Want to grow your technology start-up? Go north.

Survey shows Canada is high-tech hot spot.

Life in a northern town is a good idea if you are a technology company.

That’s because half the companies in the top 10 of Deloitte & Touche’s latest annual ranking of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America are Canadian.

For the first time, Canadian companies had a higher average revenue growth rate -- 3,876% -- than U.S. companies, which averaged 1,927%. This growth rate is up from 2,195% in 2005 and 1,597% in 2004.

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Life in a northern town is a good idea if you are a technology company.

That’s because half the companies in the top 10 of Deloitte & Touche’s latest annual ranking of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America are Canadian.

For the first time, Canadian companies had a higher average revenue growth rate -- 3,876% -- than U.S. companies, which averaged 1,927%. This growth rate is up from 2,195% in 2005 and 1,597% in 2004.

The five fastest-growing Canadian technology start-ups are:

Westport Innovations, a Vancouver, British Columbia, supplier of alternative fuel technologies, was ranked second on the list, with a revenue growth rate of 42,945%.

Airborne Entertainment, a Montreal, Quebec, company that develops mobile content for leading brands, was ranked fourth on the list with a growth rate of 33,328%.

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, a Vancouver biotech company, was ranked sixth with a growth rate of 21,468%.

DragonWave, a Kanata, Ontario, company that sells broadband wireless equipment to carriers, ranked seventh with a growth rate of 18,969%.

Imaging Dynamics, a biotech company from Calgary, Alberta, was ranked ninth with a growth rate of 17,949%.

In contrast, Canada had only one company in the top 10 last year and no companies in the top 10 in the previous three years.

"The ability of the Canadian companies to achieve such incredible growth primarily through self-financing is a testament to their exceptional business success in commercializing their technologies and their great management teams," said John Ruffolo, national leader for Canada in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Practice at Deloitte & Touche.

Another famous Canadian technology company that made the Fast 500 list for the seventh year in a row is Research In Motion, the Waterloo, Ontario maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless device. RIM ranked 342 on the 2006 list. RIM’s revenue grew 377%, from $342.7 million in 2001 to $1.6 billion in 2005.

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