Collectively over the last six years:
STOs invested in 2021 have grown their turnover by 43.8% annually, increasing from £1.75m in 2021 to £7.49m in 2025.
> This exceeds the OECD’s 20% threshold for high-growth enterprises and shows how the earliest cohort has achieved substantial growth.
STOs invested in 2022 saw 12.6% annual turnover growth, increasing from £3.3m to £4.7m over three years.
> While growth has been more moderate than the 2021 cohort, it still points to steady expansion and improved financial resilience.
STOs invested in 2023 experienced 17% annual turnover growth in their second year, with collective turnover rising from £201,600 to £276,900 by 2025.
> This suggests promising early growth among more recent investees.
STOs invested in 2024 saw 18% annual growth in turnover in their first year of investment, indicating strong early trading momentum.
> This equates to an average turnover growth rate of 23% across all portfolio cohorts.
Good growth insights
Growth amongst STOs demonstrates ‘good growth’ – prioritising long-term social fairness, environmental sustainability and inclusive prosperity over short-term financial gains. Yet while investment supports growing turnover, qualitative data from STOs draws out key themes which the impact team heard time and again in their conversations. They include:
Running an STO is hard – and lonely
Many STOs, particularly founders, struggle with the human side of running an organisation: managing staff disputes, difficult conversations and team retention, often training staff only to lose them to bigger organisations which can pay more. Who supports the people doing the supporting, especially when mentors retire or move on?
Growth confidence is the real barrier, not capacity
Several small, single-founder organisations have the work, reputation and sometimes even the money – but can’t take the next step. Fear of risk (taking on staff, spending investment, scaling) shows up repeatedly. This mindset and confidence problem needs a different kind of support.
Marketing and visibility remain a persistent gap
Multiple organisations need better digital presence and customer-facing strategy – but several have been burned by bad experiences with marketing agencies or inappropriate social media support and trust needs rebuilding before they’ll try again.
Impact measurement is messy
Organisations are doing meaningful work they can’t always evidence. Privacy concerns, inconsistent data collection and no baseline from panels are real structural gaps, although some are doing creative things that are worth sharing more widely.
Employment and supportive employment are underused opportunities
Conversations touch on DWP funding, ILM schemes and volunteering as hidden employment. STOs are instinctively well-placed to support people into work, but the system feels opaque and risky to them – how can we demystify this together?
Kindred’s ambition for STOs is itself a form of support
STOs feel bolder when Kindred believes in them – and welcome being held to account against that ambition. Investment isn’t just financial: it legitimises organisations in the eyes of others, opens doors and puts people in rooms they wouldn’t otherwise access. Perhaps most significantly, Kindred’s support has enabled founders to step back from delivery and become strategic leaders – a shift that’s hard for people to make alone, but that unlocks real growth potential.