Fast 50 reveals sweet spots in building, fintech

New Zealand’s building boom is fuelling the growth of construction companies at an unprecedented rate.

Sales for Bay of Plenty residential building company ZB Homes have skyrocketed more than 1500 per cent in the past three years.

It took out the top spot on this year’s Deloitte Fast 50 index, which ranks companies with the highest revenue growth for three years running.

It is the first time a construction company has topped the annual list in its 17-year history.

Financial technology is also proving a sweet spot to be in. Digital money lender Moola.co.nz growing about 1000 per cent and online payment company Pushpay experiencing about 900 per cent revenue growth since 2015. Pushpay was last year’s winner.

Crimson Education, a university application consultancy, claimed the third spot on the list with revenue growth of more than

1000 per cent.

Crimson was started by 22-yearold Jamie Beaton. It was valued at

$85 million last year and is now reportedly worth over $200m.

Online television ratings firm Parrot Analytics won this year’s Rising Star title, an award given to the best performing company that was typically too young to meet the index’s qualifying criteria.

To qualify, the businesses had to have made at least $500,000 of revenue in the 2015 financial year

On average, the 50 companies that made the index were five years old, had 51 staff and turned over about $11m a year.

and demonstrated ongoing revenue growth for the subsequent two years.

The stakes were higher this year after Deloitte decided to lift the revenue base from 2016’s

$300,000 minimum.

Last year, winners had to achieve a minimum growth of 225 per cent to make the cut. This year, that minimum threshold dropped to 180 per cent.

The 2017 Fast 50 winners were announced in Auckland yesterday.

On average, the 50 companies that made the index were about five years old, had 51 staff and turned over about $11m a year.

Deloitte partner Bill Hale said the awards proved that any type of business, from anywhere in New Zealand, could do well.

He said that although the index was not industry specific, the Fast

50 company founders all had the same high level of commitment.

A new award introduced this year, the Master of Growth, was won by cloud accounting software company Xero. Its revenue has grown 657 per cent over the past five years.