Italian travel management company BizAway has been named the fastest-growing travel and hospitality company in Europe in a new report from the Financial Times and Statista, while Portugal’s Globalis was eighth and UK-based ISON Travel was tenth.
The FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies 2025 report assessed the growth of ‘tens of thousands’ of companies across Europe and ranked the top 1,000 based on compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue between 2020 and 2023.
The time period helps to account for the TMCs’ rapid growth, with corporates largely grounded in 2020 due to the pandemic and hitting the road again in large numbers by 2023. Even so, the trio of TMCs were among only 33 companies from the hospitality and travel sector to appear in the ranking.
BizAway was ranked the 29th fastest-growing company across all business sectors with 237.1 per cent CAGR and revenue in 2023 of €72.2 million, up from €1.89 million in 2020. Founded in 2015, it employed 237 people in 2023, up from 47 in 2020.
Globalis, which was 163rd overall, recorded 122.3 per cent CAGR and €23.2 million in 2023 revenue, up from €2.11 million in 2020. It was founded in 2015 and employed 22 people in 2023.
ISON Travel was ranked 173rd overall with 119.1 per cent CAGR and €46.3 million in revenue in 2023, up from €4.3 million in 2020. Founded in 2013, its workforce has grown from 13 staff to 78 between 2020 and 2023.
In addition, Italian events and incentive travel specialist Mare20 was ranked the 23rd fastest-growing travel and hospitality company and 431st overall in Europe.
“We are delighted with this important result and our aim is to continue our commitment to constant evolution at a business level for the company, but above all for the companies that place their trust in our services every day,” said BizAway CEO and co-founder Luca Carlucci.
“We want to consolidate our presence in the business travel sector, both nationally and internationally, while maintaining the level of excellence that distinguishes us,” added Carlucci.
The overall ranking was topped by photovoltaic panel supplier Menlo Electric, based in Poland.
The Financial Times said the ranking, which will be published in full later this month, highlights “business growth stories across the continent during a challenging economic period”.
Italy, Germany, France and the UK account for more than three-quarters of the companies named in the ranking, according to the Financial Times. It noted that although its research was extensive, it did not claim to be complete as some companies chose not to participate.
In order to be considered for the ranking, companies were required to have minimum revenue of €100,000 in 2020 and €1.5 million in 2023, and must be an independent company which has achieved organic growth.