Oops, they did it again! Ampersand Advisory ranks in the list of 500 high-growth enterprises in Asia for 2024, for the second year in a row!

Ampersand Advisory, a leading agency in Malaysia, has been listed as one of 14 Malaysian companies that have made it to the Financial Times Statista High-Growth Companies Asia Pacific 2024. This is the second time that Ampersand Advisory has made the list, having figured in 2023 as well.

In the list published online on 13th March 2024, Ampersand Advisory clocked in at 7th place amongst the 14 Malaysian companies listed. Other Malaysian companies which made the list included CapBay, SpeedHome, Policy Street, Limitless Technologies and TMC Life Sciences.

Indian company Zypp Electric, a delivery platform for electric vehicles, tops the list. Ampersand Advisory has the distinction of being the only player from the Malaysian advertising and marketing industry, and is the youngest Malaysian company of all 14 to feature, having been established in 2017.

Co-founder and CEO of Ampersand Advisory, Sandeep Mark Joseph said the recognition by FT Statista would spur his team to “re-dedicate ourselves to our people and our clients”. Sandeep credited his 65 staff for the achievement, attributing the success to their attitude, focus, hard work and innovation.

He said, “Our mission remains to grow our clients’ sales, profitability and reputation. Our motto is “Business Results Now!” and that north star is the key to our growth. We are fortunate to have the wholehearted support and guidance of our chairman Tan Sri Vincent Lee, a veteran in advertising and brand building, the Lifetime President of the 4 A’s and lead investor in Carsome, Malaysia’s first home-grown unicorn.”

Ampersand is the third company with links to Lee that has made it to the FT list. The others are online auto major Carsome and payments platform Soft Space.

Ampersand Advisory, which marked its seventh year in business this February, has won more than 68 awards in 2023 alone, including #1 Creative Usage at MARKies 2023, #1 Media Usage at MARKies 2023, #1 rank in Dragons of Malaysia 2023, in addition to securing Campaign Asia’s Independent Malaysia Agency of the Year for 5 years in a row, from 2019 to 2023.

It is also the Appies Asia Pacific Media Agency of the Year 2022 and was featured in Campaign UK’s special issue of Top 10 Independent Agencies in the world in June 2023. Some of Ampersand Advisory’s clients include Alliance Bank, Allianz Insurance, Coway, Etika, Nando’s, Drypers and TENA.

Ampersand Advisory and the other Malaysian companies to feature in this list seem to be bucking the odds, as East Asia’s developing economies in general are expected to grow at one of the lowest rates since the 1960s, according to the World Bank.

According to the Financial Times, South Korea is home to the most growth companies in the Financial Times Statista list: 123 in total. Japan and Singapore follow with 101 and 93 companies, respectively. India ranks fourth with 71 companies making the grade.

China was not featured because of difficulties of checking their numbers and financial data. Software and IT account for 30% of companies in the top 500, followed by fintech, financial services and insurance, which account for 8 per cent.