Every year Inc. Magazine publishes its Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 lists of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. (based on percentage revenue growth from 2015 to 2018). And this year many local businesses cracked the list, including several companies that are familiar to Chicago's tech community.
The top Chicago company was Chomps, a maker of grass-fed meat sticks. It did $21 million in revenue last year, up almost 4,500% over the last three years. It ranked No. 62 on the list.
GForce Life Sciences, a staffing company focused on the life sciences industry, was the second fastest-growing company, ranking No. 90 on the Inc. list. GForce, founded in 2013 by Mark Gallagher, posted revenue of $14.4 million last year, a 3,500% increase from 2015.
ShipBob, a Chicago logistics startup, was close behind at No. 99. It did $34.2 million in 2018 revenue, which is up 3,300 % from three years prior.
Other well-known tech companies on the Inc. 500 list include UPshow (174), Fitness Cubed (180), G2 (408) and Factor 75 (447). Expanding out into the Inc. 5000 portion of the list, you'll find companies such as Hireology (863), Reverb (955), Snapsheet (1104), PowerReviews (2931) and Guaranteed Rate (4513).
But for the focus of this roundup, we're highlighting all the companies that cracked the top 500. Here are the Chicago companies on the 2019 Inc. 500 list.
62. Chomps: 2018 revenue of $21 million (4,469% growth)
90. GForce Life Sciences: 2018 revenue of $14.4 million (3,532% growth)
99. ShipBob: 2018 revenue of $34.2 million (3,262% growth)
130. China Metal Solutions: 2018 revenue of $3.1 million (2,705% growth)
149. Arcalea: 2018 revenue of $2.8 million (2,514% growth)
174. UPshow: 2018 revenue of $2.6 million (2,236% growth)
180. Fitness Cubed: 2018 revenue of $10.3 million (2,142% growth)
202. Midway Staffing: 2018 revenue of $40.5 million (2,007% growth)
231. Redshelf: 2018 revenue of 46.2 million (1,797% growth)
266. Patient Bond: 2018 Revenue of $2.2 million (1,648% growth)
271. Toops: 2018 revenue of $7.7 million (1,621% growth)
274. Squadhelp: 2018 revenue of $3 million (1,601% growth)
280. Cultivate Advisors: 2018 revenue of $3.4 million (1,558% growth)
321. OppLoans: 2018 revenue of $134.2 million (1,435% growth)
342. Wavicle Data Solutions: 2018 revenue of $12.4 million (1,347% growth)
348. MNS1 Express: 2018 revenue of $29.1 million (1,323% growth)
355. Element78 Partners: 2018 revenue of $2.9 million (1,283% growth)
360. M2M In Motion: 2018 revenue of $2.1 million (1,271% growth)
375. First Stop Health: 2018 revenue of $4 million (1,226% growth)
400. Apogee Stores: 2018 revenue of $5.4 million (1,142% growth)
408. G2 (2018 revenue of $21.5 million (1,115% growth)
438. Era Transport: 2018 revenue of $10.1 million (1,042% growth)
447. Factor 75: 2018 revenue of $22.3 million (1,018% growth)
457. Keypath Education: 2018 revenue of $29.8 million (987% growth)
Correction: This post has been updated to include Chomps, which has offices in both Chicago and Naples, Fla.
