THE Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table – released each September – ranks Britain’s 100 private tech (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales over their latest three years.

Two Brighton and Hove-based companies feature in this year’s list and enhance the city’s reputation for producing some of the UK’s most exciting digital entrepreneurs, CEOs and founders.

There is no doubt that Brighton and Hove has built a thriving tech scene over the past ten years, and this continues to grow.

Part of the reason may be that we seem to have the right balance between creative and technology types.

The annual Brighton Digital Festival – a whole month-long celebration of technology and art that takes over the city throughout September – is testimony to that.

Brighton Digital Festival ends on Friday (September 30) and throughout the heart of the festival programme is a curated stream of arts and education activity.

There is also this fusion between creative arts and tech.

A huge proportion of the businesses started here have founders with a background in arts and humanities – they represent nearly 50 per cent of digital businesses.

That came from The Brighton Fuse, a two-year research and development project which analysed the growth of Brighton’s successful creative, digital and information technology (CDIT) cluster.

The project is run by Wired Sussex, the University of Brighton, the University of Sussex and the Council of Industry and Higher Education. Brighton Fuse is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

New ideas – sometimes very wacky – are encouraged in the city.

People are not afraid to take risks. We also have two strong universities producing a creative pool of talent.

But there is also a fear that some companies may struggle to plug the talent gap if it’s to continue growing.

The challenge is to build a strong brand to draw people who would otherwise be jumping on the train for London.

Brighton-based IT services provider Ideal is 47th in the prestigious Tech Track 100 league table.

Last year, the company increased its turnover by 60 per cent to £9.3 million, with a staff base of 49.

It was founded in April 2009 and the team now offers IT solutions to brands such as the Rugby Football Union, One Family, Gala and international law firm Rouse.

Last month, Ideal moved to its new, 6,000 square foot offices in the CityView building in central Brighton. This year it also launched the Ideal Academy, to encourage more young people to enter the IT industry.

MD Claire Hopkins said: “I am thrilled to return for the second year running to the Sunday Times Tech Track 100, having been 50th last year.

“It’s a measure of how far our company has come in the last few years and we’re determined to continue growing and meeting our new targets.

“We will always be committed to understanding our clients’ business needs and providing brilliant service to them.

“This industry accolade is a sign that our investments are paying off and we can continue to grow organically in the coming years.”

Hove-based cloud accounting specialists Crunch also made the league table, coming in at number 100.

This year has seen massive growth for the micro-business specialists who expanded their revenue to £6.7 million, with year-on-year growth of 34 per cent.

They now employ 170 staff and their client base is 9,000.

Founded in 2009 by CEO Darren Fell and Accountancy Director Steve Crouch, Crunch is the first UK firm to offer online accounting software combined with expert, in-house accountants and customer service support.

Its rapid growth was also recognised recently in the annual Accountancy Age 50+50 list, where they were named the sixth fastest growing firm in the country.

Crunch is now expanding into new services, launching 13 new products in 2016/17, including mortgages and debt collection for micro-businesses.

It also launched Crunch Chorus, a new association seeking to challenge the under- representation of micro-businesses in policy making.

Founder and CEO Darren Fell said: “We are thrilled to be included in the Tech Track again this year.

“The future is very bright for Crunch as more micro-businesses choose us as their business and accountancy partner.

“We are also preparing to move into larger premises in central Brighton to accommodate our growing team of talent, which is set to expand even further in coming months.

“It’s great to see Brighton’s thriving tech scene being celebrated on a national scale and, once again, to be recognised as one of the UK’s fastest growing fintech companies.”

Former Skype CEO Michael van Swaaij is Crunch Chairman.