British Columbia boasts more than 10,200 tech companies. Nearly all of them are small- to mid-sized organizations—and some are ready to burst out onto the world stage.

Many of those set to achieve global recognition are featured on the Ready to Rocket list: a roster of B.C. companies with the greatest potential for growth. Released this week, the annual collection spotlights 200 local businesses to keep a close watch on.

The list is this year split into two sections: one describing Ready to Rocket companies, and one collating Emerging Rocket organizations (previously known as the “ones to watch” list).

Ready to Rocket companies are the private businesses in B.C. that have the greatest potential for revenue growth. The organizations named to the list have, on average, exceeded a 50 percent annual growth revenue rate, and have significantly increased their employee headcount each year—contributing to the overall increase of tech sector workers in the province. As a result, those businesses are judged to be most likely to raise investment capital, and to be acquired by larger businesses.

Emerging Rocket companies are those which are not yet earning big bucks, but have a great potential for their product or service to break out in 2019. An Emerging Rocket company must have commercialized a product and be in the early stages of growing its customer or user base, and often Emerging Rockets become Ready to Rocket within one or two years.

There were five categories for this year’s winners, each representing the sectors in which B.C. excels: information and communications technology (ICT), cleantech, life science, digital health, and agri-food.

The chosen companies cover a wide variety of products and services. Agri-food victor Semios, for example, eliminates pesticide use by releasing insects’ own pheromones to warn them away from crops. Digital health winner Wiivv creates custom-fit 3-D printed insoles constructed by taking a picture of your foot. Genome sequencing company Fusion Genomics, a victor in the life sciences category, has found a way to transcribe DNA molecules quickly and cheaply. ICT standout Bananatag lets you see what happens after someone opens your email, and cleantech pioneers Axine made the list for being able to clean wastewater from industrial manufacturing plants: a move that could help prevent antibiotics resistance.   

The full list is available here.

Kate Wilson is the Technology Editor at the Georgia Straight. Follow her on Twitter @KateWilsonSays