Number of Indian-owned businesses in the UK passes 1,000
The long-awaited trade deal between Britain and India was finally signed in the spring of 2025. According to a new study from Grant Thornton, the number of Indian-owned companies was already booming before the agreement was even struck – with the number rising by 23% over 2024.
Since the advent of Brexit, the UK government has been working to strike new trade deals with growing international markets – in the hope of replacing the market share it has lost by exiting the European Union. In particular, India is seen as a crucial target for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Trade between the UK and India already accounted for £23 billion in goods and services in 2022, and previous Grant Thornton research has argued that could more-than double by 2030.
And while an agreement between India and the UK has taken much, much longer than anticipated, the slow timeframe does not seem to have dulled interest between investors in either market. In the UK, 36% of mid-sized businesses plan on investing in international expansion – with 94% of those targeting India in immediate future. Meanwhile, in late 2024, Grant Thornton found that even though they felt a lack of an FTA held them back, 89% of India’s mid-market see the UK as the top market to grow into.
According to the firm’s latest update on the movement between the two nations, many already began shifting to the UK market before the government concluded its negotiations in May this year. In the 12th edition of the Grant Thornton India meets Britain Tracker, Grant Thornton found that there are now 1,197 Indian-owned companies operating in the UK, an increase of over 23% across the last 12 months. At the same point in 2024, 971 were recorded.
Taking the number of Indian-owned companies in the UK beyond 1,000 for the first time, this is not only the highest number identified by Grant Thornton so far, but the largest year on year increase since the firm began tracking the market in 2017. According to Anuj Chande, head of the South Asia business group at Grant Thornton, the findings “stand testimony to the deep and historic relationship” – and illustrates how more than ever, India “continues to see the UK as a key investment hub, and a country in which Indian firms can flourish.”
Chande added, “As the recent milestone UK/India Free Trade Agreement highlighted, there is a distinct economic commonality between the UK and India and a mutual desire to trade and invest more with one another. The UK government has said the deal would boost trade by an additional £25.5 billion a year by 2040, which will give UK SME’s and corporates much better access to the fastest growing economy and an increasing middle-class population of £300 million-plus.”
Illustrating the growing importance of Indian-owned companies to the UK economy, Grant Thornton also examined how revenues at these companies had performed. The combined revenues reported by Indian-owned companies in the UK increased to £72.14 billion from £68.09 billion in 2024 – which also stimulated the employment market – with the businesses employing 126,720 people across the UK, adding more than 8,000 new jobs in the past year.
This year’s listing of the fastest-growing companies also delivers strong results, with 74 companies recording revenue growth of 10% or more. Meanwhile, the firms also created new opportunities to close the gender gap in UK management – with the proportion of women directors climbing from 21% to 24% at Indian-owned firms in the last year.
Grant Thornton is itself no stranger to investing in opportunities across the two markets. In 2023, the UK arm of Grant Thornton announced it was drawing up plans to invest millions of pounds in its Indian sister firm, while talks continued for the bilateral free trade deal between the UK and India.
