290 DC-area companies make the new Inc. 5000 list 

Seth Goldman and Spike Mendelsohn of Bethesda, Maryland-based Just Ice Tea. (Courtesy Just Ice Tea)

Inc. magazine’s Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies based on revenue growth includes 290 companies with D.C.-area headquarters this year, up from 214 that made the list last year.

Rankings are based on three-year revenue growth and include only independent companies that are not subsidiaries of larger companies. Those on the list must have been founded by 2021 and reported at least $2 million in annual revenue last year.

Alexandria, Virginia-based government contractor Artemis ARC is the highest-ranking local company on the Inc 5000 list, coming in at No. 34, with average annual revenue growth of 6,648%. Rockville, Maryland-based solar energy company Chaberton Energy ranks No. 53, with average annual revenue growth of 5,124%.

Just Ice Tea makes the list for the first time

D.C.-based Kalorama Group, a firm where brokers buy and sell deals for Internet Protocol addresses, ranks No. 70, with annual average revenue growth of 4,136%. Gaithersburg, Maryland-based government contractor Connsci is No. 83, with revenue growth averaging 3,800%.

Notably on this year’s Inc. 5000 list is Bethesda, Maryland’s Just Ice Tea. It ranks No. 88 with average annual revenue growth of 3,750%. Just Ice Tea also ranks No. 5 among fastest-growing companies nationally in the food and beverage category.

It is the first year for Just Ice Tea to make the Inc. 5000 list, and it has already surpassed the highest Inc. 5000 ranking for its predecessor company, Honest Tea, which peaked at No. 117. Seth Goldman and celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn founded Just Ice Tea in 2022, after Coca-Cola discontinued the Honest Tea Brand that Goldman founded and sold to the soda giant several years ago.

This is the 43rd year Inc. magazine has published its Inc. 5000 list. The 5000 companies on this year’s list had a total of $300.7 billion in revenue last year and employed almost 1.2 million people. Five hundred forty-nine of this year’s Inc. 5000 companies are new to the list.

The full list, searchable by industry, city and state is online.

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Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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