Although growing a profitable business should be the key goal for the CEO of a tech company, I think you could forgive them for dreaming of reaching the milestone of a $1 billion dollar market capitalisation.
Australia is already home to a number of billion dollar tech companies such as Atlassian, Aconex Ltd (ASX: ACX) and Myob Group Ltd (ASX: MYO), but could more be on the way? I think so. In my opinion the following five shares could be the ones to join the billion dollar club in the not so distant future.
Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)
Appen is a leader in the growing language technology and machine learning market, providing high quality data critical for automatic speech recognition. Judging by its client list which includes government security agencies and tech giants Facebook and Microsoft, Appen is very much at the top of its game and a great investment in my opinion.
Catapult Group International Ltd (ASX: CAT)
Operating in a rapidly growing market, this leading sports analytics company could have a very bright future ahead of it. Its award-winning technology is used by leadings sports teams such as the New York Knicks, Australian Wallabies, and Chelsea Football Club. Catapult recently bolstered its product offering with the acquisitions of US-based XOS Technologies and Ireland's PLAYERTEK.
Class Ltd (ASX: CL1)
Class is a provider of self-managed super fund software with a rapidly growing share of the market. This week it reported that it had increased its market share to 19.2%, following a 37% lift in billable portfolios to 112,441. This number is expected to continue to rise in FY 2017 thanks to signing its largest single contract for cloud-based SMSF software services with a leading financial advisory and accounting services company named Findex.
iSentia Group Ltd (ASX: ISD)
This company is one of the global leaders in the delivery of crucial business intelligence. Due to the growing popularity of its Mediaportal platform half year underlying profit increased 22% year on year. Mediaportal provides a cloud-based workspace which delivers news as and when it happens, together with analytics and reporting tools. Like many Australian companies, iSentia is looking to Asia for growth. Organic growth in the region has not been overly impressive recently, but I'm expecting to see a vast improvement in its forthcoming results.
MNF Group Ltd (ASX: MNF)
MNF Group is a provider of voice-based internet communications and the company behind the My Net Fone brand. MNF Group is an ambitious company which aims to become a global player as a wholesale voice minutes provider. To help it achieve this goal the company acquired New Zealand-based global voice services provider TZNI last year. So far so good with TZNI contributing strongly in FY 2016 and showing excellent prospects going into FY 2017 according to management.
