Fast Growth 150: Full Speed Ahead

Overall, this year’s Fast Growth 150 recorded an average two-year growth rate of 78 percent. While that’s slower compared with the Fast Growth 150 in recent years, it shows how many channel companies are maintaining their momentum despite the economic uncertainty of recent years.

Uncertainty and opportunity have been major hallmarks of the business environment for solution providers in recent years. The former due to high inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitical concerns. The latter thanks to the rush of AI technology development that’s remaking the IT industry and spurring demand for new IT products and services.

It’s times like these when solution providers can really shine, providing their clients with business and technical expertise to help them navigate rapidly changing conditions.

Many solution providers are not just succeeding today but thriving, recording double-digit and even triple-digit growth rates, as evidenced by the 2025 CRN Fast Growth 150.

The CRN Fast Growth 150 ranks solution providers with annual sales of at least $1 million by their average two-year growth rate (this year for 2022 to 2024). The 25 solution providers with the fastest growth rates appear on the following page while the complete list can be found at crn.com.

International Computer Concepts (ICC), a Chicago-based provider of high-performance computing and AI infrastructure solutions, tops this year’s Fast Growth 150 list with an impressive two-year growth rate of 376 percent. ICC is focused on system architecture, workload optimization and hardware integration—strengths that are sure to fuel its continued growth as it expands into emerging areas such as AI, machine learning and energy-efficient computing.

Overall, this year’s Fast Growth 150 recorded an average two-year growth rate of 78 percent. That’s down from the 135 percent average for the 2024 Fast Growth 150 class and the 145 percent average growth for the 2023 Fast Growth 150.

The 2025 list includes some well-known names in the channel such as Blue Mantis (No. 60), AHEAD (No. 74), NWN (No. 87), Zones (No. 97), Sycomp A Technology Company (No. 99), Net At Work (No. 115), Winslow Technology Group (No. 120) and SWK Technologies (No. 136).

NTT Data, which was No. 2 on the CRN 2025 Solution Provider 500, makes this year’s Fast Growth 150 list (No. 119) with a two-year growth rate of 32 percent.

The list also has many solution providers appearing for the first time including five of the top 10: No. 1-ranked ICC, No. 3-ranked Abira Security, No. 4-ranked Tech Hub PS, No. 6-ranked MGT and No. 8-ranked Xcelocloud.

Abira Security, based in Glenview, Ill., provides a range of cybersecurity services and solutions, while San Diego-based Tech Hub PS offers IT and consulting services including managed unified communications and IT governance. MGT, based in Tampa, Fla., provides a comprehensive suite of IT solutions and managed services. And Dallas-based Xcelocloud offers advanced IT engineering, support and managed services.

Acquisitions are often a big factor in solution providers’ growth. Chicago-based AHEAD can thank its aggressive acquisition strategy for a good part of its two-year growth rate of 58 percent. The company bought MBX Systems with its custom solutions engineering capabilities in June 2023. And in a blockbuster deal last year AHEAD acquired Computer Design & Integration to boost the company’s digital transformation expertise, helping the solution provider grow its annual revenue to nearly $4 billion.

AHEAD leverages acquisitions as “a tool that we can use to help scale and grow, and gain expertise,” CEO Dan Adamany told CRN in October following the CDI acquisition. “The bigger you get, it’s harder to grow at a really aggressive rate. We look at acquisitions as a strategic growth muscle that we had to build.”

IT service provider Blue Mantis, which makes this year’s Fast Growth list with a 64 percent two-year growth rate, is looking to maintain that momentum under a new private equity majority owner.

“All in all, I couldn't be happier as we get to really shift gears now into high-growth mode,” Blue Mantis CEO Josh Dinneen told CRN in September. “But I want to be very clear: We are going to grow under control and with a purpose. We are not going to just do a roll-up strategy. This isn’t M&A-led. It is a combination of organic and inorganic growth that is going to drive performance.”

In October Blue Mantis acquired SME Solutions Group, a boutique business intelligence and AI data readiness service provider, and earlier this year bought three Vermont-based MSPs in a move to expand its managed services portfolio.

Zones, No. 97 on the Fast Growth list, is on track to reach $3 billion in revenue this year, Firoz Lalji, CEO of the Auburn, Wash.-based solution provider, told CRN in July.

“We’ve grown consistently, and we continue to scale in line with demand—especially with the complexity and volume of today’s IT requirements,” Lalji said. “Execution is everything. In this business, differentiation isn’t about what you sell, it’s about how well you deliver.”

Steven Burke, CJ Fairfield and Mark Haranas contributed to this story.