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Kiwi.com the winner of Deloitte Technology Fast 50 – the Czech company is the fastest growing firm in Central Europe

The Czech flight search engine and online seller Kiwi.com is the fastest growing technological company in Central Europe. It came first in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 ranking. Other Czech companies were also successful. The manufacturer of 3D printers Prusa Research came third. Czech companies among the top 50 also include STRV (14th place), ZOOT (15th) and Inventi Solution (37th). The online fashion seller ZOOT also won the Big 5 category. Pilulka Distribuce ranked among Rising Stars.

“The Technology Fast 50 competition was held in the Central European region including the Czech Republic for the 18th time and this year was one of the most successful ones in terms of the ranking of Czech companies. A Czech company had won in the past, for example Simplity in 2015, but the Czech Republic never had a winner in two categories at the same time,” says Jiří Sauer, Director of Deloitte Technology Fast 50 CE in the Czech Republic.

Deloitte Technology Fast 50 compares the growth of the participating technological companies over the previous period of four years, i.e. this year 2013 – 2016. The average rate of growth this year reached the record level of 1,127% and for the second consecutive year the companies in the ranking exceeded the threshold of 1,000%, indicating a continuing boom of technological firms in this region. Kiwi.com experienced record growth of 7,165%, almost five fold of the last year. Prusa Research, which ranked third, recorded a similar growth of 6,910%, more than ten times faster than the 688% of last year.

“This year’s amazing results of Czech companies confirmed that even local Czech businesses can achieve extraordinary growth. In addition, many of the ranking companies have already managed to break through outside the Central European region,” Jiří Sauer adds.

“They owe their success to the favourable conditions not only on the Central European market, but also to quick deployment of the best technologies in combination with the creation of a product or service that contributed to the boom of the relevant industry. The companies were also significantly better at adapting to the needs of their customers,” says Senta Čermáková, Director for Strategic Projects and Head of the Deloitte Startups Project.

Results of Technology Fast 50 in Central Europe in 2017

• This year the first five places were held by companies that had ranked in the Rising Stars category last year. They included Czech companies Kiwi.com and Prusa Research.
• Lithuanian company Deeper ranked second (growth of 7,048%), Polish companies Tooploox Sp. (2,827%) and Absolvent.pl (2,437%) came fourth and fifth, respectively.
• Other Czech representatives included STRV (963%), which develops mobile applications, on the 14th place, ZOOT (820%) on the 15th, and another developer of mobile applications Inventi Solution (408%) on the 37th.
• The producer of software for statisticians and construction engineers, the Czech company IDEA StatiCa scored among 10 finalists of the Most Disruptive Innovation Award. The winner of the category was the Serbian company DADANCO Europe.
• 11 countries including the Czech Republic participated in the competition in 2017 – five Czech companies ranked in the main category of Fast 50 and the already mentioned ZOOT was also the winner of Big 5, which includes companies that cannot compete with the aggressive companies in the main ranking due to their size, but they experience significant growth nevertheless.
• Pilulka Distribuce ranked seventh among the Rising Stars, i.e. companies that have been on the market only for a short time and as such cannot compete in the main category.
• In 2017 Technology Fast 50 was dominated by companies from the area of IT and digital solutions (39 out of 50 firms), another 10 were from the area of internet, media and telecommunication. Only one of the companies registered for the competition was a technological firm that takes into account the environmental approach to business (there were three in 2016). Poland had the largest representation (a total of 19 firms were successful).

 Download full result list (PDF)

About Technology Fast 50 CE 2017
Technology Fast 50 Central Europe annually maps the fastest-growing technology companies in the Central European region including the Czech Republic. Companies from the following countries participated this year (the number in brackets indicates the number of companies that placed in the ranking): Poland (19), Croatia (8), Lithuania (6), Czech Republic (5), Romania (3), Bulgaria (2), Hungary (2), Slovakia (2), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1), Estonia (1) and Latvia (1). The technological companies competed in four categories: Fast 50, Big 5, Rising Star, Most Disruptive Innovation.

More information about the competition can be found at www.deloitte.cz/fast50, were you will also find detailed criteria for the individual categories. You can also download the Czech Technology Fast 50 CE brochure, which contains profiles of the companies involved in the ranking in 2017.