Sydney's Prospa tops Deloitte's Australian tech Fast 50

Sydney-based financial technology company Prospa has topped the list of this year’s Deloitte Australian Technology Fast 50.

Prospa, a company that provides loans to small businesses via an online technology platform, was named the fastest growing tech company in Australia.

The company achieved an impressive 6971% revenue growth from FY 2013 to 2015 — almost double the 3626% revenue growth achieved by last year’s winner NEXTDC between 2012 and 2014.

Cirrus Networks, an IT integrator, came in second at 5571% growth, followed by online taxi booking app provider Ingogo with 1494% growth.

Rounding out the top five were Urbanise.com, a cloud-based building services delivery platform for the facility management industry (1080% growth), and video monitoring and recording device manufacturer Atomos Global (425% growth).

Deloitte also identified risk management SaaS vendor Plutora as this year’s top rising star — a separate list of companies with rapid growth that don’t qualify for inclusion to the Fast 50 because they have less than three years of existing revenue. Plutora achieved 4539% growth over the period.

The Fast 50 report notes that internet and software companies were disproportionately represented among the Top 50, accounting for 33 of the spots.

In Australia mobile companies are also experiencing significant growth as increased consumer usage leads to increased adoption of mobile marketing.

Another key trend is maturity — Deloitte noticed that many of Australia’s fastest growing technology companies have been operating for over seven years, and more than half (26) had been ranked in previous years’ Fast 50 lists.

All 50 companies represented on the Fast 50 achieved more than 100% revenue growth, with the smallest gain being 108% from workforce management software provider Timetarget.

Fast 50 sponsor ASX Limited noted that in the 2014–15 financial year there were 30 new technology listings with a combined market capitalisation of over $3.3 billion. This brings the total number of ASX technology listings to over 130.

“Ideas, talent and capital are mobile. In Australia we are fortunate to have access to a large pool of capital — the world’s third largest — and a diverse global investor base, with around 45% of investment in ASX-listed companies coming from international investors,” ASX CEO Elmer Funke Kupper said.

“This shows the widespread confidence that investors have in our market, which has meant the ASX is consistently among the world’s leading markets for initial and secondary capital raisings. Our total market capitalisation now stands at $1.5 trillion.”

Victorian e-commerce company AussieCommerce Group meanwhile topped the list of Leadership Award winners, a list of companies with high revenue growth that have managed both economic and business expansion challenges. The group now has nearly 400 employees globally and had a turnover of around $210 million in FY15.

Image courtesy of Benson Kua under CC