In the UK, it’s been reported that almost 60% of small businesses fail in their first three years of life. The UK private sector is buzzing with ambitious startups and scaleups, from fintech unicorns to innovative university spinouts. But even within the high-growth ecosystem, startup failures are still common.
We’re often asked about the success rates of the businesses that we track on the Beauhurst platform. So here, we’ve explored the proportion of high-growth UK companies that fail, scale and exit within five years of incorporating, and how many simply tread water—neither failing nor scaling. We also look at the average lifetime of companies that shut down or successfully exit, and evaluate which sectors are most commonly associated with startup successes and failures.