Dozens of skyrocketing KC firms break into the Inc. 5000

Kansas City held its own on Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing, private companies.

The Wednesday unveiling of the Inc. 5000 featured 44 metro firms — including several area tech firms, like k12itc and Rhythm Engineering.

K12itc, which in January made Startland’s 2016 top 10 startups to watch, delivers cloud-based IT services to K-12 school districts and has seen skyrocketing growth since its 2010 founding date. With a three-year growth rate of 456 percent and $7.5 million reported revenue in 2015, the firm earned the 869th spot on the Inc. 5000 ranking.

Rhythm Engineering — well-known in the tech community for its involvement in area smart city innovation — nabbed a ranking of 3,254. Launched in 2008, the firm reported a revenue of $19.2 million, seeing a 103 percent three-year growth rate.

Providing a snapshot of firms seeing soaring growth in recent years, Inc. calculated rankings based on a firm’s percentage revenue growth from 2012 to 2015. Inc. looks only at firms that last year earned a revenue of $2 million or more.

The ten Kansas City companies to see the highest three-year growth rate are:

• No. 478 Pivot International – 798 percent growth with $43 million in revenue
• No. 515 Side By Side Stuff – 742 percent growth with $10.1 million in revenue
• No. 642 Zhou Nutrition – 605 percent growth with $2.3 million in revenue
• No. 986 Chelsoft Solutions Co. – 406 percent growth with $3.3 million in revenue
• No. 992 Safe Haven Security Services – 404 percent growth with $53.1 million in revenue
• No. 1342 Worcester Investments – 287 percent growth with $13.9 million in revenue
• No. 1444 Affinity Group Management – 265 percent growth with $31.1 million in revenue
• No. 1607 Title Boxing Club – 234 percent growth with $62.1 million in revenue
• No. 1642 Lifestyle Publications – 228 percent growth with $8.2 million in revenue
• No. 1822 Pendo Management Group – 204 percent growth with $15 million in revenue

To learn more about the Kansas-area firms on the list, click here to filter through the companies.

Kansas and Missouri each had a firm break into the top 100. Wichita-based West Hills Capital earned a No. 79 ranking, posting 3,753 percent growth with $6.3 million in revenue. St. Louis-based Pivot Worth Clark Realty ranked No. 89 with 3,493 percent growth and $5.1 million in revenue.