London, UK — 17/04/2026— Gaia, the AI-native recruitment marketing platform, has been ranked 259th in the FT1000: Europe's Fastest-Growing Companies 2026, published by the Financial Times in partnership with Statista. This is the second consecutive year Gaia has been named in the FT1000.
The FT1000, now in its 10th edition, ranks the 1,000 companies across Europe with the highest compound annual revenue growth over a three-year period — in this edition, 2021 to 2024. Gaia delivered a 66.3% CAGR over the period, with absolute revenue growth of 359.9% and headcount tripling over the same three years.
Gaia features in the largest sector category of the 2026 list. IT & Software accounts for 213 of the 1,000 ranked companies, and the United Kingdom represents 18% of the overall ranking. The 2026 list was published on the Financial Times website on 3 March 2026.
Gaia's return to the FT1000 follows a period of significant product evolution. Over the past twelve months, Gaia has moved beyond its foundations in social and search recruitment marketing to deploy agentic AI workflows that plan, build, launch, optimise and report on hiring campaigns across up to 11 channels — replacing work traditionally fragmented. Enterprise clients including National Grid, Babcock, Warburtons, McCains, Marriott, Finastra and Hitachi rely on Gaia to meet hiring demand at measurably lower cost and faster speed than incumbent channels.
"Appearing in the FT1000 two years in a row reflects the conviction that brought Gaia into being: AI agents — not more tools, not more job boards — are what modern hiring teams actually need," said Ben Keighley, Co-Founder of Gaia. "The growth behind this ranking isn't abstract. It's hospital operators hiring clinicians faster, infrastructure firms hitting delivery deadlines, and retail brands filling stores on time. This recognition belongs to the Gaia team and to the hiring leaders who backed a different way of doing things. We're only getting started."
Recent enterprise case studies underline the thesis:
As Gaia scales further into North America and deepens enterprise partnerships across the UK and Europe, the FT1000 2026 ranking stands as independent validation of a category thesis the company has held from day one — that recruitment is ready to be rebuilt around AI agents, not around legacy tooling.
Gaia is the AI-native recruitment marketing platform helping employers hire the right people faster, at lower cost, and with full visibility. Gaia's AI agents plan, launch and optimise hiring campaigns across up to 11 social, search and niche channels — replacing the workflows traditionally spread across agencies, media buyers and job boards. Gaia works with enterprise clients many industries including healthcare, retail, construction, logistics, financial services and the public sector. Gaia was founded in 2017 as Socially Recruited by Ben Keighley and Gareth Thyer-Jones, and rebranded as Gaia in 2024 following the acquisition of soccialy, a specialist in education recruitment marketing. Gaia operates globally.
The FT1000: Europe's Fastest-Growing Companies is the annual ranking of the 1,000 companies in Europe with the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue over a three-year period. The 2026 edition — the 10th — was compiled by the Financial Times in partnership with Statista and published on 3 March 2026. It measures revenue growth between 2021 and 2024. Inclusion in the FT1000 is recognised as a mark of exceptional growth, innovation and resilience across European industry.
What is the FT1000?The FT1000 is the annual ranking of Europe's 1,000 fastest-growing companies, compiled by the Financial Times and Statista. It measures compound annual revenue growth over a three-year period and is published each spring.
What rank did Gaia achieve in the FT1000 2026? Gaia was ranked 259th in the FT1000: Europe's Fastest-Growing Companies 2026.
Is this the first time Gaia has been named in the FT1000? No. The FT1000 2026 is the second consecutive year Gaia has been featured on the list.
What does Gaia do? Gaia is a UK-headquartered, AI-native recruitment marketing platform. Its AI agents run end-to-end hiring campaigns across up to 11 social, search and niche channels — planning, launching, optimising and reporting on campaigns without the workflow fragmentation of agencies, media buyers and job boards.
Who founded Gaia? Gaia was founded in 2017 by Ben Keighley and Gareth Thyer-Jones. The company was originally named Socially Recruited and rebranded as Gaia in 2024.
What period did the FT1000 2026 measure? The FT1000 2026 measured compound annual revenue growth between 2021 and 2024.
What growth rate did Gaia achieve? Gaia delivered a 66.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2021 and 2024 and 359.9% absolute revenue growth over the same three-year period.
Press contact: ben@iamgaia.com
Gaia (Socially Recruited Ltd), London, United Kingdom
Who is Gaia best for
Gaia suits in-house recruitment teams, agencies and RPOs who want:
- To reach beyond job boards into the open web and social channels.
- Real-time campaign optimisation and data-driven decision making.
- Flexibility between self-serve and managed service.
- Seamless integration with existing ATS workflows.
- A measurable lift in quality and volume of applicants.
Adzuna works well for teams who want a large active-jobseeker search audience, now combined with social advertising and candidate automation, delivered as a managed service.
Final word: Gaia vs Adzuna
If you need broad, AI-targeted reach, multi-channel automation and real performance data, Gaia delivers a fundamentally different proposition to job board aggregators like Adzuna. Both now operate in social recruitment advertising, but Gaia is purpose-built for performance, with broader reach across the open web and paid search, real-time cross-channel optimisation, cookie-free retargeting and the choice of self-serve or managed delivery. For TA, HR and EB leaders tasked with hitting hiring targets in competitive markets, Gaia provides the tools, intelligence and flexibility to succeed.
Learn more about GaiaComplete or book a demo to see it in action.