KnowBe4, ReliaQuest, Corestream land on Deloitte’s 2020 Technology Fast 500
Software companies dominated in Deloitte’s 2020 North America Technology Fast 500, including companies in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area.
KnowBe4 in Clearwater and ReliaQuest and Corestream in Tampa made this year’s list, a ranking of the fastest-growing North American companies in the technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech and energy tech sectors.
The local firms are among the seven Florida companies on the list.
The ranking is based on percentage revenue growth from 2016 to 2019.
KnowBe4, which offers cybersecurity awareness training and has a simulated phishing platform, was the top-ranked local company, coming in at No. 109, with 1,083 percent revenue growth. Headed by CEO Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 became a “unicorn” — a designation for tech companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more — after investment firm KKR led a $300 million funding round in 2019.
ReliaQuest, with a platform to protect enterprise environments from security breaches, ranked No. 409, with 229 percent revenue growth. Brian Murphy, founder and CEO, credited the company’s success in helping global enterprises improve the performance of their security programs. KKR also invested heavily in ReliaQuest, leading a more than $300 million funding round in August.
Corestream, a voluntary benefits technology provider, ranked No. 431 with 217.35 percent revenue growth. The company was founded in 2006 as Empower Benefits and relaunched as Corestream in 2013. “Since the beginning, our vision has been to improve the voluntary benefits experience while positively impacting employee retention and engagement,” Neil Vaswani, co-founder and CEO, said in a news release. “This recognition is a huge honor for us. It is an indication that our platform – designed to be the most engaging and most comprehensive platform to manage all aspects of voluntary benefits in-house – is resonating with our customers.” LLR Partners, a middle market private equity firm, invested in Corestream in 2019.
Trxade, a Land O’Lakes pharmaceutical distributor, was No. 457, with 200 percent revenue growth. Suren Ajjarapu is CEO of the biotechnology/pharmaceutical firm, which listed on the Nasdaq market in February after raising $5.3 million in a public offering. Trxade has a web-based purchasing platform that allows independent pharmacies and patients to buy drugs from distributors and manufacturers.
Other Florida companies on the list are:
ShipMonk, Fort Lauderdale, No. 73 with 1,088 percent revenue growth. ShipMonk offers technology-driven fulfillment solutions for ecommerce companies. Jan Bednar is CEO.
Fattmerchant, Orlando, No. 118 with 1,026 percent revenue growth. The payments company is headed by Suneera Madhani, founder and CEO.
Lightspeed Voice, North Venice, No. 422 with 222 percent revenue growth. The company is a VoIP, cloud-based IP telephone provider. Brad Fuller is CEO.
Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 is now in its 26th year. In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company’s operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least $50,000 and current-year operating revenues of at least $5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
