Software developer Rewind is the only Ottawa-based entrant on a prominent annual ranking of Canada’s fastest-growing tech companies.
The local firm placed 41st on the latest Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list with three-year revenue growth of 551 per cent between 2018 and 2021.
Founded seven years ago, Rewind makes software that backs up and recovers data for Shopify merchants, QuickBooks customers and users of other cloud-based software platforms. It stores data from customer accounts on encrypted servers, ensuring sensitive information is protected from events such as power outages or cyber-attacks.
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Rewind, which raised US$80 million venture capital in 2021 and now serves more than 100,000 organizations, was also the highest-ranking Ottawa company on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 list of firms from across North America, coming in at No. 269.
“We are extremely honoured to make the Fast 500 list for the first time,” Rewind co-founder and CEO Mike Potter said in a statement. “Since 2015, we have been on a mission to help educate businesses about this vital risk of using SaaS, while building backup and restoration solutions that protect the data they rely on each and every day.”
Still, although it’s one of the city’s biggest startup success stories of the past several years, Rewind is among many Canadian tech firms that have faced headwinds in 2022.
After doubling its headcount from 65 to 130 in 2021, the firm said it planned to hire up to 100 more employees in the next 12 months.
But while Rewind did make a splash this year with a few big-name recruits – including Nolan Beanlands, the former executive director of the Capital Angel Network, who took on the newly created post of corporate development manager – the firm’s total staff count remains about the same as it was last December.
A company spokesperson said Rewind has continued hiring in 2022, but added that some other employees “left for new opportunities.” The company – which said in May it expected recurring revenues to rise by about 50 per cent this year – declined to give an update on projected sales growth when contacted by OBJ this week.
The only Ottawa company to crack last year’s Fast 50, cybersecurity firm Field Effect Software, did not appear on the 2022 list. Deloitte relies on companies to voluntarily apply and submit required financial information.
Two other local companies also appeared on this year’s Technology Fast 500 list.
Food Cycle Science, whose flagship offering is a portable composter that converts food scraps into a nutrient-rich byproduct, ranked 383rd with three-year revenue growth of 351 per cent. The company was also ninth out of 15 enterprises highlighted in Deloitte’s Clean Technology list.
The local entrants on the Fast 500 list were rounded out by online research software firm Recollective, which landed at No. 472 with three-year growth of 261 per cent.
In addition, two enterprises from the capital were represented on Deloitte’s Companies to Watch list of up-and-coming firms: Meeting management software provider Fellow (three-year growth of 643 per cent), which raised US$24 million in series-A financing last year, and cybersecurity firm Crypto4A (three-year growth of 437 per cent).
