Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce of USA, Inc.

Qliktech is heading for NASDAQ

Ny Teknik, October 17

Qliktech, based out of Lund in Southern Sweden, is growing with exceptional speed on the operational decision-making market, according to CEO Lars Björk. Björk doesn’t feel the least intimated by IT- giants like Microsoft and SAP, and he expects to enter NASDAQ within a year.

Proof of the fast growth is Qliktech’s last year’s appointment, for the third year in a row, any of the title of the fastest growing company within business. The number of customers increased by 3,197 during 2006 and the turnover this year is expected to be more than $100 million. Qliktech is, however, relatively unknown in its’ home country Sweden, in spite of the fact that the analysis company IDC for several years in a row has ranked them the fastest growing operational decision-making company in the world.

When the Swedish magazine Ny Teknik reaches CEO Lars Björk, he is at a café in Spain, on his way to yet another meeting. “It has all happened very quickly. We have grown with an average of 75 per cent for four years in a row and everything points toward a continuous trend,” Björk says. The corporate headquarters moved to the U.S. a year ago and is now located in Radnor, Pennsylvania. Customers are found in 76 countries and at this point there are 17 Qliktech offices around the world. The number of customers is constantly growing with a daily average of 12 new clients. All in all, Qliktech can count 6,300 customers worldwide, with mostly mid-sized businesses as clients. Lars Björk has been within the corporation since the start, most recently as CFO and now as CEO.

The key to the corporation’s success is their software Qlikview. It is a Windows-based software, with a 15 day trial available for download on Qliktech’s website. “The software has the simplicity of Excel but can handle very large amounts of transactions and calculations. Business data and other information are made available for download and analysis in a simple and easily understandable way. You can use a number of different objects, for example diagrams and text boxes”, says Lars Björk.

Björk says he is not threatened by the way the IT-businesses is consolidating and with more or less every IT-giant looking for competition. “I think you can make the conclusion that many sees this as a very interesting market. IT-giants like SAP buy companies to continue to grow. We on the other side have our own product,” Lars Björk says. He also compares Qliktech with Google and other fast growing IT-companies. “Just like we do, they have something that is so easy to use, a product or service that a lot of people want and know how to use. That is what makes us grow,” Lars Björk says. The question of whether Qliktech is a potential object for sale is something he chooses not to comment on. Focus is now on quotation on NASDAQ. “No dates are set, but we aim for a quotation in about a year. What happens on the way there is yet to find out”, Björk says.

For more information, visit www.nyteknik.se

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