Data Electronics emerged as the winner of this year’s Deloitte Technology Fast 50 at last night’s ceremony in Belfast. Founded in 1975, the Dublin-based company is Ireland’s oldest data centre operator and has seen aggregate growth in revenue of 4,376 per cent over the past five years. Last year, the company was ranked number 40 in the list.
In second place was one of eight new entries to the Fast 50 listing, Alltracel Pharmaceuticals, which specialises in developing consumer wound care, oral care and coronary health products. It achieved a growth rate of 2,771 per cent over six years.
Third place was also taken by a Fast 50 debutant and previous Rising Star winner, Digiweb. The company is rapidly becoming one of Ireland’s leading broadband providers to the business and consumer sectors using wireless, satellite and DSL technology. It had a growth rate of 2,384 per per cent. Fourth and fifth place went to Meridio and Bard na nGleann respectively. This was Bard na nGleann’s first appearance in the Fast 50 listing.
The Rising Stars category recognises younger companies with the fastest growth in turnover over the past three years and fittingly, in the first year the awards have been held in Belfast, three of them came from Northern Ireland – Fusion Antibodies (1,074 per cent), ASIUDA (386 per cent), and Propertynews.com (53 per cent), and three from the Republic of Ireland – Smarthomes (1,578 per cent), Zamano (781 per cent) and expd8 (155 per cent).
Silicon Republic is the media partner for the Fast 50 programme which is now in its sixth year. It ranks the fastest-growing technology companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The 2005 awards saw 35 companies from the Republic of Ireland and 15 companies from Northern Ireland recognised for achieving average annual growth of 552 per cent over the period 2000 to 2004.
Announcing the winners of the Technology Fast 50 programme, David O’Flanagan, partner with Deloitte, Dublin said: “We are delighted to see the Technology Fast 50 go from strength to strength and tonight’s finalists provide us with a great barometer to assess the state of the emerging technology sector in Ireland. Performance indicators from this year’s list are very positive, representing an impressive average increase in revenue of almost 190 per cent on last year.”
Liam Nellis, chief executive of InterTradeIreland, sponsors of the award, said: “It is especially gratifying to see companies in the Rising Stars category operating on an all island basis. For example, Smarthomes and Fusion Antibodies have come through the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn and Innova programmes respectively. This demonstrates the winning importance of the all-island market to companies pursuing real growth and success.”
By Ian Campbell
