The top 50 Australian and New Zealand “leading-edge” tech companies have been revealed in a new report aiming to showcase the best local startups.
The list, put together by H2 Ventures and Investec Australia, features “leading innovators, disrupters, revolutionaries and game-changers” in the region and is based on the total capital raise, rate of capital raising, geographic and sector diversity, consumer and marketplace traction and ‘x-factor’.
The report says these 50 companies are “using technology to their best advantage and driving disruption within a variety of industries and sectors”.
Unsurprisingly, $8 billion tech giant Atlassian tops the list, followed by New Zealand success story Xero and Melbourne-based online marketplace Envato.
H2 Ventures founding partner Ben Heap says the purpose of the report is to shine a spotlight on Australia’s burgeoning startup scene beyond just the prominent names.
“There are a whole range of terrific businesses in this market,” Heap tells StartupSmart.
“Rather than talking about a very small number of success stories that many people know we’re trying to make sure the broader community are aware of the breadth and depth of tech as a sector in Australia.”
The fintech investment firm has been running a similar Fintech 100 list for a twp years, and decided to branch out to the wider local startup scene.
“Our focus is the Australian market and this is us stretching out our knowledge base,” Heap says.
“We think there are all sorts of interesting lessons coming from all sorts of interesting startups.
“We feel like the role of a venture capitalist is to seek to build out the ecosystem and to advocate for what’s going on.”
Over 500 companies were analysed as part of the report, and Heap says it was “terrifically difficult” to zero in on the final 50.
“The depth and breadth across industries is really impressive, as is the level of creativity and the range of new businesses doing really exciting new things,” he says.
“The level of job creation coming out of these startups is also a real positive. There is something in excess of 5000 jobs across these 50 companies. The level of growth in terms of job creation is in the double digits. These are businesses that create a lot of new and highly skilled jobs.”
The list is dominated by New South Wales, with seven of the top 10 companies residing in the harbour city, and more than half of the whole list.
Nine of the top 50 come from Victoria, while 12 are from New Zealand.
In terms of industries, 21 are marketplaces, 15 are SaaS and 11 are fintech startups.
The report includes an introduction from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“Each demonstrates the power of technology to disrupt the status quo and are helping position our region as a leading innovation hub,” Turnbull says.
“They also highlight the importance of early-stage capital for startups to be able to invest and grow.”
Heap says the tech pioneers list will become an annual report showcasing the startup sector and says he also hopes to expand the site into a “repository” for sector information.
“The real value in these reports is seeing the progress over time,” he says.
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Denham Sadler is a former editor of StartupSmart. He was previously a journalist at the publication and has worked as a freelancer for the Guardian, the Saturday Paper and the ABC. In his spare time he likes puns and jaffles.
