The Romanian start-up DRUID, specialized in developing intelligent virtual assistants dedicated to complex enterprise processes, is the technology company with the fastest natural growth in Central Europe (CE) over the last three years, according to Deloitte 2021 CE Technology Fast 50 ranking. With a growth rate of 6,753%, DRUID ranks first out of 25 start-ups in the Growth Stars category, which includes fastest growing companies between 2018 and 2020. FintechOS, the Romanian start-up which develops digital solutions for the financial industry, is also among the fastest growing companies in CE and it ranks 16th in the Growth Stars category, with a growth rate of 715%.
Additionally, three Romanian companies – Gama IT, Tapptitude Apps and Wave Studio - are recognized by the Deloitte 2021 CE Technology Fast 50 programme with the Impact Star Award, which acknowledges start-ups for successfully linking products and services with a positive impact on society, business, innovativeness, environment and diversity.
Gama IT is specialized in the development and implementation of complex IT solutions in areas such as human health (hospitals, clinics, laboratories), veterinary health and food safety, Tapptitude Apps is a mobile app development company, which provides app design and development services for every stage of the mobile project, and Wave Studio focuses on mobile app development and created the first animated keyboard on Google Play.
“I am proud to congratulate the Romanian technology companies recognized for their remarkable business results and their positive impact on society. This year’s Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 programme awards local technology companies from various areas such as artificial intelligence and digital transformation, healthcare and mobile app development, which is a proof of their creativity and of the incredible growth potential of the Romanian technology ecosystem. Deloitte is honoured to give them the credit that they deserve through this recognition provided by the Fast 50 platform and by our partners in this programme,” said Andrei Ionescu, Partner-in-Charge, Management Consulting and Risk Advisory, Deloitte Romania, and Local Leader for Technology Fast 50 Central Europe competition.
This year, Google Cloud is the official regional partner for the Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 Programme, while Citi is the local partner of the competition.
“The last decade has been an extraordinary one for the businesses of Central Europe. Just over 10 years ago in 2010, the collective value of CE’s businesses stood at around US$10 billion. Today, that value totals US$186 billion: close to 20 times more. For me, this speaks volumes about the new confidence and determination driving the traction and growth of our region’s businesses, so many of which are now targeting truly global growth. And this trend is accelerating. This tells me something extremely important: that the CE market today is attracting capital from across the world, not just from local VCs. And that means that CE today has the potential to become the cradle of Europe’s most valuable companies. This is one reason why Google Cloud is so proud to be the partner for this year’s Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 programme. This is a fundamentally important initiative, one that helps young companies get to the next level of success,” said Nir Chinsky, Director at Google Cloud CEE & Africa.
The fastest growing technology companies in Central Europe
The winner of the main category of the ranking, which recognizes the fastest growing technology companies in CE that have been operating for at least four years, is FTMO, a fintech from Czech Republic, with a growing rate of 39,432%, the fastest revenue growth recorded by any company in the entire history of the ranking, which has developed a unique educational platform for traders on the financial markets that enables them to focus on risk management and disciplined trading to adopt best practice, avoid errors and reduce waste. Kilo.Health, the healthcare and life science business, is on the second place in the overall ranking, with a growth rate of 17,710%. Companies included in the main ranking registered an average growth rate of 2,278%, the highest ever achieved (up from 1,460% in 2020).
This years’ competition, now at its 22nd edition, is dominated by software companies (33 entries), followed by hardware (5), media & entertainment (4), fintech (3), healthcare and life sciences (3) and communications (2).
The “Companies to watch” category
Besides the main category, which includes the fastest growing companies in the technology sector, the prestigious Deloitte 2021 Central Europe Technology Fast 50 also includes the “Companies to watch” category, which was introduced this year for the first time and showcases companies that do not fulfill the criteria for the main Fast 50 ranking yet and is made of “Growth Stars” and “Investment Stars” subcategories. While the first position for the “Growth Stars” subcategory, including companies that have base-year operating revenues of minimum €10,000 (2018, 2019) and current year operating revenue of minimum €30,000 (2020,) was claimed by a Romanian company, the first position in the “Investment Stars” subcategory, including companies which have received the greatest total investment between January 1, 2018 and May 31, 2021 (with a minimum amount of €500,000), was awarded to the Bulgarian company Payhawk, a payments platform enabling businesses to combine all their spending processes in one place, putting finance teams in full control while allowing employees access to secure and convenient spending methods.
About Deloitte Central Europe Technology Fast 50
In order to be considered eligible for the main category of CE Technology Fast 50 ranking, companies had to meet several financial criteria, such as having reported a minimum €50,000 annual operating revenue in the first three years (2017-2019) and at least €100,000 in 2020. They also must be headquartered in Central Europe and own proprietary intellectual property or proprietary technology.
More information about the Deloitte Central Europe Technology Fast 50 programme is available here.
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