Redbee Software, DRUID and Questo are the Romanian technology companies included in the main category of the Deloitte 2023 Central Europe Technology Fast 50 ranking of the fastest growing start-ups in the region. Redbee Software, specialized in web and mobile software solutions leveraging cutting-edge technologies, developed an intuitive stock market prediction app aiming to sharpen investment strategies and boost confidence for investors, ranks 8th, with a growth rate of 2,698% of the revenues registered between 2019 and 2022, DRUID, specialized in developing intelligent virtual assistants dedicated to complex enterprise processes, ranks 32nd, with a growth rate of 875%, and Questo, which created a platform for immersive outdoor escape games, ranks 50th, with a growth rate of 663%.
Also, the Romanian start-ups Flip, Bright Spaces and easySales are ranked in the Companies to Watch subcategory, which includes the fastest growing companies between 2020 and 2022 which do not meet the criteria for the main Fast 50 ranking yet. Flip, which created an end-to-end e-commerce solution for selling and purchasing refurbished smartphones, ranks 3rd out of 25 start-ups, with a growth rate of 1,289%, Bright Spaces, a PropTech startup that helps boost office marketing and leasing through 3D digital twins, ranks 5th, with a growth rate of 737%, and easySales, which created a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform enabling merchants to integrate e-commerce platforms with marketplaces, billing software, couriers or fulfilment centres, ranks 20th, with a growth rate of 174%.
Additionally, three Romanian companies – Ascendia, RepsMate and ZA Cloud - are recognized by the Deloitte 2023 CE Technology Fast 50 programme with the Impact Stars Award, which acknowledges start-ups for successfully linking products and services with a positive impact on society, business, innovativeness, environment and diversity. Ascendia is a company that created e-learning tools used in both private and public sector, RepsMate is the developer of a conversational intelligence platform that enables organizations to analyse and evaluate 100% of customer interactions, regardless of the communication channel, and ZA Cloud is specialized in providing software solutions for deep understanding of online content using artificial intelligence.
Hermix, the local technology start-up that received the CE Tech Rocketship special recognition, offered by Google Cloud, is the developer of a platform that helps companies understand the public sector market by automating business-to-government strategic marketing, sales, presales, and bid activities. This year, Google Cloud is the official regional technology partner for the Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 Programme.
“This year’s edition of the CE Fast 50 programme is the embodiment of resilience as it presents the dynamic of the technology companies across Central Europe between 2019 and 2022, a period considered when analysing the growth rate delivered by the participants and which coincides with a context marked by a global pandemic and significant geopolitical tensions. We are honoured to celebrate the achievements of ten local technology start-ups that thrived through that period and to recognize their commitment to continuous improvement and development through the Fast 50 platform,” said Andrei Ionescu, Partner, Deloitte Romania, and Local Leader of the Technology Fast 50 Central Europe programme.
The fastest growing technology companies in Central Europe
For the third successive year, the winner of the main category of the ranking, which recognizes the fastest growing technology companies in CE that have been operating for at least four years, is FTMO, a fintech from Czech Republic, with a growth rate of 5,815%, which has developed an educational platform for traders on the financial markets that enables them to focus on risk management and disciplined trading to adopt best practices, avoid errors and reduce waste. Companies included in the main ranking registered an average growth rate of 1,502%.
This years’ competition, now at its 24th edition, is dominated by software companies (31 entries), followed by fintech (4), hardware (4), media and entertainment (4), environmental technology (4) and healthcare and life sciences (3).
The “Companies to watch” and “CE Tech Rocketship” subcategories
Besides the main category, which includes the fastest growing companies in the technology sector, the Deloitte 2023 Central Europe Technology Fast 50 also includes the “Companies to watch” subcategory, which showcases companies that do not meet the criteria for the main Fast 50 ranking yet. The first position of the subcategory, including companies that have base-year operating revenues of minimum €10,000 (2020) and current year operating revenue of minimum €30,000 (2022), was claimed by 3IPK, a Slovakian company whose blockchain-based solutions are enabling customers in the space, aerospace and defence industries to assure the authenticity of data – including Earth observation satellite imagery, with a growth rate of 2,885%.
The winner of the “CE Tech Rocketship” subcategory, which marks out businesses that have developed high-quality, scalable solutions with the potential to satisfy the most demanding customers, offered by Google Cloud, is Open Loyalty, a Polish company that has created a flexible loyalty software for creating personalised loyalty and gamification programmes.
