Deloitte Global announces 2015 Technology Fast500TM EMEA rankings

3 December 2015 — A Dutch company tops Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s (Deloitte Global’s) Technology Fast 500TM rankings for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), which is now in its 15th year. The list, compiled by Deloitte Global’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) industry group, places the Dutch online auction house, Catawiki, in the top spot among the region’s 500 fastest growing companies. Overall, the EMEA region saw a 1,012 percent average rate of growth in revenue, with companies from over 20 countries featuring in the rankings.

“Achieving a position in the EMEA Fast 500 is always an impressive feat but the rates of growth for this year are particularly inspiring. In order to better align our EMEA, US and APAC programmes, the growth is now measured over four rather than five years which has led to a drop in the average rate from 1,711 percent in 2014, to 1,012 percent in 2015” says David Cobb, Deloitte UK partner and partner-incharge of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500TM EMEA program. “Despite that shorter period however, I would like to congratulate our overall winner, Catawiki, who still managed to achieve a remarkable 45,080 percent rate of growth. These results highlight the strength and determination of the Technology sector across this region with a clear indication of some of our business leaders of the future."

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 TM program ranks the fastest growing public and private technology companies annually. This year saw a number of changes made to the required criteria for the program in an effort to align the Technology Fast 500 programs globally across the EMEA, US & Asia Pacific (APAC) regions. Revenue growth is now calculated for the last four years rather than five, and the revamped sectors are software, hardware, communications, media, life sciences and clean technology.

Founded in 2008, Catawiki is an online auction house that boasts over 100 auctions per week in 80 speciality categories, including classic cars, trading cards and movie memorabilia. Catawiki has achieved a phenomenal 45,080% growth in revenue in the past four years, and has specialised auctioneers supervise the 12 million visitors it receives per month using the site to buy and sell collectables globally. “We are a dynamic and open organisation with a real ‘hands-on’ and ‘start-up’ mentality,” says René Schoenmakers, Catawiki CEO and co-founder. “Our hyper growth comes from our 300 talented employees. Everyone has his or her own unique qualities and knows how to use them as part of the team. We find that hiring the right people makes all the difference. In the next couple of months we plan to recruit 100 great software developers from all over the world to work in Amsterdam. We continuously want to improve our website and apps to provide the best user experience for buying and selling special objects.”

Geographic trends

France again dominated as the country with the most entries in the top 500 overall for a fifth consecutive year, and the rest of the top 5 represented countries are rounded off by the same locations as 2014 including the United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands and Sweden. Two Israeli companies featured in the top 5, and 4 of the top 10 ranked companies are from the United Kingdom.

Sector trends

The Software sector represented 52 percent of the overall rankings on this year’s Fast 500, followed by the Media sector with 18 percent. Rounding out the sector list is Communications (10 percent), Hardware (10 percent), Life Sciences (6 percent) and Clean Technology (4 percent). 

The sector winners are:

The full list of ranked companies as well as additional details on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 program can be accessed at www.deloitte.com/fast500emea.

About Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ EMEA

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA programme is the region’s most objective EMEA region industry-ranking to focus on the technology field, recognising technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of revenue growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) during the past four years. Combining technological innovation, entrepreneurship and rapid growth, Fast 500 companies – large, small, public and private – span a variety of industry sectors, and are leaders in hardware, software, communications, media, life sciences and clean technology.

The programme is supported by the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 initiatives, which rank high growth technology companies by location or specifically defined geographic area and is run by the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) global industry group. Co-sponsors include Eight Roads, a venture and growth capital investor which backs entrepreneurs with aspiration for greatness in the IT and clean technology sectors across Europe, Silicon Valley Bank, the premier bank for technology, life science, private equity and premium wine businesses and Taylor Wessing, a leading International law firm with a focus on the industries of tomorrow. More information on the programme and prior year winners is available on www.deloitte.com/fast500emea.

About Deloitte

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The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.