283 Virginia companies make Inc. 5000 list

Published August 23, 2013 by Robert Powell, III

Two hundred eighty-three Virginia companies made the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest growing businesses, including Dumfries-based FederalConference .com, which ranked No. 2.

Other Virginia companies in the top 100 on the Inc. list are OBXtek, No. 11; Dito, No. 76;  and Celerity Ventures, No. 81.

The fastest-growing company on the list was Fuhu, based in El Segundo, Calif., which had a three-year growth rate of 42,148 percent.

Fuhu is the creator of the Nabi, an Android tablet for kids, and Fooz Kids, an Adobe Air application that helps children become familiar with the Internet using a password-protected, parent-controlled environment.

Virginia ranked fourth among the states in the number of companies on the list behind California with 701, Texas with 387 and New York with 311.

Virginia was just ahead of Florida, which 282 firms on the list, and Illinois with 273.

FederalConference.com, founded in 2006, plans and executes thousands of government events annually. It recorded a three-year growth rate of 24,831 percent, growing from just under $200,000 in revenue in 2009 to $49.6 million last year.

The company has added 43 employees in the past three years and now has 51.

OBXtek, based in Tysons Corner, had a three-year growth rate of 16,433 percent as revenue increased from nearly $180,000 to $29.6 million.

The company, founded in 2008, provides IT services, primarily to government agencies. It has added 141 employees in the past three years and now has 149.

Dito, an IT services company in Manassas, saw its revenue grow from just over $105,000 in 2009 to $4.5 million last year, a growth rate of 4,200 percent.

The 6-year-old firm has 30 employees, 25 of which were hired in the past three years.

Celerity Ventures, based in Alexandria, had revenue of $15.8 million last year, up 3,960 percent from $390,299 in 2009. The company, which purchases and renovates residential properties, has only seven employees, five of whom were hired in the past three years.