Australian fintech and online small business lender Prospa has won Deloitte Australia’s Technology Fast 50 Awards for 2015.
Online small business lender Prospa has won Deloitte Australia’s Technology Fast 50 Awards for 2015.
Deloitte Australia’s annual survey, the Tech Fast 50, gathered financial data about each of the self-nominated entrants via an online survey which was verified against each company’s official financial information.
Prospa, who were a 2015 Telstra Business Award finalist, employs a proprietary technology platform to deliver an online application process for approving and providing funding for loans within 24 hours. Its flagship product is unsecured loans of $5000 to $250,000 lent to small businesses over three to 12 month terms with flexible daily or weekly repayments.
“Prospa has solved a very real problem for small businesses by providing them with the opportunity to access fast and easy finance to grow,” said Beau Bertoli, joint chief executive officer of Prospa.
“Through our investment in technology and our team, we’ve developed an Australian-specific unsecured small business loan product with cash flow friendly repayments and a fast, easy online application that meets the demand of a hugely underserviced market.”
According to Joshua Tanchel, Deloitte Tech Fast 50 lead partner, Prospa had secured a phenomenal 6971 per cent growth over the last year, almost doubling 2014’s “winning growth” of 3626 per cent which was delivered by NEXTDC, an Australian data centre designer and operator.
“One of the exciting trends this year is that Australia’s top 50 fastest growing technology companies are becoming more mature, [with] 26 previously ranked in our winners’ lists,” Tanchel said.
“This year’s Leadership Award winners, those Australian tech companies with high revenue growth that have managed both economic and business expansion challenges, clearly demonstrate this.”
To qualify for a place in the top 50 Deloitte Australian TechFast 50, each technology company has to accumulate more than $8 million in revenue over the three year period from 2013 to 2015. The list also recognises “rising stars” which are denoted as high-growth nominating companies that do not qualify for the TechFast 50 list due to having less than three years existing revenue.
According to Stuart Johnston, Technology, Media and Telecommunications leader at Deloitte Australia, 66 per cent of the top 50 fastest growing technology companies in Australia this year were internet and software firms, with many in operation for over seven years.
“These awards demonstrate the disruptive power of the internet, software and cloud providers across financial services, consumer business … and the value that technology and telecommunications can deliver to the market,” Johnston said.
Elmer Funke Kupper, managing director and chief executive officer of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), said the 2015 financial year saw 30 new technology listings, with a combined market capitalisation of more than $3.3 billion. This brought the total number of ASX technology listings to more than 130 companies, he said.
“Ideas, talent and capital are mobile. In Australia we are fortunate to have access to a large pool of capital – the world’s third largest – and a diverse global investor base, with around 45 per cent of investment in ASX-listed companies coming from international investors,” Funke Kupper said.
“This shows the widespread confidence that investors have in our market. Our total market capitalisation now stands at $1.5 trillion.”
The top five 2015 Tech Fast 50 winners are:
- Prospa (NSW)
- Cirrus Networks (Perth)
- Ingogo Limited (NSW)
- Urbanise.com (VIC)
- Atomos Global (VIC)
The top three Leadership Award winners are:
- AussieCommerce Group (VIC)
- Amaysim (NSW)
- Nimble (QLD)
The top three Rising Stars are:
- Plutora (NSW)
- Oncosil Medical (NSW)
- Open Agent (NSW)
