Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 for 2017

• The average growth rate of Central Europe’s Fast 50 technology companies sets new record of 1,127 per cent

• This is the second consecutive year of 1,000+ per cent average growth

• Companies from 11 countries are represented, including Titan Gate and Accedia from Bulgaria

• The top five places are taken by new entrants – all Rising Stars of 2016

• Companies representing the IT & Digital solutions sector (39) dominate the ranking

The speed of growth among Central Europe’s technology companies continues to accelerate, with average growth between 2013 and 2016 delivered by the companies featuring in the 2017 Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 ranking hitting a new record of 1,127 per cent.

This is the second consecutive year that the average rate has broken through the 1,000 per cent mark. This not only confounds any suspicions that last year’s exceptional results could not be surpassed – it also highlights the medium-term sustainability of the current tech boom in Central Europe.
Like last year, the top five entrants in the 2017 ranking are again new to the Fast 50. However, in 2016 they all featured in the Rising Stars category, which highlights exceptional businesses that are too young to feature in the main Fast 50 report.

First place in the 2017 ranking goes to Czech online flight-booking business Kiwi.com, last year’s fifth-placed Rising Star (under the name Skypicker.com). After a stunning 2016, its four-year growth rate has leapt from 1,534 per cent in the last ranking to 7,165 per cent, suggesting that its 2021 target of becoming the world-leader in online travel is within its grasp.

Only fractionally behind, on 7,048 per cent, is last year’s Rising Stars winner, Lithuanian smart sports technology business Deeper. Its growth rate has almost doubled from last year’s already outstanding 3,631 per cent. The biggest riser, however, is third-placed Prusa Research from the Czech Republic (up to 6,910 per cent from 688 per cent last time), completing an amazing triumvirate of businesses delivering growth of around 7,000 per cent.
Fourth place goes to Polish software-development business TOOPLOOX (2,827 per cent) and fifth to another Polish entrant, technology-driven recruitment company Absolvent.pl (2,437 per cent).
The pace of change at the top of the ranking means that only one company has retained its place in the top 10. This is software company NSoft, once again the only company from Bosnia and Herzegovina to feature in the ranking.

Bulgaria

Two Bulgarian companies are ranked among the 50 fastest-growing CE technology companies in the main category Fast 50. One company is ranked in the special category “Big 5”.
Titan Gate Jsc (Internet, Media & Telecom sector) is ranked at 16th place with a four-year growth rate of 802 per cent. Titan Gate started out as a publisher, founding the tech site PhoneArena.com. In 2013 PubGalaxy was created – a platform for premium publishers, designed to help them attract quality advertisers and optimize yield through advanced technology. 

Accedia Jsc (IT & Digital Solutions sector) is ranked at 26th place in the main category Fast 50 with a four-year growth rate of 495 per cent. Accedia is a Professional IT Services company, specializing in technology consulting, software development outsourcing, as well as development of end-to-end IT solutions.

Special categories

Companies up to three years’ old are ineligible for the main Fast 50 ranking. The Rising Stars category exists to mark those younger businesses with such strong growth that they are likely to feature in the Fast 50 in years to come. Indeed, the fact that the top five in the main 2017 ranking were Rising Stars a year ago proves the value of this approach.

This year’s Rising Star is Lithuanian 3D-model marketplaces CGTrader, with a four-year growth rate of 3,329 per cent. Second is Q, a digital solutions provider from Croatia (2,246 per cent).

The Big Five category is for fast-growing larger companies whose scale makes it difficult for them to compete in revenue growth with the smaller businesses in the Fast 50. This year’s winner is Czech online and real-world fashion retailer, ZOOT, with a four-year growth rate of 820 per cent. Not far behind is Bulgarian publisher and ad-monetisation business Titan Gate (802 per cent). And third is Lithuanian online retailer Pigu (208 per cent).
The second annual winner of our Most Disruptive Innovation (MDI) award is Serbia-based heating, ventilation and air-con innovator DADANCO Europe. The award marks those businesses that might not have made the ranking but are pioneering highly disruptive new ideas or technologies – DADANCO certainly fits the bill.

Countries

This year, 11 countries contribute companies to the Fast 50: Poland (19), Croatia (8), Lithuania (6), the Czech Republic (5), Romania (3), Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia (2 each), and Bosnia & Herzegovina, Estonia and Latvia (1 each).

Sectors

In 2017, the Fast 50 was once again dominated by companies from the IT & Digital Solutions sector (39). There were 10 entrants from the Internet, Media and Telecom sector, and just one from Clean Tech & Energy (down from three in 2016). There were no entrants from Biotech, Nanotech & Medtech.

A global outlook

According to Agnieszka Zielińska, Technology Fast 50 programme leader Deloitte Central Europe, “One of the most pleasing aspects of this year’s ranking is the number of companies in it that have ambitions to grow outside our region. The overall winner, Kiwi.com, heads that list with its objectives of becoming a world leader – and many others have similar ambitions, with clients, customers, offices and employees already in markets across Western Europe and North America. The truly amazing thing is the incredible youth of so many of these businesses. This year, 68 per cent in the main ranking are first-time entrants, and the most common year of foundation was just 2012. No one knows what the future holds, but the impetus is clearly with this dynamic new generation of entrepreneurial businesses, right across Central Europe’s tech sector.”

According to Assen Dimov, Technology Fast 50 programme leader for Bulgaria, "Companies that increase efficiency through new technologies, develop new products and business models are the drivers of a new way of thinking, essential for the development of modern technology industry. The ranking of Bulgarian companies in the Deloitte program for another year, shows that the Bulgarian sector is a part of the positive tendency that we are seeing in Central Europe."

For more information about the Deloitte Central Europe Technology Fast 50 programme, visit www.deloitte.com/fast50ce