Thirteen has become a lucky number for Huntersville, North Carolina-based retail energy provider XOOM Energy, which earned that ranking on the Inc. 5000 list for 2015, an exclusive register of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.
XOOM, founded in 2011, earned its high place on the roster with 2014 revenues of $293.1 million and a three-year growth rate of 16,602 percent. It came in first for the entire energy industry on Inc. Magazine’s annual honors roll, followed by Entrust Energy of Houston at number 47. Entrust boasted 2014 revenues of $132.1 million and a three-year growth rate of 5,410 percent. Founded in 2010, Entrust also earned accolades as number-five among the top Texas companies.
Further down the list – placing in triple digits among the energy retailer cohort – was Marathon Energy of Brooklyn, New York, at number 147. The five-year-old firm earned 2014 revenues of $32.7 million and grew 2,674 percent over the past three years.
Four other retail energy providers made the Inc. 5000: Nordic Energy Services of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois (at number 1738); Dallas-based Ambit Energy (2814); Clearview Energy, also of Dallas (3433); and BlueRock Energy of Syracuse, New York (4774)
The 2015 Inc. 5000 is available in its entirety online. In print, the magazine features the top 500 companies on the list in its September issue. This year's ranking "is the most competitive crop" in the list’s 34-year history, according to the magazine’s editorial staff, which noted that “The average company on the list achieved a mind-boggling three-year growth of 490 percent.”
The 2015 Inc. 5000 honorees were ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2011 to 2014. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2011. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent–not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies–as of December 31, 2014. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2011 was $100,000; the minimum for 2014 is $2 million.
