An impressive 43 IT service providers surfaced today on the Inc. 5000 list for 2019, according to a ChannelE2E analysis of the list. Moreover, dozens of additional MSPs surfaced in various Inc. 5000 list categories outside of the IT services provider rankings.
Many of those MSPs and IT consulting firms are well-known companies that also surfaced on the annual ChannelE2E Top 100 Vertical Market MSP list. Moreover, quite a few MSPs on the Inc. 5000 list for 2019 are backed by private equity ownership or investment stakes. (ChannelE2E closely covers MSP-Private Equity investment trends each day.)
The annual Inc. 500 list tracks America's fastest-growing privately held companies. In the IT services category, Inc. 5000 honorees for 2019 had:
- 2018 revenues that ranged from $97.7 million (AEC Group) to $2.0 million (Netropole).
- three-year revenue growth rates that ranged from CirrusLabs (263 percent) to Golden Star Technology (52 percent).
Inc. 500 List for 2019: MSPs In Multiple Categories
Still, there were some blurry lines between the Inc. 5000 company categories. For instance, quite a few IT service providers and MSPs surfaced instead in the IT management category -- which included a whopping 276 companies.
MSP names to know in the IT management category include NexusTek (671 percent three-year growth, $93.2 million in 2018 revenue). NexusTek is a nationwide managed IT services provider, backed by private equity, that has acquired multiple firms over the past year or so.
Another honoree, Abacus Group (64 percent growth; $28.5 million revenue), is also private equity-backed and in acquisition mode -- buying Proactive Technologies earlier this year.
Inc. 5000 List 2019: Additional IT Channel-related Honorees
Additional IT-related company categories on the Inc. 5000 list include:
- computer hardware (32 companies);
- IT system development (120);
- security (67);
- software (461); and
- telecom (79).
Pax8 -- a cloud distributor -- surfaced as a software company (4820 percent growth; $42.4 million revenue). The category makes sense in many ways, considering Pax8 has developed its own cloud distribution software platform to help MSPs source, monetize and manage third-party cloud services.
MSP-focused marketing and sales-enablement companies also surfaced on the list. Marketopia, for instance, has grown 486 percent in the past three years, generating $5.4 million in revenue for 2018, the Inc. 5000 report says. The company surfaced in the advertising and marketing category.
Inc. 5000 List: Criteria for Honorees
To be considered for the list, U.S.-based privately held companies must:
- have generated at least $100,000 in revenue in 2015;
- have generated at least $2 million in revenue in 2018;
- be privately held, for profit; based in the U.S., and independent (not a subsidiary or division of another company).
