An Edinburgh data consultancy has met the international definition for ‘hyper growth’ thanks to a surge in revenues fuelled by a boom in demand for AI services.
Optima Partners has hit the standard defined by the World Economic Forum after recording turnover growth levels of 40 per cent, with revenues on target to hit £12 million by June.
The firm, which recently opened two additional offices in London and Bristol, is helping businesses solve complex challenges by using specialists with industry specific expertise to integrate AI, machine learning, GenAI and advanced engineering.
The increase is the combined impact of new clients across a variety of sectors, including energy, pharma, telecoms and financial services, as well as the organic growth of existing projects.
Alan Crawley, CEO at Optima Partners, said: “Growth in the accessibility of data has the potential to unlock a significant amount of latent value, allowing business leaders to make smarter, better-informed decisions. Advanced AI, machine learning, Gen AI and engineering are all extremely valuable tools but, without the right mix of expertise, they can also prove little more than expensive distractions.
“People are the most important part of any business and the driving force when it comes to achieving sustainable growth. Our holistic approach brings human skills, data driven processes and the latest technology together to help our clients achieve greater impact for their customers.”
He added: “Our success shows combining subject matter expertise with an AI led approach can help teams evolve faster, work smarter and achieve greater impact. This growth marks an exciting milestone in our progress, and, over the next 12 months, we look forward to continuing to help our community of existing clients, as well as organisations we’re working with for the first time.”
In addition to financial growth, Optima has almost doubled its team over the last 18 months. As part of an ambitious growth plan, it hopes to further expand its workforce to more than 200 in the next three years. The firm recently celebrated the launch of two additional offices in London and Bristol, enhancing its service provision to clients across Europe.
In March last year Optima formally launched bioXcelerate, its health data science division. With three different products separately licenced to the pharmaceutical industry, bioXcelerate harnesses the power of large-scale data analysis to significantly reduce the time it takes to develop new and effective drug treatments.
Since its launch, bioXcelerate has doubled its blue-chip pharma client base and continues to grow its Pleiograph drug discovery platform.