A technology company which has its UK base in Ferndown has been named as one of the fastest-growing businesses in Europe by the Financial Times.

Despite being based in Dorset, Andrew Radcliffe co-founded Spyrosoft in Wroclaw in Poland in 2016, shortly after leaving his role at Ordnance Survey.

He started the company with just 15 people and two projects.

Five years later the company now employs more than 600 people and has offices in five countries.

A year ago it was successfully floated on the Polish NewConnect Stock Exchange.

Spyrosoft has its UK office in the Arena Business Centre, Nimrod Way, Ferndown.

It’s now been listed as fifth in the Financial Times 1000 list of Europe’s companies that achieved the highest annual growth rate in revenue over four consecutive years – and the top technology company.

Despite the pandemic and lockdowns across Europe in 2020, Spyrosoft group’s net revenue grew by 58 per cent to 113m PLN (£21.6m) from 71.5m PLN (£13.7m) in 2019.

Gross profits increased by 95 per cent in 2020 to 43m PLN (£8.2m).

Andrew said: “The Covid pandemic has seen an even more rapid acceleration towards automation, machine learning and the use of artificial intelligence in all sectors.

“Businesses have realised they need to be more pandemic-proof and they are looking for technology partners to help them achieve that.

“Whether an increasing switch to e-commerce, robotics or simply having technology solutions perform a wider range of business tasks, companies are looking to us to develop software that ensures they can maintain operations in the midst of a pandemic.

“There’s a difficult balance for companies to strike in looking after their workforce, relying more and more on technology and managing the threat from cyber criminals that follows that growing reliance.

“We are working with some of the biggest names across Europe developing new technology that can help them perform routine tasks or adapt to a post-Covid customer base with its new priorities and habits and do so protected from cyber criminals.”

Since launching Spyrosoft in 2016 the company has worked with 150 clients across the world.

That number is increasing rapidly in all territories, and especially in the UK.

Andrew said: “We spotted a growing gap in the market between technology providers and business and decided that we could fill it by providing strong technological competence allied with many years of business experience.

“That enables our software engineering teams to create innovative solutions for our customers across a wide range of sectors.

“We are working at the cutting edge, bringing numerous global clients’ ideas to life by recognising their problems and formulating effective and thorough technology solutions in a range of sectors.

“Being recognised in the FT1000 list alongside some other great companies across Europe is a fantastic achievement for everyone associated with Spyrosoft, including the clients that have hired us, given that we started just under five years ago.

“I am proud of so many things about the continued development and growth of Spyrosoft – the difference we have made for our clients, the professionalism of our teams and their ability to think the unthinkable and make it happen.

“The very first person we hired five years ago still works for us – and that is another thing that makes me proud to be running a business like Spyrosoft.”

The FT1000, published online by the Financial Times, can be seen here.