Four KC area firms land spots in Inc. 500 fastest growing list, dozens in top 5000

Forty Kansas City area firms are featured on the annual Inc. 5000 list, which includes the nation’s fastest growing businesses.

Among them, four local firms were included in the more exclusive Inc. 500 list, with Lever 1 nabbing a No. 44 ranking. In 2016, only one Kansas City company made the 500 list, ranked No. 478.

Founded in 2012, Lever 1 is a professional employer organization, managing human resources, payroll and employee benefits. Lever 1 managed to grow at a rate of 6,560 percent in the past three years, with only 16 employees.

With the majority of its clients being startups and small businesses, perhaps Lever 1’s rapid growth speaks to Kansas City’s growing entrepreneurial community. Startland News and its parent, the Kansas City Startup Foundation, are among those partnered with Lever1.

This is the first year the firm was included on the Inc. 5000 list. It was also ranked as the No. 1 Missouri business and the No. 5 nationwide top business products and services company.

In 2016, the Inc. 5000 list featured 44 area businesses. Although that might seem like a step backward, Kansas City companies have made tremendous strides, landing higher overall rankings.

Kansas city area firms that made the Inc. 500 list:

No. 44 Lever 1 — 6,559 percent growth with $27.6 million in revenue
No. 60 Infusion Express —5,549 percent growth with $7.1 million in revenue
No. 193 Zhou Nutrition — 2,241 percent growth with $11.5 million in revenue
No. 409 Tallgrass Freight Co —1,066 percent growth with $4.7 million in revenue

Kansas city tech firms made a showing this year, with eight firms total in the software, engineering or IT services category.

K12itc, which in 2016 earned a spot on Startland’s top 10 startups to watch list, delivers cloud-based IT services to K-12 school districts and has seen skyrocketing growth since its 2010 founding date. In 2016, the firm ranked No. 869.

Here are all the tech related firms on the Inc. 5000 list:

No. 2164 Chelsoft Solutions Co. — 168 percent growth with $4.5 million in revenue
No. 2377 iTEDIUM —152 percent growth with $6.9 million in revenue
No. 2369 eSolutions — 152 percent growth with $42.4 million in revenue
No. 2437 Pivot International — 147 percent growth with $29.1 million in revenue
No. 3408 DistributorCentral —  92 percent growth with $2.5 million in revenue
No. 3531 K12itc — 87 percent growth with $8.5 million in revenue
No. 3891 Alight Analytics — 74 percent growth with $3.2 million in revenue
No. 4222 Dimensional Innovations — 62 percent growth with $31. 2 million in revenue
No. 4740 Intellifarms —  47 percent with $10.5 million in revenue.

Inc. Magazine bases its growth rankings on three-year revenue growth. The overall list included  45 Kansas-based companies, 91 Missouri-based and 11 businesses from the Kansas City area who have yet to be included in the Inc. 5000.

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