PETALING JAYA: Two Malaysian companies ARB Bhd and Involve Asia Technologies Sdn Bhd have earned their spot on the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd’s 2020 Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500 index, ranking 72nd and 414th respectively.
The index is an annual ranking of the fastest growing Asia Pacific companies in the hardware, software, communications, media, life sciences and clean technology industries, with the firms selected based on their percentage of fiscal year revenue growth over three years.
ARB, an IT and IoT solutions and services company, is the top company in the region at 72nd place.
The two local firms join six other companies from Southeast Asia on the index. ARB and Involve Asia reported a growth of 799% and 109% respectively.
Deloitte Southeast Asia’s technology, media & telecommunications industry leader Yang Chi Chih remarked that even though the Covid-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented disruptions to businesses in the last year, it has also catalysed digital transformation across Southeast Asia as companies pivoted to respond, recover and thrive.
“Looking ahead, we expect technology companies in the region to continue this growth trajectory, focusing and leveraging on 5G technology, cloud and data analytics,” he said in a statement.
Similarly, Deloitte Private Asia Pacific leader Mike Horne acknowledged that this year’s winners have all weathered multiple challenges to make it on the list, as it managed to maintain strong growth momentum amidst the pandemic, injecting vitality into the communities, industries, and markets they serve.
Overall, this year’s top 500 companies had an average revenue growth of 551%, while the top 10 companies delivered an average revenue of about US$137.05 million (RM567.15 million) with an average revenue growth of 7,621%.
Due to the global spread of Covid-19, the average revenue growth in 2020 dropped significantly compared to the 2019 average growth of 717%, and historical high in 2018 (987%), and is the fifth highest recorded by the Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500.
