Published on the 26/11/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
Fintech disruptor and online loan provider Prospa has won the Deloitte TechFast 50 for 2015, with a phenomenal 6,971 percent revenue growth rate for the year…
That growth rate eclipses the 3,626 per cent growth that delivered data centre specialist NEXTDC the TechFast crown in 2014.
According to Deloitte partner, Stuart Johnston; “The rate of technology and exponential innovation are not going away. We are now on the cusp of the next wave of digital change and exponential innovation.”
While the TechFast 50 have all achieved some sort of critical mass (to be eligible for the awards companies must have at least three years of revenues under their belt), there is the opportunity for even greater progress if access to capital can be improved according to Joshua Tanchel, the lead Deloitte partner for the awards.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony which was held at the ASX in Sydney, Tanchel said that; “The real opportunity is if we can generate real (financial) returns.”
To date he said the returns track record of the tech sector had been poor, but if that could be addressed more institutional capital would flow to the sector.
Not that tech companies haven’t been able to raise funds from institutions and investors already. Peter Hiom, deputy CEO of the ASX, said that 30 new tech listings valued at a combined $3.3 billion had funnelled through the ASX in the last 12 months. There are now 130 Australian tech companies listed on the ASX and rising, even though high profile software company Atlassian has opted to float on the Nasdaq.
Hiom noted that “Technology for us is beyond just listing companies – we see it as a massive disruptor to industry and how the capital markets change. We are on the cusp of a digital revolution.”
It’s a digital revolution that entrants in the Tech Fast 50 competition are all attempting to wreak.
Besides Prospa, which provides online loans of up to around $250,000 for small businesses, and disrupting traditional bank lending; the other companies reaching the top five list were Cirrus Networks a Perth based systems integrator which grew 5,571 percent; peer to peer taxi app Ingogo with 1,494 percent growth; Victoria’s Urbanise.com a cloud based building services delivery platform which grew 1,080 percent; and Atomos Global which grew 425 percent with its video monitoring and recording systems.
