• AIM shares are usually potential high-growth companies
• Boohoo reported a 41% increase in revenue in FY 2021
• Open Orphan revenue grew by 242%, year-on-year, as per the half-yearly report

The London Stock Exchange’s sub-market, AIM, is an excellent place to look for small but high-growth shares. The shares listed on the Alternative Investment Market are usually at the start of their growth journey. That certainly ups the risk factor. But it also means greater rewards for my portfolio if I spot future winners early.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at two AIM shares to watch in 2022.

Online fashion king

Boohoo (LSE:BOO) is known for its £5 dresses and under £10 jeans. One of the leading fashion e-commerce companies reported revenue of £1,745m in its 2021 fiscal year. That’s a whopping 41% increase from last year. And it’s why the company made it onto my AIM shares to watch list.

Boohoo’s unique offering is its quick adaptation to fashion trends driven primarily by social media. Moreover, the pandemic fueled sales as the retailer was able to capitalize on the opportunity of an increase in online shopping. Undoubtedly, with a global customer base of around 18 million, the group continues to expand and grow into potential markets.

Its continuously increasing earnings per share are proof of the expected appreciation in the share price. But it is worth mentioning that the allegations of worker violation wiped out £1.5bn of market value within two days in 2020. And that created quite the opportunity for its competitors.

This huge drop in market valuation makes me a bit concerned. But the company’s comeback, in terms of share price recovery and revival of their customer’s trust, has been remarkable. Therefore, Boohoo is on my list of AIM Shares to Watch for 2022.

Assiting big pharma

Open Orphan (LSE:ORPH) is a rapidly growing specialist contract research organization (CRO). The pharmaceutical services company was able to conduct cost-efficient quarantine studies, which are equipped with huge potential to grow further.

Moving forward, its strategy towards expansion and growth is about to start bearing fruit, I believe. In 2021 Open Orphan extended a contract to the top pharma company Venn Life Services. And that opens up a potentially sizable avenue of long-term revenue fueling its growth story – an encouraging sight, in my opinion.

In addition, its outstanding financial performance is not be missed. As reported in the first half results of 2021, revenue grew by a whopping 242% year-on-year. The active challenge studies coupled with a solid performance in Early Clinical / Biometry Services are responsible for this evolution. And it’s why this business made it to my list of AIM shares to watch in 2022.

However, there is some growing uncertainty about its future. The management team has announced several spin-offs to concentrate the firm’s core operations. This makes it fairly challenging to predict the share price behaviour moving forward since any spin-off will likely result in a sudden drop.

That’s why shares of this AIM business are staying on my watchlist for now.

AIM Shares to watch: A sensible choice going forward?

The e-commerce and pharmaceutical sector are some of the highest growing industries today. So, it’s no surprise that my top picks for AIM shares to watch belong to these sectors.

Overall, I believe Boohoo and Open Orphan have the potential to be great investments moving forward. But I want to wait and see how they perform over the next few quarters before deciding to add these AIM shares to my portfolio.

Saima Naveed does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned. The Money Cog has no position in any of the companies mentioned. Views expressed on the companies and assets mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the opinions of analysts in The Money Cog Premium services.