India's fastest-growing tech companies losing steam

Avg 3-year revenue growth of 50 fastest-growing tech firms slip to 365% in 2015 Vs 383% last year

The three-year average revenue growth of India's 50 fastest-growing technology companies has slipped to 365 per cent in 2015, compared with 383 per cent last year, shows the annual 'Deloitte Technology Fast 50' ranking. Worse, the numbers for both this year and last have been a far cry from the 657 per cent revenue growth seen by the fastest 50 in the 2013 edition of the Deloitte ranking.

The 'Fast 50' ranking, started in 2006 by Deloitte, had estimated the three-year average revenue growth number in 2012 at 432 per cent.

Rajiv Sundar, programme director for Technology Fast50 India 2015, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, however, does not agree that growth rates have slackened among the fastest-growing tech firms. "If you remove some outliers that have done very well over the past three years, growth on the whole will be homogenous," he says.

This year's winner, F1 Info Solutions & Services, a Mumbai-based warranty support and spare parts management solutions company, clocked whopping 3,961 per cent revenue growth over a three-year period - the third-highest growth rate recorded by the fastest company in the ranking in the past eleven editions. The other firms in this year's top-five list are VMukti Solutions (1,025 per cent), GreyCampus Edutech (832 per cent), Zomato Media (750 per cent), and Ozonetel Systems (715 per cent).

The top 25 on the list this year have recorded growth rates of more than 200 per cent. Around three-fourths of the companies have their revenues between Rs 5 crore and Rs 50 crore.

Thirty-one companies in this year's Fast 50 list are repeat winners; they have appeared in the earlier editions, too. Of them, 12 have improved their ranking in the 2015 edition. Sundar says this is a clear indicator that these businesses have a high degree of scalability and revenue sustainability. However, chasing growth year after year, without an eye on the profitability quotient, is not sustainable, he adds.

Apart from Zomato, another consumer internet company to make it to the list is Mumbai-based Accelyst Solutions (FreeCharge.in), at the 11th position.

A platform for online recharge and bill payment, FreeCharge's average revenue growth in the past three financial years has been 398 per cent. In April this year, Snapdeal acquired the FreeCharge brand, reportedly in a $450-million stock-cum-cash deal.

The Fast50 report notes: "Given the requirement of three years of operations (2013 to 2015), we expect some of the recently incorporated fast-growing internet and ecommerce start-ups to start featuring in the subsequent editions."

Two of the biggest IT companies to figure on the list are Pune-based Tech Mahindra and Ashok Soota-promoted Happiest Minds. Placed at the 17th position on the list, Bangalore-based Happiest Minds clocked 293 per cent revenue growth over a three-year period.

Tech Mahindra, ranked 23rd, saw its revenue growing 229 per cent over the same period. This is the fourth time that Tech Mahindra has appeared on the Fast 50 list.

Companies in cloud technologies, online education and analytics segments dominate the top-20 on the 2105 list, reflecting non-linear growth associated with such companies. In contrast, a large proportion of IT services companies are ranked between 21st and 50th positions.

On the whole, software businesses continue their dominance among the Fast 50 companies, with 23 of them coming from the IT services sector, and seven from the business applications segment. The companies in the payments, web-cum-mobile based consumer services and 'e-commerce enablement' ecosystems are likely to be the key contributors to the list of Fast 50 winners in the coming years.