Kota ranks ninth in Sifted’s 100 fastest-growing UK and Irish start-ups checklist

Protex AI, Altra, Barespace, Tines, Nory and CleverCards additionally made it to this 12 months’s checklist.

Regardless of the same old London dominance in Sifted’s annual checklist of the 100 fastest-growing Irish and UK start-ups, Dublin’s Kota has managed to position within the high 10 this 12 months.

The Irish insurance coverage and worker advantages platform has made it to the ninth spot on the 2026 checklist, with a two-year income compound annual development price (CAGR) of greater than 640pc. The four-year-old start-up final raised $14.5m in Could 2025, taking its complete elevate so far to almost $23m.

“This rating is a mirrored image of the work we’ve achieved over the past three years constructing out our infrastructure and community of insurance coverage and pension suppliers, and the worth that lets us ship to prospects,” Kota mentioned in a put up on LinkedIn celebrating the rating.

The corporate’s worker medical insurance and advantages platform goals to empower start-ups and scaling organisations to automate and handle staff advantages.

Others on this 12 months’s checklist embody the Dublin-based and Limerick-founded office security start-up Protex AI, which secured $36m early final 12 months to broaden throughout the US. The 2021-founded firm ranked 21 on the Sifted checklist with a CAGR of 313pc.

Protex’s AI-powered platform plugs into CCTV gadgets and makes use of pc imaginative and prescient to seize unsafe occasions autonomously. The beginning-up already has round 80 staff.

In the meantime, care-tech start-up Altra positioned quantity 41 with a CAGR of simply above 200pc. Based in 2019, the start-up has reached profitability. “This recognition displays an actual shift within the care sector,” the corporate mentioned.

Meals sector-focused AI start-up Nory has dropped seven spots since final 12 months, reaching the forty fourth rank on this 12 months’s checklist. The twin-headquartered start-up in Dublin and London raised $37m final September to drive enlargement within the US. Nory has a two-year income CAGR of round 182pc.

Whereas insurtech CleverCards dropped 27 spots to the 54th rank on the 2026 checklist. Based it 2019, CleverCards’s funds expertise permits companies and public sector organisations to create pay as you go digital Credit cards and ship them to anybody. The service was launched to market in 2023.

Dublin’s Barespace, which payments itself because the “working system” for the hair and sweetness trade, has made it to the 56th spot – the best rating seed start-up on the checklist.

Based in 2022, the corporate has round 32 staff. Final September, it introduced a €2.9m spherical to speed up its UK and European enlargement.

Irish automation unicorn Tines has climbed 12 positions on the checklist since final 12 months, reaching the seventieth spot with a CAGR of 136pc. The corporate, which has round 400 employees, not too long ago introduced 100 new jobs in Boston as demand for its AI instruments rise within the US.

Based in 2018, Tines reached unicorn standing in February 2025 after a $125m Sequence C spherical. The corporate has raised $272m so far from traders together with Goldman Sachs, SoftBank, Felicis, Addition, Accel, Blossom Capital and Lux Capital.

Irish entrants from the 2025 checklist that didn’t rank this 12 months embody e-SIM supplier Holafly, VR simulation coaching supplier VRAI, knowledge firm CitySwift, e-commerce financier Wayflyer, and AI copyright safety supplier Ceartas.

Don’t miss out on the information you’ll want to succeed. Join the Every day Transient, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech information.