Edinburgh-headquartered consultancy on track to double UK workforce to 100

An Edinburgh-headquartered business growth and tech consultancy is on course to double its UK workforce to 100.

Optima Partners said it had witnessed 55 per cent year-on-year growth since 2020 and was now undertaking an “aggressive recruitment strategy” to bolster the teams at its UK bases. Having secured a £2.3 million investment from capital investor BGF, and appointed new non-executive directors, Karen Thomas-Bland and Richard Pugh in 2022, the firm is looking to strengthen all parts of its operations. Turnover has grown to in excess of £5.7m during the past financial year.

Optima Partners’ consulting division already supports a range of the UK’s top brands, including Ovo and Lloyds Banking Group. As well as key strategic hires and securing investment to fuel its growth, the consultancy has opened its third office, in Bristol, adding to its Scottish HQ and its site in central London, with expansion plans into Europe underway.

Chief executive Alan Crawley said: “We have received a tremendous response to our unique data and insight-led approach to customer understanding and behaviour. We are now striving to fill a number of vacancies within the company to meet growing demand, bringing new small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), consultants, technologists and data experts into the business to support our clients in navigating complex customer transformation agendas.”

Justine Muir, Alan Crawley and Chris Foley of Optima Partners. Picture: Duncan McGlynn

Under the leadership of chief data scientist Chris Foley, the firm’s data practice grew four-fold in 2022, delivering advanced data science and engineering services internationally to global organisations. The practice welcomed two new leaders, Andrew Donald as head of engineering and Zhana Kuncheva as head of health data sciences.