The number of Ottawa-based companies on a list of Canada’s top tech firms was up by one this year.
There were 25 local firms on the top 250 of the Branham300, a ranking of Canada’s top information and communication technology companies by revenue put together by local consulting firm the Branham Group.
That’s up from 24 in 2012, but down from 29 in 2011. It’s also well below the 35 locally-based companies that made the top 250 in 2005.
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The number of local companies on Branham300’s Next 50 ranking, which rounds out the top 300 but is presented separately, was down from six to three.
For the second year in row, Telesat was the highest-ranked local company on the list.
The satellite operator recorded revenues of over $900 million in 2013, which put it in 14th place nationwide. That’s an improvement of one place from last year, which was spurred by an eight per cent increase in revenue.
Ottawa-based communications firm Mitel also saw strong revenue last year, coming in 20th place for the second year in a row.
Three other Ottawa-based companies made the top 50: Calian Technologies (34) Eagle Professional Resources (44) and DragonWave (45).
That’s a big improvement for DragonWave, which saw revenue increase by 171 per cent between 2012 and 2013, according to Branham. That boosted it from 88th place on last year’s list.
Wi-LAN (56), VERITAAQ (67), Maplesoft Group (82) and Halogen Software (83) also made the top 100.
It was steep drop for Maplesoft, which ranked 48th last year. According to Branham, the company saw revenue decline by 52 per cent.
Halogen, on the other hand, made its debut on the list.
Companies in the top 250 generated over $85 billion in revenue during 2013, up 2.4 per cent from last year. But Branham points out that many of the companies on the list saw much higher revenue growth.
BlackBerry – which remains the Canadian tech company with the highest revenue – saw its revenues drop by around 40 per cent.
Last year, BlackBerry accounted for 22.1 per cent of all revenue generated by companies on the top 250. This year it was down to 13.9 per cent. BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion, has held the top spot for five years.
Ontario companies in general did worse this year.
Companies from the province generated $40.4 billion during the year, representing 47.51 per cent of all top 250 revenues. That’s down 12 per cent from $46 billion last year.
Other local companies making the top 250 list were Stoneworks Technologies (104), Pythian (110), International Datacasting (112), 4Point (120), EMERION (121), ExitCertified (126), PrecisionERP (133), Cistel (141), TRM Technologies (159), Espial Group (165), C-COM Satellite Systems (167), Thinkwrap Commerce (182), TECSIS (188), The KTL Group (202), Hegyi Geomatics (205), ASC (230) and TASKE Technology (234).
Another three local companies made the Next 50: YOUi Labs (275), 360pi (287) and ZIM (288).
Ottawa-based PeopleInsight made Branham’s list of 25 Up and Coming companies. It was the only local firm to make the list of startups. Last year four local companies were on the list.
