrestBrown helps to reward UK businesses that invest in innovation. How? It provides specialist Research & Development (R&D) tax credit advice, working with a range of companies to help them achieve significant corporation tax savings – £35m in savings so far to be precise.

Launched in 2013 by chartered tax advisor Simon Brown, the Bristol-based consultancy has submitted 750 claims to HMRC on behalf of its clients to date and has had a phenomenal 100% success rate on all claims submitted.

With a 23-strong team of tax professionals and turnover of £3.2m for 2015 – a 166% revenue hike on 2014 – Brown believes it is the company’s “disruptive approach” which has enabled it to achieve such rapid growth. The business only takes a fee from clients on successful claims and doesn’t charge set-up costs or contractual lock-ins.

Instead, Brown asserts the focus is to retain clients “by delivering great results with outstanding service” and this focus has paid off – in December, ForrestBrown was awarded the prestigious title of Service Business of the Year at the Startups Awards 2015.

While Brown says building his team and finding professionals with the right mix of expertise and entrepreneurial flair has been a challenge, the future looks bright for ForrestBrown and expansion is in the pipeline.

In March, the start-up announced it would be coming to London with an office location in Moorgate and, having surpassed its growth targets for 2015, Brown says the team are “looking forward to what lies in store in 2016”.