Takeaway.com is the fastest-growing company in the Netherlands

Takeaway.com, parent of online food order service Thuisbezorgd.nl, is the fastest-growing company, or scale-up, in the Netherlands, according to a new list compiled by the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship.

The 2018 ranking says takeaway.com, established in 2000, has created 946 new jobs while its turnover increased by an average annual 68%.

Fragrances retailer Rituals (2448 new jobs and growth rate 44%), which was the fastest-growing last year, was second on the list, followed by online and physical stores retailer Coolblue (2,040 and 50%). The 250 companies in the Rotterdam list created a combined 32,000 new jobs.

The Rotterdam report said there were 3,237 scale-up companies in the Netherlands last year, a 5.3% increase over 2016. Importantly, the number of start-ups becoming scale-ups soared by 220%. Most of the scale-ups are in the energy, high-tech, life sciences and health sectors.

A scale-up is one step higher than a start-up. Generally a  scale-up has had an average annual return of at least 20% in the past three years and at least 10 employees.