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Ixaris listed in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100

Ixaris has been ranked 22 in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 league table, which ranks Britain's 100 private tech (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales over the latest three years.

An excerpt from the publication reads: Ixaris claims to have implemented the first virtual Visa card programme in Europe. It designs and administers a variety of virtual, pre-paid cards, providing a plastic-free way of spending money online. Sales soared 87% a year from £1.3m in 2007 to £8.5m in 2010 as customers discovered special uses for the cards, such as avoiding credit card charges on budget flight bookings and withholding identity information when dealing with online merchants. Headed by chief executive Alex Mifsud, the firm secured £3.5m in a funding round led by Foresight Venture Partners in 2006.

Revealed: Britain’s fastest-growing private technology firms

From green technology developers to gaming websites, Britain’s privately-owned technology, media and telecoms (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales are revealed in the latest Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100, published for the 11th year on 18 September.

The 100 companies increased sales by an average of 74% a year over the last three years to a total of £3.1bn. They almost tripled their combined workforce to 13,500 over the same period.  Online money lender Wonga.com takes the top spot on the league table. It was set up by chief executive
Errol Damelin in 2006 and has attracted a great deal of controversy, and also more than £100m from backers including Balderton Capital and Accel Partners. Sales soared 361% a year from an annualised £752,000 in 2007 to £74m in 2010.

Other well-known names on the league table include price comparison website Gocompare.com, music recognition services provider Shazam, and solar technology developer solarcentury.
The Tech Track 100 is sponsored by Microsoft, Barclays Corporate and BDO. It is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based networking events and research company.

Key Findings

There is a marked resurgence in venture capital / private equity investment. Of the 45 league table companies with venture capital backing, 22 have received funding over the past 12 months, compared to six in last year’s league table and just three in 2009. For example, Intelligent Energy has raise £15m over the past year to help it further develop its hydrogen fuel cell technology, which it is putting into planes, taxis and consumer applications.

Profitability

Of the companies on this year’s league table, 80 are in profit, with an average margin of 11%. The company with the highest profits is online bookmaker bet365, which made pre-tax profits of £93m last year; it also has the biggest sales, of £501m. The highest margin, of 39%, was generated by The Foundry, a developer of software used to create visual effects in films such as Avatar. Of the 18 loss-making companies, 16 are backed by venture capital or private equity.

Sectors

Companies offering outsourced IT services, such as cloud computing and managed hosting, made a strong showing on the league table, with 21 companies operating in this sector. Other prominent industries include telecommunications, represented by 17 companies, digital media and entertainment (15) and online consumer services (13).

Source: The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 Sunday 18 September 2011.