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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowSeven Indiana companies, including six from the Indianapolis area, cracked the latest Inc. 500, an annual ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.
Indianapolis-based Slingshot SEO ranked 58th, tops among the seven Indiana firms on the list announced Tuesday morning by Inc. magazine.
Founded in 2006, the search engine optimization firm made the list for the first time based on its three-year revenue growth rate of 3,596 percent.
Kevin Bailey, Aaron Aders and Jeremy Dearringer co-founded the company, which has grown to nearly 100 employees and more than 150 clients nationwide.
Earlier this month, Slingshot SEO announced that Jay Love, one of central Indiana’s most successful information technology entrepreneurs, is returning to Indianapolis to lead the company.
Love co-founded software firm eTapestry in Indianapolis in 1997 and sold the company in August 2007 to Charleston, S.C.-based Blackbaund Inc. for $24.8 million.
The only other Indiana company listed among the top 100 is KPaul Properties of Indianapolis, which ranked 91st. KPaul was founded by Kevin Paul and is a holding company for four divisions that provide hardware and software, and industrial, office and medical supplies. Government contracts account for most of its revenue.
Fishers-based Stonegate Mortgage Corp. ranked 140th. The company in June announced that it is moving its operations to Indianapolis after a deal to expand in Fishers fell through. Stonegate also plans to add 300 jobs by 2015.
Carmel-based ChaCha Search followed at No. 219. The company, which bills itself as “the No. 1 free real-time answers service,” allows wireless phone users to call in or text their questions to the company’s human guides. ChaCha makes money by embedding advertisements in the answers.
ChaCha has raised about $75 million in investments since its inception in 2005 and announced early this year that it had closed a $3 million round of financing.
Other Indiana companies making the Inc. 500 list: Livin’ Lite Recreational Vehicles of Wakarusa (278), iGo-Digital LLC of Indianapolis (355), and Exacq Technologies Inc. of Fishers (401).
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