Great British Billion-Pound Businesses
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Meet Britain’s entrepreneurial elite. Here are the leaders who have managed to create a UK business worth £1bn – and kept going. These are people who have built ventures spanning everything from artificial intelligence and virtual reality to hoodies and craft beer.
You’ll find discount retailers and a diamond dealer, bookmakers and the woman behind one of the biggest gambling companies in the world. Some of these founders left school without a qualification, others have PhDs. There are those who toiled away for years and are still in charge of their company after more than half a century.
There are others who have catapulted their way onto this list within just a few years by developing tech for which investors have been willing to write out very large cheques in the hope they are buying into the next Apple, Google or Facebook. One thing unites them all. At one point it was just them, perhaps a co-founder or two, an idea and a desire to try their luck.
The UK needs more of these billion-pound entrepreneurs with the energy and hunger to keep building. It needs more businesses that employ people by the thousand, not by the dozens or hundreds. The profiles may be of truly exceptional people, but their stories have lessons for businesses of every size.
To qualify for our list, an entrepreneur had to be a director of a company he or she founded or co-founded that has recently been valued at £1bn or more. We also included founders who are still the majority owners of their business but are not directors, such as Mike Ashley.
Valuations of public companies were derived from stock market prices at the start of the end of January 2025. The valuations of private companies were set by figures made public after a recent fundraising or sale.
If this was not available, we used a multiple of their annual profits, or in a small number of cases, their net assets. Businesses focused on financial or property trading were not included.
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Foreword
We are living through challenging times and there is a lot for our clients to process, whether they are investors or active entrepreneurs. The rise of interest rates, the changing geopolitical situation and a new government are just some of the factors leading our clients to adjust their approach, alongside the impact of technological advances. The business leaders in this list have demonstrated an ability to navigate testing times and continual changes to build impressive and lasting legacies.
Having spent the majority of my career working with entrepreneurs, including some on this list, it has been a privilege to have a ringside seat to see their energy and creativity as they realise their vision for their companies. As in their businesses, it’s important that business leaders choose the right advisers for their wealth. It can be easy to forget the emotions at stake when you’re working with people who built their businesses from scratch.
Deutsche Bank is proud to have been acknowledged by Euromoney as the World’s Best Bank for Entrepreneurs. Supporting entrepreneurs has always been a core part of our DNA. Historically, that’s been a keystone of our business, starting in Germany where we were facilitating international trade. But it’s become a focus and point of pride for the Private Bank to work with entrepreneurs in a very holistic way. That means looking at their life goals broadly, what they want for their businesses and their families, and what mark they would like to make on the world.
James Whittaker
Head of UK wealth management, UK CEO, Deutsche Bank