Six Firms Led by Persons of Indian Origin Among 100 Fastest-Growing Businesses in US: Fortune

New York: Six firms founded and headed by Indian-origin persons are among the 100 fastest-growing businesses located in American cities, according to a list by Fortune and The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC).

Founded by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter in 1994, ICIC identifies, ranks and spotlights annually the hundred fastest-growing businesses located in the inner cities of the United States and includes an eclectic group of innovative companies, including custom glass artisans, pet relocation specialists and beverage flavour generators.

Companies were ranked overall by revenue growth over the five-year period between 2009 and 2013 as well as within their respective industry categories.

Ranked 17th in the list FutureNet Group, a construction, environmental, technology and security services firm, with an India-born CEO Perry Mehta. The company's five-year growth rate is 498.2 per cent and its 2013 revenue was $97 million.

On the 30th position is software project development and infrastructure management firm InfoPeople Corporation headed by Shyam Gulati. It had a five-year growth rate of 381 per cent and registered 2013 revenues at over $10 million.

InfoPeople Corp, the New York-based firm, serves companies in the US and India, along with governments, utilities, and non-profit institutions.

Ranking 43rd on this Fortune list is Seattle-based True Fabrications which was founded in 2003 by its CEO Dhruv Agarwal in his garage. The firm, a wine lifestyle brand and a marketer for thousands of wine retailers around the world, recorded a five-year growth rate of 305.6 per cent and with 2013 revenues standing at $23 million.

Express Kitchens, ranked 67^th, is headed by Max Kothari and has a five-year growth rate of 172.1 per cent. The Hartford-based firm's 2013 revenue stood at 14 million dollars.

Since Express Kitchens' founding in 2002, it has grown to over 105 employees, seven locations, and it increasingly competes with industry titans Home Depot and Lowes on service and quality.

On the 68th spot is transportation and logistics firm Westcoast Trucking that recorded a five-year growth rate of 168.1 per cent. Its CEO Jay Patel founded the company to cater to the trucking and logistics requests for customers of his warehousing business.

Westcoast Trucking, based in Compton, is now an upstart transportation firm with Fortune 500 clientele that expects to double its fleet year over year for the foreseeable future.

On the 87th position is another Hartford-based Star Hardware, whose CEO Parul Kothari has relied on relationships with local businesses to grow the business, which has a five-year growth rate of 88.7 per cent.