Which are the 50 fastest-growing tech companies in CEE for 2021?

Deloitte, the largest professional services network in the world, published its annual report on the fastest-growing tech startups in Central and Eastern Europe. And the numbers are more than hopeful. The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in Central Europe, which is now in its 22nd year, ranks the 50 fastest growing public or private technology companies.

Top 50 fastest-growing companies in CEE

To make it into this list, the companies must fulfil a number of criteria such as:

• Having base-year operating revenue of at least €50,000 in 2017, 2018, 2019 and a current year operating revenue (2020) of at least €100,000.
• Owning proprietary intellectual property or proprietary technology, sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company’s operating revenues.
• Having an ownership structure that excludes majority-owned subsidiaries of strategic entities.
• Headquarters in a Central European country.

Winners are then selected by ranking their revenue growth over the four years from 2017 to 2020. According to the report, 19 out of the top 50 fastest-growing startups are from the Czech Republic. This is an amazing growth of the local ecosystem! Poland takes the second position with 16 startups that made in the top 50 list. Slovakia participates with five companies, Croatia with four, Bulgaria with two, and Albania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia with one each. According to the rankings, the number one sector is software with 33 businesses, followed by hardware with 5 and fintech with 3.

The winner in the category “Central Europe Fact 50 winner” is the Czech fintech startup FTMO which reached a revenue growth of 39.432% between 2017 and 2020! Well, that’s a big number in comparison to the average growth of the businesses in this category – 2.278%! FTMO enables experienced and successful financial traders without equity to trade under the auspices of FTMO. In second place is the Lithuanian Kilo.Health, which works in the field of health technology. The platform integrates data analysis, services, and home devices to create a comprehensive health ecosystem. Its turnover jumped by 17,710%. The third is another Czech company – Driveto, which facilitates car leasing and car rental. The growth of this business in the last four years is 5829%.

Here is the entire list of the 50 fastest-growing tech companies in the CEE region according to Deloitte:

The Investment Star Award in CEE goes to…

In this year’s edition of Deloitte Fast 50 Central Europe, there is a separate Investment Star award for the company that received the largest total investment between 2018 and mid-2021. With a historical investment of €19.584.000, the Bulgarian fintech Payhawk grabs the “Investment Stars” award. Well done, Payhawk! The company issues corporate debit cards in combination with a cost management platform in more than 30 countries.

Bulgarian fintech Payhawk raises $112M, reaching valuation of $570M

The Growth Starts of the CEE ecosystem

In addition to the Technology Fast 50 ranking, Deloitte ranks companies that show great potential but are too new to meet the criteria for the main Fast 50 category. Eligible companies must have base-year operating revenue of a minimum of €10,000 (2018, 2019 ) and current-year operating revenue of a minimum of €30,000 (2020). Once again the Czech Republic takes over the ranking with 10 companies with significant potential to make it in the next top 50. Poland has 4 representatives in this category, Slovakia and Croatia each has 3, Romania and Lithuania each has 2, and Hungary has one company that made it in the top Growth Stars of the CEE region. The majority of the startups in this category, 16 businesses, are offering software solutions. There are 3 fintech companies and 3 that provide environmental technology. The average company growth among the Growth Stars of the CEE is 1.188%.

The “Growth Stars” winner is the Romanian software DRUID with growth of 6.753%. Congratulations! DRUID is an intelligent chatbot that empowers employees, customers, and partners to digitally communicate with your business and enterprise systems in the most intuitive, efficient, and human-like way. The second and third place in the ranking are taken by the Czech startups Cyrkl (2349%) and ALIS Tech (2349%). Cyrkl enables the optimization of the management of waste by passing it on from those who have it to those who need it. ALIS Tech, on the other hand, developing a complex system for localization and monitoring of humans, devices, and vehicles in dangerous industrial zones or any other locations.

Here is the entire list of the Growth Stars in the CEE region according to Deloitte: