39. National Crime Check

Revenue: $4 million
Growth: 133.82%
Founders: Martin Lazarevic, 35
Head office: South Australia
Year founded: 2009
Industry: Information and communication technology
Website: nationalcrimecheck.com.au

This is National Crime Check’s second time in the Smart50, having come in at number 47 in last year’s top 50.

The past year has been one of particular growth for the business, with revenue jumping from around $2.4 million last year to more than $4 million in 2014-15.

Founder Martin Lazarevic came up with the concept behind National Crime Check when operating a previous healthcare labour hire business.

He told SmartCompany he found the channels for obtaining mandatory police checks time consuming and the turnaround times were affecting the business.

Lazarevic saw the opportunity for a way of helping businesses obtain police checks on employees in a quick, simple and straight-forward manner.

One challenge was educating customers about what National Crime Check does and the legitimacy of the business, Lazarevic says.

“Typically police checks are associated with going to the police station,” he says.

“We are trying to change consumer behaviour to offer up a compelling alternative that can be easy to do and achieve the same end result.”

Creating a process that is 100% online has been the most challenging part so far, Lazarevic says, but the business undertook a global review of products and services available to meet its needs.

“Ensuring that we are able to effectively handle proof of identity online has been by far the most challenging thing,” he says.

“We have now been able to implement pioneering cutting edge technology that enables proof of identity that interrogates document authenticity and biometrics into our process which had been adopted globally by several multinationals.”

International expansion plans are on the cards too, Lazarevic says, and it is about “understanding how to push internationally quickly”.

“Tapping into international markets which need online solutions is our primary focus as well as implementing our technological enablers to make using our system easier for businesses who already have existing software,” he says.

“We have identified some international markets that would significantly benefit from our online solutions.

“We are looking to take what we have and implement the models into other likeminded countries where police checks are prevalent.”