Fastest-Growing Companies
Aquicore
Company: Energy analytics and automation solutions for commercial real estate; manages real-time meter and submeter data in over 500 buildings.
Employees: 28
Growth: Doubled head count in last year and on track to post 150% revenue growth.
Reason for growth: Building owners and managers demanding insight on building performance; previous solutions offered single-point solutions with implementation challenges; and new laws in some cities require building operators to install submeters and report building consumption by tenants.
Top customers: Under Armour, MRP Realty and Douglas Development.
Latest news: Closed a $3.1M funding round; hired CMO Shana Glenzer; and launched a licensing sweepstakes offering 10 free energy management software systems to commercial buildings in DC region.
People don’t know: Six nationalities are represented in the 28-person team; five languages are spoken daily; and team eats lunch together every day, including food truck lunches twice a week.
Video Blocks
Company: Subscription digital library of videos, graphics and music tracks for professional production studios to amateur filmmakers. Over 1 million downloads monthly. Recently launched the only stock media marketplace that pays 100% commission to contributors.
Revenue: $16M in FY '15
Employees: 53
Growth: Annual subscription revenue will grow 74% in 2015; head count up 68%.
Reason for growth: Team of creative professionals; unlimited library allows customers to download as many files as they want for one flat fee. Competitors focus on growing their “pay by the drink” models.
Top customers: Art Institutes of America, Smithsonian Networks and Loudoun County Schools.
Latest news: Launched a revamp of Graphicstock.com and recently added photos to the Graphicstock unlimited library.
Most people don’t know: Despite company’s name, library includes 250,000 graphics and photos and over 100,000 songs and sound effects.
FiscalNote
Company: Real-time analytics platform that connects policy and legal professionals with alerts on market-moving issues, instantaneously analyze relevant laws and react to political risk.
Employees: 81
Growth: 300% increase in head count; 600% growth in clients.
Reason for growth: Company is offering a tech solution to a problem that had been handled manually. Platform can track and analyze legislation and regs on a state and federal level.
Top customers: Lyft, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Latest news: Feature enhancements for communication, collaboration and advanced legislator insight; product release of Atlantis (state regs product); and acquired MyCandidate and expanded footprint in South Korea and the rest of Asia.
Most people don’t know: Company was launched by three 22-year-old best friends in a Motel 6 hotel room in Silicon Valley to make government more transparent.
Invincea
Company: Endpoint threat protection for enterprises that contains, identifies and controls advanced attacks, including spear-phishing and Web drive-by attacks.
Employees: 118
Growth: 28% increase in head count; over 150% sales growth.
Reason for growth: Frequent data breaches, with one of the biggest being unknown malware; businesses are replacing anti-virus solutions; changes in compliance regs, which will mandate the use of advanced threat protection systems; and an OEM agreement with Dell to ship a customized version of Invincea’s endpoint security solution on Dell’s entire line of commercial PCs and tables (20 million devices per year).
Top customers: Dell, Boston Financial Data Services and a Fortune 500 insurance company.
Latest news: Five-star rating from SC Magazine for advanced endpoint protection; and company was first to receive common criteria certification for advanced endpoint threat protection offering.
Most people don’t know: Invincea shares its name with a band from NY.
Cognosante
Company: Healthcare consulting, technology solutions, business process outsourcing services.
Revenue: $124M
Employees: 1,600 (including certified contractors)
Growth: 70% in revenue; 25% in head count.
Reason for growth: 25-year track record; changes in healthcare landscape, including Affordable Care Act requirements to provide consumers ways to easily apply for financial subsidies and then shop for insurance in an open marketplace; and the Cognosante Solutions Lab, which pilots and launches new solutions.
Top customers: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; 48 states and over 90% of state Medicaid programs.
Latest news: Achieved membership within Amazon Web Services Partner Network as a consulting partner.
People don’t know: Company was founded in 2008 by Michele Kang (center) above her garage with one other employee. Now Cognosante is on pace to hit $200M in revenue in the next 12 months.
Did you miss Part 1 of the Fastest-Growing Companies series? You can help celebrate the Fasting Growing Companies at a party on Oct. 20 at 1776-Crystal City.
