Forty Kiwi companies make the international growth index with sixteen in the top 100; Wellington firms prominent

Content supplied by Deloitte

New Zealand businesses are once again in the mix in the annual Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific index of the region’s fastest growing tech businesses, with 40 making the list and 16 in the top 100.

The index, which was announced in Hong Kong last night, ranks the top 500 tech businesses according to their revenue growth over the past three years and sets the standard for high growth technology businesses in the Asia Pacific region.

Leading the list of New Zealand businesses was Queenstown-based online discount booking company Bookme, which was ranked 18^th on the index with an impressive 1,359% growth, followed by innovative software developer Alphero, which came 22^nd with 1,118% growth.   

Sixteen of the 40 New Zealand companies to make this year’s Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific index are ranked in the top 100, a large step forward from last year’s seven.  Only China has more companies in the Top 100 with twenty-nine. In total, New Zealand has by far the highest representation per capita on the index. 

Once again, Wellington-based businesses edged out the competition this year with 16 making the index, while there are 15 from Auckland, six from Christchurch and a single business each from Hamilton, New Plymouth and Queenstown.

Deloitte Private partner Stephen Nicholas says the fact that Kiwi businesses make up more than 15% of all companies in the Top 100 of the Asia Pacific index is clear evidence that New Zealand businesses have moved into the upper echelon of fast growing technology firms in the highly competitive Asia-Pacific region.

“These results clearly show that despite the relatively small New Zealand market hard-working innovative Kiwi firms have been able to outperform companies from many larger countries, not only matching the total contribution to the index of technology powerhouses like Japan, but also earning more spots among the top 100 than all other countries except China,” says Mr Nicholas.

“It is further proof that the disruptive forces of mobile and cloud technologies have levelled the playing field, helping Kiwi businesses achieve global scale and overcome market and geographical boundaries.”

In terms of the geographical spread of companies on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific index, the largest number of companies are from China (128), followed by Taiwan (108), India (78), Australia (66), New Zealand and Japan (40), South Korea (36), Singapore (3) and Malaysia (1). 

Revenue growth across the Tech Fast 500 ranked firms was on average 356% this year, driven by a strong year of growth among the internet and software sectors, combining to make up eight of the top ten companies.

The top-ranked business on this year’s Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific index is Taiwanese communications software business China Communications Media Group with an astronomical 26,585% growth, more than double their closest competitor.

NZ businesses on the 2013 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific index by location

Auckland:

First in (51), Pure SEO (58), Snakk Media (62), ONCEIT (65), Young & Shand (67), EROAD (68), Marine Deals (77), Unleashed Software (90), Online Asset Partners (94), ProjectManager.com (167), Dbvisit Software (198), World Wide Access (211), Eventfinda (266), 2talk (283), SureFire Search (330)

Hamilton:

Layer X (187)

New Plymouth:

Shotgun Supplements (205)

Wellington:

Alphero (22), GreenButton (24), ENZEC (69), OrbitRemit (81), OptimalBI (101), Xero (104), Snipesoft (122), BigEars (143), Psoda (206), Freeman Media (212), Carnival Labs (288), Optimal Product (290), Times-7 Research (343), TOUCH/CAST (345), Trio Software (397), Seekom (474)

Christchurch:

Intranel (28), Trineo (89), Plato Design Agency (183), Tru2U (188), MyQuote (337), Sand Dune Mail (461)

Queenstown:

Bookme (18)