2010 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 announced

25 October 2010

• London remains a tech hub and dominates the ranking with 40% of companies
• An increase in software and telecommunication companies in the ranking -

Deloitte, the business advisory firm, today announces the results of its 2010 Technology Fast 50 awards, an independent ranking of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies. This year’s winner is Mobile Interactive Group with a growth of 26,885 per cent, an increase of 8659 per cent compared to last year’s winner, Distribution Technology.

The mobile technology sector accounts for some of the fastest growing companies in this year’s Fast 50 index. Mobile Interactive Group was founded in 2004 by Barry Houlihan, Anthony Nelson and Nick Aldridge, who came up with the idea for the mobile and digital group. The business has grown rapidly and recently acquired a Manchester based mobile CRM software business, as well as launching two subsidiary businesses, mobile advertising agency, 4th Screen Advertising and digital technology agency, Jigsaw.

Mobile Interactive Group Chief Executive Barry Houlihan said: “We’re delighted to have come top of this year’s Deloitte Technology Fast 50. We’re in a hot high-growth industry, dealing with rapid changes in devices, products, platforms and user expectations. You need to have a clear vision, a great business model and a very strong culture to deal with that.”

Houlihan is proud to have been part of building a business that now employs 160 people, but his sights are set on further growth and International expansion: “We are currently building sales teams and partnerships in markets like the USA, Africa and Asia Pacific and we’ll be relocating some of our senior management and directors to support that growth.”

David Halstead, Partner leading the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, said: “In spite of the challenging financial market conditions, the 2010 Deloitte Fast 50 shows that tremendous growth rates are still possible, with the mobile technology and software sectors showing particular strength.

“The Technology Fast 50 awards are an opportunity for businesses to gain recognition for their successes and achievements over the previous 12 months. Successful companies have overcome many challenges to grow their businesses, and maintaining their growth will rely on attracting and retaining the most able staff.”

Tech clusters – continued dominance of London and Silicon Fen. ‘Silicon Glen’ struggles
This year’s Deloitte Technology Fast 50 highlights the dominance of London, with five of the top ten coming from London and London companies make up 40% of the ranking. Internet companies were typically based in London with eight in the Fast 50.

Scotland has only 4% of companies in this year’s Fast 50, highlighting the fact that technology companies have failed to thrive so far from London. Scottish companies have had a challenging year and Scottish winner, Bloxx CEO, Eamonn Doyle believes, “Many tech start-ups in Scotland have faltered during the tough economy because they didn’t have enough capital behind them.”

Bloxx is based on the outskirts of Edinburgh, with access to high quality technical graduates, but a more significant challenge is finding good sales staff. “We’re at the wrong end of the country for many clients so we have opened an office in Bracknell and our sales director there has recruited successfully”, Doyle explains.

In contrast, Cambridge continues to fare well with semiconductor and software company, DisplayLink coming in second place with 82,372 growth. Overall companies based in Cambridge made up 14% of the ranking. DisplayLink was actually conceived by an American, Martin King, based in Seattle. However, King quickly realised that his vision to create a company that would develop technology to connect mobile devices to larger visual display units would be most effectively achieved in Cambridge, and so set up his business in the UK.

Craig Ensley, DisplayLink’s president and CEO said: “Martin King founded the business in 2003 because there was specific expertise in Cambridge around real-time networking of visual and graphics information over networks.”

Survey of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 companies
The Fast 50 companies cited their biggest operational challenges in managing their rapid growth was hiring and keeping top quality talent (48%). Concerns around systems and process (15%), innovation of new products and services (11%) and increasing customer demand (7%) were the other key issues they had to tackle.

Ends

Notes to editors

Regional breakdown

London – 18 companies

Cambridge and East – seven companies

North – four companies

South East – nine companies

Northern Ireland – four companies

Midlands - three companies

South West - two companies

Scotland - three companies

* Growth rates are all over the last five years.

UK Deloitte Technology Fast 50
The UK Deloitte Technology Fast 50 initiative ranks UK high growth technology companies based on percentage growth in stated revenue over five years. The programme is sponsored by Taylor Wessing, a leading International law firm with a focus on the industries of tomorrow, and Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, a venture and growth capital investor which backs entrepreneur with aspiration for greatness in the IT and clean technology sectors across Europe. Frequently asked questions and details of the winning companies, including breakdowns by industry sector and ranking, will be available on www.deloitte.co.uk/fast50.

Technology Fast 50 Eligibility criteria
The company must have been in business for a minimum of five years;

The company must be considered a technology company, which is defined as:

• producing technology
• manufacturing technology-related products
• be technology intensive, or use unique technology to solve problems
• devoting a high percentage of effort to technology R&D
• The parent company must be UK-owned and have its headquarters in UK (subsidiaries of UK or multinational organisations do not qualify);
• Operating revenues must be at least £34,000 (50,000 Euros) for the first financial year of the 5 year period and £540,000 (800,000 Euros) for most recent financial year;

All submissions must be accompanied by signed accounts for the first and last financial year being measured in the competition. Unless a statutory exemption is being taken, these accounts should be unabbreviated and audited.

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