New roster of rapid-growth “Gazelle” firms named as Denver Startup Week begins

Starting fast out of the gate for Denver Startup Week, the Denver Office of Economic Development (OED) and the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network Colorado (BEN Colorado) today announced their annual additions to the roster of “Denver Gazelles,” the city’s list of the rapidly growing firms here with both proven success and excellent potential in raising money and creating jobs.
 
The 2017 class, all technology companies, are CyberGRX, Evolve Vacation Rental Network, GoSpotCheck, PaySimple, and SynchHR.
 
“We’re proud to partner with Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network to celebrate the immense talent of our startup community,” said Eric Hiraga, OED executive director. “Denver’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship continues to grow, thanks to firms like our Denver Gazelles that are experiencing rapid growth while creating jobs and shaping a stronger community.”
 
The 2017 Gazelles will be celebrated and tell their stories on Wednesday, September 27 from 1-2 p.m. at The Commons on Champa, 1245 Champa St. More details and registration is available at the Denver Startup Week website.
 
Since 2012, OED has named an elite number of Denver Gazelles each year based on referrals and internal research among its business development staff and the venture capital/financial community. Criteria include exponential job growth and a CEO-level commitment to engagement in strengthening the Denver entrepreneurial climate. Now with BEN Colorado formally engaged as a program partner, today’s announcement brings the roster of Gazelles to 30.
 
OED adopted the name “gazelle” from the observation that all honorees are demonstrating swift growth in job creation. Small firms such as these are expected to drive half of Denver’s workforce growth in the next dozen years.
 
SUMMARY PROFILES – 2017 Gazelles:
CyberGRX provides enterprises and their third parties with a cost-effective and scalable approach to third-party cyber risk management. With 55 employees, CyberGRX received its series B funding in early 2016 and has been continuously building the team including the addition of general counsel, chief product officer, vice president of engineering and senior director of marketing.
 
Evolve Vacation Rental Network is a next-generation vacation rental management company that provides homeowners with vacation rental income and flexibility for a fee of 10% per booking. The company serves 4,000 rental properties in 500 markets. Its recent capital raise of $11 million brought total funding to $23 million. It has 150 employees.
 
GoSpotCheck develops web and mobile apps that help employees gather real-time retail intelligence information from the field. GoSpotCheck is enterprise software for field-based teams.The company has added 25 of its 95 employees in the last 12 months, with immediate plans to hire 35 more. It initially raised $9.5 million and added an additional $16.5 million a year ago.
 
PaySimple provides an online payment solution for 17,000 companies across the country. The firm enables businesses to market services, accept payments, and retain customers using one end-to-end solution. With nearly 100 employees, PaySimple recently announced a $115 million private equity investment.
 
SyncHR provides enterprise-level HR, payroll and benefit capabilities to growing companies, designed to provide growing firms with a simple and affordable solution to HR systems. It has doubled annual revenue in each of the last three years, growing from 50 employees in 2016 to 130 employees today. Initial venture capital of $17.5 million two years ago was recently nearly doubled as well.
 
The Denver Office of Economic Development (OED) is dedicated to advancing economic prosperity for the City of Denver, its businesses, neighborhoods and residents. Working with a wide variety of community partners, OED operates to create a local environment that stimulates balanced growth through job creation, business assistance, housing options, neighborhood redevelopment and the development of a skilled workforce.