Australia's fastest growing tech companies 2022 revealed

It appears that the combined disruption of a pandemic, floods, global conflicts, rising inflation and fears of a global recession can’t keep a good tech company down, as Melbourne medicinal cannabis player Montu was named one of the fastest growing companies by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 since the list was established 22 years ago.

Montu, which develops innovative cannabinoid-based products and makes them accessible to patients through a nationwide network of doctors, achieved a massive 20,728 per cent growth in revenue over the three years to 2022, making it a clear winner in this year’s list. This is the fastest growth of any tech company that has made the list since 2004.

But according to Deloitte, the rest of the pack has been just as agile, growing at a faster pace than the most recent Technology Fast 50 list released earlier this year after being delayed by the pandemic in 2021.

The average growth of the 2022 Technology Fast 50 companies surged to 1,308 per cent, up from 936 in 2021, which was another collective high since 2004.

Anti-money laundering risk management platform FrankieOne – founded by serial entrepreneur Simon Costello who was named Trailblazer at the 2021 Melbourne Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards - took out second spot with 4,743 per cent.

Digital order and pay platform me&u, which has been expanding its services into the US and UK - came in third with 3,819 per cent growth. The company, which is headed by Katrina Barry, also scored the female leadership award for 2022.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 ranks the 50 fastest-growing public and private technology companies in Australia based on minimum cumulative revenues of $8 million over a three-year period.

Of this year’s cohort, 15 companies had more than $50 million in revenue over three years and 11 achieved more than 1,000 per cent growth.

Former start-ups that have made the list in the past include Seek, realestate.com.au, Altium, Atlassian, Webjet, NextDC, Modibodi and Afterpay.

Deloitte partner Josh Tanchel, who leads the Technology Fast 50 team, says the list provides an insight into the companies worth keeping an eye on.

“For more than 20 years, our Tech Fast 50 program has been telling us where Australia’s tech sector is now, where it’s heading and who’s taking us there, and witnessed and celebrated the meteoric rise of Australia’s fastest-growing businesses, often ahead of their transformation into influential global operators,” he says.

“Based on three years of growth, the 2022 program has arguably been the toughest yet, dominated by so many issues, from the pandemic, floods, international conflict, rising inflation and interest rates, and concerns of a global recession.

“But despite such acute challenges, Australian tech companies have proven resilient, they’ve continued to break growth records, and they’ve demonstrated the sector’s ongoing ability to compete on a global scale.”

Software businesses took a big share of this year’s list, comprising 38 per cent of the total, up from 16 per cent last year, but health-tech dominated the top 10 in this year’s list with five companies making the grade.

NSW was home to most of the 50 companies in this year’s list with a 56 per cent share, followed by Victoria (24 per cent), Queensland (12 per cent), South Australia (4 per cent) and Western Australia (4 per cent).

This year’s Tech Fast 50 included two new categories – the Climate Award and the Enterprise Growth category, which were won by EVSE Australia and Zip (ASX: ZIP) respectively.

The climate category recognises technology’s role in helping steer the world to net zero. EVSE Australia, which has been providing turnkey electric vehicle charging solutions since 2015, recorded 280 per cent growth over three years.

The Enterprise Growth category highlights the largest and fastest growing local tech companies in Australia. Companies are only eligible for this category if they have at least $50 million in revenue in the first reporting year of the three-year total.

Although Zip has been caught up in the downturn facing the buy-now-pay-later sector, the company has recorded 287 per cent revenue growth over the past three years.

“The Enterprise Growth category recognises businesses that have already scaled and are continuing to grow,” says Tanchel.

“They are leaders in their industries and to achieve the growth required by the Tech Fast 50 takes continuous investment and innovation around product and customer and the ability to deal with increasing organisational complexity.”