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200 Best Under A Billion 2025

200 Best Under A Billion 2025

Forbes4 days ago
Illustration by Terri Po for Forbes Asia
W ith trade tensions looming over the Asia-Pacific region, long considered the world's economic engine, growth is predicted to continue to slow, according to the International Monetary Fund. Despite these challenges, our annual Best Under A Billion list—featuring 200 small and midsized publicly traded companies with sales above $10 million and below $1 billion—showcases businesses that remained resilient over the past year and, in many cases, thrived.
The buoyant financial services sector propelled 18 companies onto the list, more than double from the eight that appeared last year. The beauty industry continues to shine, with 13 companies, mostly South Korean, making the cut this year. Other companies in the region have benefited from the gathering momentum in the segments in which they operate, such as renewable energy, electric vehicles and data centers. In total, 69 companies returned to the 2025 list from the previous year, including India's Triveni Turbine,
We've highlighted eight companies that reflects some of the trends mentioned above:
Already the largest data center operator in Indonesia with 119 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, DCI Indonesia expects to add another 9MW when its newest data center in Surabaya comes online later this year. In 2024, revenue rose 39% to 1.8 trillion rupiah ($114 million) while net profit jumped 55% to 796 billion rupiah. DCI Indonesia is the country's most expensive stock, trading at 150,700 rupiah a share in early July, a roughly 35,780% increase since its 2021 listing.
Taipei-based solar power and battery storage systems company HD Renewable Energy posted a record NT$10 billion ($310 million) in revenue in 2024, up 73% from a year earlier, on growing demand for green energy. Next up is expanding in markets overseas with joint ventures in the Philippines, Japan and Australia, where it recently spent NT$290 million to buy the development rights to 795MW of energy-storage projects in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. iFast
Buoyed by the rising tide of wealth in Asia, Singapore-based wealth management platform iFast posted a nearly 50% increase in revenue to S$383 million ($288 million) in 2024, while net profit surged 136% to S$66.6 million. The fintech also got a boost from the improving performance of its U.K. digital bank iFAST Global Bank (formerly BFC Bank), acquired in 2022, which cut its losses by half to $4.4 million last year. At the end of June, iFast had a record S$27 billion in assets under administration, and aims to reach S$100 billion by 2030. IPD Group
Australia-based IPD Group says work for power-guzzling data centers—including the design and supply of electrical systems as well as cooling controls—made up 12% of sales in the year ended June 2024, helping its top line surge 28% to A$290 million ($190 million). The electrical products distributor and services provider has lately switched gears to sustainable electrical infrastructure, which includes installing EV chargers in major Australian cities. . KPI Green Energy
India's booming market for green power fueled a 70% increase in KPI Green Energy's sales to 17.6 billion rupees ($205 million) in the year ended March, while net profit doubled to 3.2 billion rupees. The Surat-based company, which builds and operates solar and hybrid power plants in its home state of Gujarat, says it aims to install over 10 gigawatts of capacity (up from 950 megawatts currently) by 2030, helped by India's 500GW renewable energy target. KPI also leases out parcels from its 2,400-hectare land bank for solar power projects. PharmaResearch
Gangneung, South Korea-based PharmaResearch is best known for its flagship skincare treatment Rejuran, derived from salmon DNA. With sales across Asia-Pacific, the U.S. and Europe, the company saw revenue jump 34% to over 350 billion won ($257 million), while net profit rose by a fifth to 92 billion won, in 2024. Besides cosmetics, the company makes prescription and over-the-counter drugs, including an injectable for knee pain. Shenzhen Envicool Technology
Shenzhen Envicool Technology, which makes cooling equipment and systems for vehicles, homes and industrial use, saw revenue and net profit each increase by 30% to 4.6 billion yuan ($634 million) and 452 million yuan, respectively. In June, the company teamed up with Malaysia-based KJTS Group to develop energy-efficient cooling technology for data centers springing up across Southeast Asia. Silicon2
K-beauty's global popularity helped double sales at South Korea-based cosmetics distributor Silicon2 to 692 billion won ($507 million) last year and triple net profit to 120 billion won. Founder Kim Sung-woon started the company in 2002 as a distributor of semiconductor components, then pivoted to makeup and skincare a decade later, betting on a beauty boom. In addition to its e-commerce platform StyleKorean.com, the company has opened stores in France, Indonesia, the U.K. and the U.S. in the past two years.
Methodology:
This list features companies with a track record of long-term sustainable performance across a variety of metrics. These 200 companies were selected from a universe of more than 19,000 publicly traded companies in the Asia-Pacific region with annual sales above $10 million and below $1 billion. The companies on this unranked list were selected based on a composite score using measures such as debt, sales and earnings-per-share growth over both the most recent fiscal one- and three-year periods, and the strongest one- and five-year average return on equity. Aside from quantitative criteria, qualitative screens were applied, such as excluding companies with serious governance issues, questionable accounting practices, environmental concerns, management problems or legal troubles in recent years. State-controlled entities and subsidiaries of larger companies were also excluded. The criteria sought to ensure a geographical diversity of companies from across the region. The list uses annual results based on the latest publicly available figures as of July 7, 2025. Stock prices on the same date were used to compute market value.
Reporting by Vaishalli Chandra, John Kang, Zinnia Lee, Phisanu Phromchanya, Ian Sayson, Catherine Wang and Yue Wang.
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