Deloitte recently released its annual Technology Fast 500 list, a ranking of the fastest-growing public and private technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, and energy tech companies in North America (based on percentage year revenue growth over three years). And, though the Southeast’s representation made up only 1/20 of the list, there are some notable trends — and a few big wins.
Atlanta leads the pack
Out of the 25 total southeastern companies that made the Fast 500, 19 are from the Atlanta metro region. That includes the first company from the region to ever break the top 10, SalesLoft (#7 with 13,759 percent growth), along with top 100 contenders QASymphony (#44 with 3,687 percent growth) and Alimera Sciences (#84 with 1,707 percent growth).
This is the strongest showing Atlanta has ever seen on the Fast 500, breaking the 2015 record of 13 companies. The full list of Atlanta fast movers is below:
#7 – SalesLoft
#44 – QASymphony
#84 – Alimera Sciences
#121 – Kabbage
#125 – MacStadium
#128 – CallRail
#149 – Urjanet
#242 – Sharecare
#245 – Cardlytics
#258 – P2Sample
#263 – QGenda
#298 – ClickDimensions
#342 – Wahoo Fitness
#355 – Simeio Solutions
#433 – Parkmobile
#468 – Digirad Corporation
#486 – Softpath System
#489 – FactorTrust
#494 – Proliant
Regional consolidation
The past few years have seen consolidation as far as where the Southeast’s Fast 500 are located. In 2015 and 2017, only companies from Georgia and the Carolinas represented the region; last year saw only one additional company from Alabama.
This year’s list saw 5 companies from North Carolina and one from South Carolina. They are as follows:
#189 nCino (Wilmington, NC)
#204 Mobilesmith (Raleigh NC)
#311 AvidXchange (Charlotte, NC)
#328 PhishLabs (Charleston, SC)
#443 Qorvo (Greensboro NC)
#480 DZone (Cary, NC)
Software dominates
17 out of the 25 southeastern companies on this year’s Fast 500 are software companies. This is even higher than the overall industry results, where Software represented 59 percent of the overall list — 293 out of the 500 companies. It’s also consistent with investment dollars in the state represented — the top investment in both Georgia and South Carolina over the last five years has been the SaaS sector, according to BIP Capital’s State of Startups in the Southeast report.
The second-highest industry category was Digital Content/Media/Entertainment, with three southeastern companies.
