Immutable, Zepto, and Reejig lead LinkedIn's Top Startups list for 2022

Australian blockchain gaming company Immutable has secured the top berth on LinkedIn’s 2022 Top Startups List, having captured the attention of tech sector jobhunters before the bruising crypto market downturn.

LinkedIn’s list, revealed Wednesday, ranks Australian companies on headcount growth, their ability to attract elite talent from world-leading firms, and the way they draw the focus of LinkedIn users.

A global fixation on blockchain technology appears to have buoyed Immutable, which builds NFT-based video games like Gods Unchained, and operates Immutable X, a trading platform enabling other game developers to tap into the potentially lucrative digital asset market.

Payments facilitator Zepto in came in second place, followed by workplace AI platform Reejig in third, Dovetail, a startup providing clinical advice to those assisting with drug and alcohol use issues, in fourth place, and Fleet Space Technologies in fifth.

The 25-strong list also includes players like Superhero (#10), Zeller (#18), and Stake (#22), all of which now join LinkedIn Top Startup alumni like Employment Hero, Mr Yum and Koala.

Speaking to SmartCompany, CEO and co-founder James Ferguson says the result was a testament to the company’s internal philosophy.

“We sat down with the mission to make Immutable one of the most attractive places to work,” Ferguson said.

To do so, Ferguson says Immutable instituted employee benefits like flexible work arrangements, training budgets, and quarterly stipends for health and fitness expenditure.

In addition, Ferguson claims Immutable also has the advantage of paying staff “extraordinarily competitively”, a strong recruitment tactic during Australia’s tech talent shortage.

“We don’t just say our values, but we really do live our values, and make it a place that people can thrive and do their best work,” he said.

“And it’s been an entire team effort in order to make the company a place which is like that, and it’s really starting to pay off.”

Immutable recorded a valuation of $3.5 billion in March this year after successfully completing a $280 million Series C round, but the company has also experienced significant challenges through 2022.

Economic volatility and recessionary fears have cooled global cryptocurrency and digital asset markets from their feverish highs.

IMX, the digital token powering the Immutable X system, was no exception, falling in value from near $13 in December to around $1.20 today.

Ferguson brushed off concerns over the broad Web3 market slump, saying the potential audience for ownable, tradeable in-game assets will only grow in time.

“For us, the markets have always mattered less than the technology,” he said.

“I think when you zoom out on a long enough time frame, then what is being built here is truly something which is changing the world.”

The LinkedIn Top Startups list also tracked companies between July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022 — just weeks before Immutable laid off around 20 staff linked to its Gods Unchained team.

Despite that setback, Ferguson says Immutable is still on track to reach 360 staff members by the end of the year.

“The company would have grown by more than 10 people or so since then, and we’re still firmly on track to hit that timeline for 360 people,” he said.

“I think, for us, we’re still growing quite rapidly. As a company grows, the shape that it needs to be changes.”