Nyobolt Lands at #17 on The Sunday Times 100 Tech 2026

Nyobolt has been named #17 on the 2026 Sunday Times 100 Tech hardware league table, a recognition that reflects three years of compounding revenue growth and a rapidly expanding pipeline of customer contracts across AI infrastructure, physical AI applications, and industrial automation.

The Sunday Times 100 Tech is the UK’s definitive ranking of the fastest-growing private technology companies, sponsored by HSBC Innovation Banking, Singer Capital Markets, and BDO. Now in its second year, the list splits British tech into two categories: software and hardware (including life sciences). To qualify, companies must be independent, privately owned, and headquartered in the UK, and must demonstrate sustained revenue growth over the previous three years.

Our listing on the hardware table is a milestone. It is also a marker of where the broader UK deep-tech market is heading.

A ranking that reflects commercial traction, not just innovation

The list is built on one metric that matters: revenue growth over three years. That discipline is what separates the 2026 cohort from the usual noise around “promising” technology companies.

The companies on this year’s ranking collectively generated £3.7bn in revenue, grew at an average rate of 128% a year, and are set to create 4,300 new jobs in 2026. Fuse Energy topped the hardware category with 484% annual growth. Abound, a lending fintech, led the software side and the overall ranking with 490% annual growth.

Landing at #17 on the hardware table places Nyobolt among a cohort of UK companies that have translated deep engineering into commercial traction, a transition that defeats the majority of deep-tech ventures.

Why the technology matters now

Nyobolt spun out of the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge in 2019, co-founded by Professor Dame Clare Grey and Dr Sai Shivareddy. Professor Grey is one of 16 women-founded or women-led companies recognised across the 2026 ranking, and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to battery science.

The underlying innovation is a niobium-tungsten oxide (NWO) anode material that enables lithium ions to move in and out of the battery at dramatically higher speeds without the degradation that defeats conventional fast-charging systems.

The commercial implication is straightforward. If downtime is the cost driver in your operation, a battery that recharges in minutes and survives over 10,000 cycles changes your unit economics.

What the recognition reflects about UK deep tech

Nearly three-fifths of the companies on the 2026 list were founded in 2016 or later. More than 90 of them have secured external investment, with a combined £11.3bn raised across the ranking, £7.5bn of which flowed into hardware.

That capital concentration tells a story. Investors are rewarding companies that can cross the gap between lab and factory, between prototype and purchase order. This is the gap where most deep-tech ventures stall.

The Sunday Times 100 Tech 2026 recognises the companies that have made that crossing. Landing at #17 on the hardware table positions Nyobolt in that group.

Thank you to Richard Tyler, Ying van de Walle, and the wider Sunday Times 100 Tech team for the recognition. Thank you to HSBC Innovation Banking, Singer Capital Markets, and BDO for sponsoring the programme.

And thank you to the Nyobolt team, our customers, and our investors. #17 is a team number.

More to follow in 2026.