These fast-growing companies span a wide range of industries, from real estate and construction to retail, health care and automotive. There's a swim school, a meat importer, an RV dealer and an aerospace simulator, to name a few.
The 50 companies on this list saw revenue increase by an average of roughly 150% between 2019 and 2024. They brought in a collective $42 billion in revenue last year alone. As employers, they cut paychecks to more than 13,000 workers in Southeast Michigan.
A note about how Crain's compiled the 2025 Fast 50 list: This year, we followed a new methodology to better highlight rapidly growing companies that may not be industry giants yet. The list now ranks Southeast Michigan companies solely by the percentage at which their revenue grew between 2019 and 2024, so long as they started with at least $100,000. That's a change from last year, when we considered the dollar amount of the companies' revenue growth — an approach that tended to favor larger, more established businesses. By focusing on the rate of growth alone, the list now sheds light on smaller companies experiencing rapid acceleration.
As a result, many of the companies on this list were founded in the last 10 or 20 years, though some have been around for five to 10 decades. One dates all the way back to 1853.
To qualify, companies must be headquartered in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston or Washtenaw counties. They must have been founded before Dec. 31, 2018, and reported at least $100,000 in revenue in 2019 and $5 million in 2024. Eligible companies were allowed one year of declining revenue during that period, so long as it wasn’t 2024.