Romania registered a significant growth for the third consecutive year, with 29 companies in the raking, compared to 18 in 2014, of which ten companies included in the Fast 50, versus six in 2014, and the leader of the Big 5 category, according to a study of audit and consulting firm Deloitte.
For the 2015 ranking, revenues from 2011 to 2014 were analysed. The Romanian companies included in the ranking saw an average growth of 544%.
In the context in which Romania’s economy saw the highest growth in Central and Eastern Europe in the first three quarters of 2015, eight of the Romanian companies included in the Deloitte Fast 50 ranking are new-entries. Moreover, one in two Romanian companies is leader at the Big 5 category, which includes dynamic companies whose revenues are too high to compete on an equal footing with smaller firms included in the Fast 50 category. Compared to 2014, Romania saw an increase in the number of software companies. Five of the top companies are based in capital Bucharest, two in Cluj-Napoca, one in Iasi, one in Sibiu, one in Timisoara and one in Baia Mare.
Ahmed Hassan, country managing partner Deloitte Romania, said most Romanian companies ranked in the Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 were founded before the financial crisis and manged to make it through this difficult period. By comparison, most companies in the region, included in the ranking, were set up in 2009.
With a growth rate of 998%, ZebraPay based in Bucharest places sixth in the regional ranking, the best spot occupied in the ranking by a Romanian firm. Ranked for the second year in a row, ITNT based in Sibiu, local leader in the Fast 50 in 2014, kept growing and saw an increase of 933% (compared to a growth rate of 1,433% in the previous year). Insoft Development & Consulting is included in two categories: first in the Big 5 category and 15th in the Fast 50 category, newly-entered in the ranking, with a growth rate of 577%.
Teamnet International also remains this year in the Big 5 category, falling one spot against 2014 (fourth spot versus third spot in 2014), with a growth rate of 127%.
Astinvest ranks 13th (with a growth rate of 705%), Insoft Development & Consulting is 15th (a growth rate of 577%), Piconet places 21st (with 486% growth) and Geskimo places 42nd, with 419% growth.
The pace of change among Central Europe’s fastest-growing technology companies is rapid and relentless. Three out of the top five places in the 2015 Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 report, which ranks the companies showing the strongest revenue growth rate between 2011 and 2014, are new entries to the listing, including those in the first two places. However, the average growth rate of all companies in the Fast 50 has fallen from 698% to 560% over the last year, continuing the slide since the peak reached in 2012 of 1,026%. This year’s ranking includes companies from nine countries: Poland (12 companies), Romania (ten), Croatia (eight), the Czech Republic and Slovakia (five companies each), Hungary (four), Bulgaria, Lithuania and Serbia (two companies each).
Of the 50 companies ranked, 38 are new-entries, three climbed up in the ranking and eight went down. The ranking is again dominated by software firms (29), followed by media companies (14), hardware firms (4) and telecom companies (3).