Online shopping software provider eShopWorld has taken the top spot in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 rankings for the third year in a row. New entrant xSellco, also an e-commerce tech company, secured second place.

xSellco provides products that allow e‑commerce businesses of all sizes to “fulfil their potential”, while third-placed LearnUpon, which provides learning management systems, is also a new entrant in the annual listing.

Established in 2010, eShopWorld’s core e-commerce solution connects premium brands with consumers in over 200 countries. Headquartered in Ireland, it employs over 170 staff mainly in Ireland, the US, Singapore and the Netherlands. eShopWorld is privately owned by Tommy Kelly and Asendia, an alliance between two equal partners, La Poste (France) and SwissPost (Switzerland).

The awards, now in their 18th year, rank Ireland’s fastest growing technology companies and recognises indigenous technology companies that have demonstrated exceptional growth in turnover in the last four years.

Cumulatively, the 2017 Fast 50 winners generated approximately €858m in total annual revenues in 2016, according to Deloitte. The average revenue of companies featuring on the ranking was approximately €17m, and on average they grew by a factor of 2.9 times over four years.

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Deloitte partner Joan O’Connor commented: “What really strikes me this year is the focus the winning companies have on global markets. We estimate just under 90% of our winning companies’ revenues are generated by exports, which demonstrates the ambition and drive of Irish technology companies to diversify and the global nature of this business.

“Last year we highlighted that export markets would become increasingly important for the indigenous sector, given the Brexit challenge, and it’s clear the Fast 50 companies are tackling this challenge head on.”

Global Shares, a software provider in the field of share plan administration and financial reporting for employee share plans, won the inaugural Fintech award, while Deloitte’s ‘multinational patron awards’ added life sciences to its existing categories and gave the first award in the category to Chanelle Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing.

Photo: eShopWorld CEO Tommy Kelly. (Pix: Jason Clarke)

The 2017 Deloitte Fast 50 Ranking