The Edinburgh-headquartered firm 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 business has experienced 55% year-on-year growth since 2020 and achieving turnover in excess of £5.7m for the 2022 financial year. Now Optima Partners says it’s looking to strengthen all parts of its operations and develop further.

Optima Partners consulting division already supports a range of UK brands, including OVO and Lloyds Banking Group, and starts 2023 with several new senior leaders, including customer strategy and engagement director, Murray Allan, John Ramdenee as director of telecoms, energy & media and Ed Knight as director of banking and financial services.

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

Commenting on the company’s plans for expansion, CEO 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 SME’s, consultants, technologists and data experts into the business to support our clients in navigating complex customer transformation agendas.”

As well as key strategic hires and securing investment to fuel its growth in 2022, Optima Partners also opened its third office, in Bristol, adding to its Scottish HQ and its site in Central London with expansion plans into Europe underway.