Meet New England’s 50 fastest-growing companies for 2026

The Podglomerate is one of many businesses in The Boston Globe’s second annual ranking of New England’s fastest-growing companies that not only weathered one of the most turbulent periods since the 1970s but also excelled. In the years after the pandemic, these companies confronted soaring inflation, spiking energy prices, high interest rates, persistent labor shortages, and business uncertainty of all kinds.

They also navigated a slowing New England economy. But they still managed to achieve growth levels ranging from strong to spectacular to mind-blowing.

The rankings are based on the companies’ compounded rate of revenue growth from 2021 to 2024 and were compiled by data and analysis firm Statista. To qualify, companies had to generate a minimum of $100,000 in revenue in 2021 and $1.5 million in 2024 and be willing to share that data publicly.

The top firm this year, Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based health-tech company Tenovi, increased its revenues nearly 50 times, or 4,800 percent, from 2021 to 2024. Salient, an AI-powered weather forecasting firm in Falmouth, expanded revenues nearly 16 times (1,500 percent) over the same period. And HighByte, a Portland, Maine, software company specializing in industrial data management, grew revenues 14 times (1,300 percent).

It wasn’t just technology businesses. Hingham tour operator Old Sod Travel Collection (which led last year’s list) boosted its sales by nearly 1,200 percent, or 13 times. Sales at Haven Hot Chicken, a New Haven-based fast-food chain, jumped about 700 percent, or 8 times. So did those of Sticky Brand, a Vermont maker of premium custom stickers and print products.

How did these companies do it? Some had the right products at the right time. Some built diverse lines of business. Some got lucky. But many also shared the important quality of vision: the ability to look to the future and be strategic even when the present demanded much of their attention.

Take consumer products maker SharkNinja of Needham, which is known for its blenders, vacuum cleaners, and other household gadgets. Manufacturers in recent years were beset by supply chain disruptions, surging materials costs, and shifting trade policies. But SharkNinja kept its eye on what comes next.

Mark Barrocas, president of SharkNinja.Jon Chomitz/via SharkNinja

The company launches 25 new products every year. It holds hack-a-thons for engineers and designers every six weeks to develop ideas and brainstorming sessions in other departments to find ways to save money, streamline operations, and identify opportunities.

And it posted double-digit annual sales growth, increasing overall revenues by nearly 50 percent, to $5.5 billion, from 2021 to 2024.

“Innovation is the lifeline of business,” CEO Mark Barrocas says. “I will burn the furniture before I cut innovation.”

These companies also found success despite a lackluster regional economy. Key New England employment sectors, such as tech-laden professional and business services, have been flat since around 2022, says Jeff Thompson, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Others, such as manufacturing, are shedding jobs.

“New England is in a slow-growth zone,” Thompson says.

Few sectors have felt the economic ups and downs as keenly as construction. But BOND, a Medford construction company specializing in the education, health care, and energy sectors, took the challenges head on, CEO Tony Bond says. That meant partnering with unions to hire more workers and ease labor shortages, working with manufacturers to get better deals on material costs, and helping clients find savings to offset higher interest rates.

The result: Revenues grew nearly 80 percent between 2021 and 2024.

“We look at it, face it,” says Bond of the uncertainty. “You keep looking for solutions and keep pushing forward.”

The ability to move forward when instinct says hunker down is the product of leadership and culture, says Linda Edelman, Rhodes Professor of Management at Bentley University in Waltham. But another fundamental is just as important.

“You have to be courageous,” she says. “It’s scary when things are not going well, but you need to be prepared, ready to invest, ready to grow.”

Haven Hot Chicken, founded in 2020, originally planned to operate full-service restaurants featuring its spicy Nashville-style chicken, says Jason Sobocinski, the company president. But when the pandemic hit, the founders shifted to takeout and delivery.

Since then, Haven Hot Chicken has opened nine corporate stores in Connecticut and recently launched its first franchise location, in Franklin.

Preserve Brands of Norwell, which makes artisan papers from the textile waste of India’s garment industry, had to navigate trade disruptions through the pandemic and beyond. But founder and CEO Susan Hickey kept looking for — and finding — new markets, such as packaging for luxury goods.

“You shift when you need to,” she says. “It’s a matter of building multiple strategies in the background and being ready to pivot.”

Having different lines of business can help companies make those adjustments. Commonwealth Land Trust is a nonprofit developer that builds affordable housing, manages properties, and provides support services to formerly homeless residents living in its housing developments. This approach gives the Boston company access to diverse funding streams to manage changing business conditions and government policies.

Commonwealth, with more than 400 units in Greater Boston, grew revenues 80 percent between 2021 and 2024.

“The environment is challenging but we try to stay focused on the long term,” says Iva Comey, the CEO. “We just continue to deliver what is needed.”

And meeting needs is fundamental to breakaway growth as the top three companies on the list show. Tenovi is tackling the pressing needs of health care — trying to lower costs and improve quality — with technology that makes it easier for patients to use home-monitoring devices and doctors to intervene before conditions turn serious.

HighByte, founded in 2018, is helping companies make sense of the avalanche of data generated by factories, oil and gas sites, and other industrial operations across the globe. Salient, meanwhile, aims to improve long-term forecasting for businesses and other clients as climate change drives more volatile weather.

Salient is built on research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which discovered that changes in the saltiness and temperature of the ocean could predict the likelihood of precipitation on land months in advance. The company has incorporated other variables and artificial intelligence into its forecasting model and shown that it can help utilities prepare for major storms, energy markets meet spikes in demand, and skiers plan vacations.

“The technology is coming together at the right time,” says CEO Matt Stein.

Salient has incorporated other variables and artificial intelligence into its forecasting model and shown that it can help skiers plan vacations. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Indeed, being at the right place at the right time — luck, if you will — has launched many a company into the stratosphere, says Peter Cohan, associate professor of management practice at Babson College, but luck alone is never enough.

While running a company has been compared to running a marathon, Cohan says, even that analogy underestimates what success requires.

“You have to keep running,” he says, “You can never stop. You have to keep innovating. You need to keep reinventing.”

Methodology

New England’s Fastest-Growing Companies list — ranked by compound annual growth rate — is a partnership between The Boston Globe and Statista, based on data from company applications.

Application phase: The project was advertised online and in print, allowing all eligible companies to apply for the ranking from October 2025 to January 2026. Additionally, more than 2,000 companies in New England identified as potential candidates were invited to participate in the ranking via email. Participating companies submitted basic information and revenue figures for the years 2021 and 2024, verifying the revenues through a form signed by the CFO, CEO, or a member of the company’s Executive Committee.

Eligibility requirements: Criteria for consideration in the ranking were minimum revenue of $100,000 in 2021 and $1.5 million in 2024, independence, headquarters located in New England, and organic growth (not through acquisitions). Companies that met all criteria and achieved the highest compound annual growth rates between 2021 and 2024 were recognized as the fastest-growing companies.

Calculation of growth rates: The calculation of growth rates is based on the revenue figures submitted and certified by the companies. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was calculated as follows: ((revenue2024 / revenue2021)^(1/3)) - 1 = CAGR

Evaluation and quality assurance: All data reported by the companies was processed and checked by Statista. Missing data (such as employee numbers) were researched in detail. The minimum compound annual growth rate required to be included in the ranking this year was 8.4 percent.

To apply for next year’s list fill out this form.