2018 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Awards

| December 2, 2018

The ongoing revolution in how we shop, how we pay for services, and our migration from the server to the cloud are some of the key revenue drivers behind Australia’s fastest growing technology companies.

The 2018 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Awards announced at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art on Friday (16 November), have highlighted Australia’s hottest business areas and identified an emerging wave of female ‘tech’ entrepreneurs among Australia’s fastest growing technology companies.

‘Retail therapy’ champion, Afterpay Touch Group, claimed two major prizes, topping the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia list with average revenue growth of 8,134% over the last three years, as well as winning the Leadership Award, while cloud based technology provider Barhead Solutions was named the 2018 Rising Star.

Kimberly Chang, Deloitte Australia’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Leader said that Afterpay’s result was one of the strongest in the eighteen-year history of the Awards, which assess revenue growth over a three-year period for companies with minimum cumulative revenues of $8 million.

The brain-child of young Sydney entrepreneur Nick Molner and Anthony Eisen, Afterpay Touch Group, launched its reverse lay-by model in 2014, changing the way people pay for shopping and exporting the platform to thousands of retailers and millions of customers across the globe.

“We congratulate Afterpay Touch Group for winning both the 2018 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Award and the Fast 50 Leadership Award from an outstanding field of Australian business innovators, who collectively drove revenues of over $1.5 billion for the Australian economy last financial year,” Chang said.

“The awards show Australian companies capturing global attention across retail, fintech, software development, sports science, health, telecommunications, marketing and business IT systems.

“Excitingly, 2018 sees a significant number of women as successful technology entrepreneurs across a range of fields in both the Technology Fast 50 and the Rising Star categories.

“There are ten companies across the two lists with female founders or co-founders, including five founded and driven by individual women (or female partnerships) and around a dozen with female CEOs, General Managers or Managing Directors.” Chang said.

Western Sydney also emerges as a force through the Smithfield-based NBN internet service provider Mate Communicate (3,703% revenue growth), which secured second place overall with its ‘backyard’ call centre and community first approach. The business finished ahead of the Bevan Slattery-led connectivity specialist, Superloop (1860%), in third place. Bevan becomes the first entrepreneur in Technology Fast 50 Australia history to have two businesses make the top 50, with Megaport (637%) coming in at number ten.

Technology Fast 50 Lead Partner, Josh Tanchel, said that recent political and media interest around Technology Fast 50 companies such as Afterpay and fellow Technology Fast 50 member Zip (1,245% growth) only highlighted the positive impact these businesses are making in challenging traditional models and corporate philosophies.

“Companies like Afterpay, Zip, Prospa and MoneyMe are genuine success stories for Australia and reminders of how fresh thinking fintechs are fundamentally changing the ways we pay for goods and manage our finances,” Tanchel said.

“In some ways it’s not surprising, that they attract attention in the current environment, but, as we saw with another Technology Fast 50 company, Prospa, last year, the good models do withstand scrutiny and deserve support.

“More broadly, it remains important that, as tech entrepreneurs continue to drive change, they maintain a customer focus and a ‘profit for purpose philosophy’.

“This year’s list tells us that we are going to see further challenges to traditional finance models from the fintech sector and serious growth in AI development, in 5G telecommunications and in the implementation of cloud-based business systems.

“The cloud is leading to greater processing and network capacity and increasingly businesses are looking to maximise those efficiencies.” Tanchel said.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards are the longest running of their type in Australia and provide international recognition for Australian innovation, with the winners gaining automatic entry into the Deloitte Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500 program.

The Awards are supported by both the ASX and DLA Piper Australia.

2018 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Award Winner

Afterpay Touch Group (8,134%); Mate Communicate (3,703%); Superloop (1,860%).

2018 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Leadership Award Winner

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Leadership category recognises established technology companies who have won a place in the 2018 Technology Fast 50 list and whose strong track record of growth has generated cumulative operating revenues greater than $50 million. Afterpay led the way in 2018 ahead of Superloop and fresh food provider Youfoodz (498%).

2018 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Rising Star Award Winner

The Rising Star Award recognises, high-growth nominating companies with less than three years revenue to report (and who, therefore, do not qualify for the Technology Fast 50 list), are (in order): cloud-based technology solutions provider Barhead Solutions Australia (16,330%); inspirational war veterans employment specialist WithYouWithMe (3,427%) and advertising disruptors Playground XYZ! (3078%).

“Innovative new technologies challenge existing business models and create new opportunities across all industries. ASX is proud to continue to support the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and recognise Australia’s fastest growing tech companies,” Dominic Stevens, ASX CEO said.

According to DLA Piper Australia Co-Managing Partner Melinda Upton, The Technology Fast 50 is an inspiring reminder of what Australian businesses can achieve.

“At DLA Piper we have worked with many of the world’s top emerging tech businesses and this event shows that Australian businesses are up there with the world’s best and we’re very proud to be associated with the Deloitte Technology Fast 50,” she said.

Mr Tanchel said that this year’s awards again showcase an array of individual Australian success stories, from garage and living room based start-ups to established industry leaders pursuing new ideas.

“Business ideas include everything from high-level consultancies to a new approach to sanitary wear that is building international markets.

“We are seeing people change the way we buy insurance, buy food, cosmetics, mountain bikes and real estate, while also changing the way we recruit, hire and promote women in the work place.”

From a sector perspective the Technology Fast 50 comprised:

  • 24% fintech (including insurance)
  • 22% software
  • 20% IT and communications
  • 18% online
  • 14% digital agency
  • 2% medical.

NSW headed the list of companies in 2018 with 27, ahead of Victoria (11), Queensland (10) and Western Australia (2).

Of Fast Technology 50 companies, 74% are private and 26% are listed, with the Rising Star companies all private enterprises.

SHARE WITH: