Move over, Tinder. The Netherlands’ hottest dating platform The Inner Circle, a selective dating app (read: elite), won the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. At a gala dinner in Amsterdam, the Amsterdam-based company beat “Slack for retail”-startup Speakap and last year’s winner Sendcloud. The Inner Circle showed a four-year growth of 3460%, with Speakap (2143%) and Sendcloud trailing behind (1928%).
It was surely a surprise win. Even the founder and CEO David Vermeulen didn’t see it coming. Rightfully so, as last year’s winner Sendcloud back then performed even better: 5463%. Previous winners like Catawiki (2015: 45.080%) and Adyen (2013: 14.284%) have proved to be true outliers with their stellar four-year growth numbers.
The Inner Circle is an extremely selective dating app, some would even call it elitist, with a long waiting list holding a portion of users in perpetual limbo. “Most of you here would not even pass through our process”, CEO Vermeulen told the audience.
The dating app lately went live in Melbourne, Sydney, and Hong Kong. The last edition, the startup won the title Most Disruptive Innovator at Deloitte Technology Fast 50.
This year, the honor went to Amber, the Eindhoven-based electric car-sharing platform that guarantees a ride is always available.
Temper, a gig-platform for the hotel and restaurant industry, took home the Rising Star Award at Deloitte Technology Fast 50. Quite recently, the founder Paul Eggink won LOEY’s Talent Award and banked over €4 million in funding from Slingshot Ventures.
Eggink: “We represents the voice of a new generation. This is a confirmation that we’re on the right path to disrupt the job market in a sustainable way.”
Other noteworthy Deloitte Technology Fast 50 trophy winners include Castor EDC (sector Heath and Life Sciences) and Messagebird (sector Communication). The latter proved to be a potential unicorn with the highest absolute revenue.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
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