Dutch Software companies show resilience during COVID-crisis with both current as well as expected revenue growth rates still being above-average

The Hague, November 26th, 2020 – For the 9^th consecutive year the 2020 edition of the Main Software 50 was more competitive than ever. With an increased number of subscriptions, all finalist can take great pride in securing a top-50 position.

Main Software 50, is the renowned ranking of the 50 most successful Dutch software companies and is intended to increase visibility of the Dutch software sector for the larger public, as well as reward software companies for their great achievements.

In contrary many other rankings, the Main Software 50 ranking is based on 7 key KPI’s (!) that in our philosophy measure success for software companies: 1) absolute amount of revenues, 2) revenue growth (%), 3) recurring revenue (%), 4) cloud/SaaS contribution (%), 5) profitability, 6) international revenue (%) and 7) partner revenue (%). Main Software 50 is composed and independently audited by Dialogic, an independent IT-research firm.Due to persistent COVID-19 measures, this year’s Main 50 Award show was unfortunately cancelled. Nevertheless, we decided to still host the Main Software 50 event through a short online video presented by Roelof Hemmen.

We are very happy that the software sector continues to grow and prosper and shows healthy statistics. In this online video we speak with Charly Zwemstra (CEO Main) about the software market, and hand-out the 5 awards. All five winners have created a short Company video about their company and future strategy.

On behalf of the entire Main team, we want to congratulate the five Main Software Award winners for their remarkable achievement, as well as to all of the 50 finalist the ended op on the list!

Great work!

Main Software 50 Award Winners – 2020 Edition

Please find here the full Main Software 50 2020 video, including an interview with Charly Zwemstra, the Key Statistics of the Main 50 2020 edition and the award show.

1ST OVERALL – UPTRENDS

1^st Overall winner: Uptrends, a fast-growing vendor of SaaS-based Web Performance Monitoring software, is the undisputed Overall winner of the Main Software 50 2020 edition. The company realized yearly revenue growth of >25% to EUR 6,5m in revenues, almost 100% based on recurring revenue, largely being generated internationally and with strong profitability margins of >20%.

Click here to watch the interview

2ND OVERALL – ENOVATION

2^nd Overall winner: Enovation, the leading provider of eHealth and Connected Care solutions, earns this year’s 2nd Overall position through generating more than EUR 36m in yearly revenues, with a recurring revenue-level of 75% and with strong growth in its international activities, mainly through its partner channel.

Click here to watch the interview

3RD OVERALL – TEXTKERNEL

3^rd Overall winner: Third spot on the podium is taken by Textkernel, provider of AI-powered HR technology that provides Talent Acquisition solutions to over 1,000 companies globally. Textkernel generates more than EUR 18m in revenues, 75% of its revenues from outside of the Benelux and a recurring revenue-level of 85%.

Click here to watch the interview

HIGHEST GROWTH – CONVIOUS

The Highest Growth award is won by Convious, specialized in providing e-Commerce SaaS solutions for leisure markets. The company was able to realize an explosive year-on-year revenue growth of >250% (!) towards EUR 6m in revenues, and therefore well deserves this award!

Click here to watch the interview

CLOUD CHAMPION – E-WISE

The Cloud Champion award of this year goes to E-WISE, specialized in online educational solutions for professionals. Showing >35% year-on-year growth towards EUR 10m in revenues, while simultaneously being 100% cloud-based makes E-WISE the undisputed winner of the Cloud Champion award of 2020.

Click here to watch the interview

For the full list go to mainsoftware50.com or press the button below

Main 50 top 50 list

Key statistics of the Main Software 50

The key statistics of the Main Software 50 edition 2020 once more shows an overall improvement in the profile of Dutch software companies in terms of revenue growth (+21%), employment (+15%), productivity (+5%) profitability channels and contribution of SaaS revenue.

Current revenue growth rate remains above >20%

Total revenue grew from EUR 371m in 2018 to EUR 450,5m in 2019 at a growth rate of 21%. Recurring revenue represented 68% of total revenue in 2019.

Even during C0VID, 42% of companies still expect to grow >20% next year

Even amidst the current COVID-19 situation, Main Software 50 participants are optimistic about the future, with a stunning 42% of the Main Software top 50 companies still expecting to realize year-on-year topline growth of more than 20% in the upcoming two years.

OVERVIEW KEY STATISTICS

Employment and productivity
Total 2019 FTE count amounted to 3.236, representing a 15% increase relative to last year. Interestingly, the revenue generated per FTE grew by 5% over the course of the year to EUR 138,- per FTE. This productivity figure is considerably higher than that of the participating companies of last year’s edition.International success
Dutch software companies consistently prove to be highly qualified to internationalize its presence; on average 22% of total revenues generated by the top 50 companies is generated from outside of The Netherlands in 2019.Partner channel
The top 50 companies furthermore increasingly utilize scalable (international) partner channels, with 9% of revenues generated through partners, increasing from 7% last year.Profitability
The large majority of the top 50 participating software companies follow a profitable growth strategy. 66% of the top 50 companies have realized a an EBITDA margin of more than 10%. More than 24% of the top 50 companies were even able to realize an EBITDA margin of more than 20%.Innovation
The top 50 participating software companies show continued investments in software development to stay innovative in this competitive environment. A stunning 90% of all participants indicated to have invested more than 10% of their annual revenue back into R&D to drive future growth.

M&A
Unsurprisingly, the top 50 Dutch software companies appear to be interesting investment opportunities for both strategic and financial investors. Out of the 50 finalists of last year’s edition, 6 companies were acquired within 12 months after publication of the list. In addition to sell-side M&A, a substantial number of companies in the yearly Main Software 50 ranking choose to further accelerate their topline growth as well as build out their product portfolio’s through strategic acquisitions of other software companies.

About Main Capital Partners

Main Capital is a strategic investor with an exclusive focus on the software sector in the Benelux, DACH and Nordics. Main has a long-term horizon around successful partnerships with management teams, with the aim of building larger software groups together. Within the software sector, Main is the most specialized party in management buy-outs and later stage growth capital. Main has approximately € 1 billion in assets under management for investments in mature and growing software companies. An experienced team of professionals manages these Private Equity funds from offices in The Hague, Düsseldorf and Stockholm.

Dutch Software companies show resilience during COVID-crisis with both current as well as expected revenue growth rates still being above-average