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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Twelve Alexandria companies made the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest-growing private companies, down from 19 a year ago — and none placed in the top 500.
Sparkplug IP, a telecommunications firm, is the city's highest-ranked entry at No. 772, with 449% revenue growth over three years. That's a steep drop from 2025, when Alexandria consulting firm Artemis ARC ranked 34th nationally with 6,648% growth, the highest of any Virginia company and the only one in the top 100. Akiak Technology, an Alaskan tribal-owned IT services firm based in Alexandria, ranked 106th.
Neither appears on this year's list.
The Inc. 5000 requires companies to apply each year and submit financials, and excludes firms that have been acquired, gone public or otherwise lost their independence. An absence from the list does not by itself indicate slower growth.
Who made it
The 12 Alexandria honorees, by national rank:
- 772 — Sparkplug IP, telecommunications, 449%
- 1,023 — Urban Legend, advertising and marketing, 343%
- 1,210 — Logistics Systems (LSI), IT services, 290%
- 2,046 — MovementX, healthcare, 166%
- 2,428 — Patriots International, government services, 136%
- 2,439 — Event Strategies (ESI), advertising and marketing, 136%
- 2,950 — Donorbox, software, 105%
- 3,076 — OneZero Solutions, government services, 99%
- 3,353 — Bent Ear Solutions, IT services, 86%
- 4,122 — BRG Communications, advertising and marketing, 56%
- 4,352 — TEAL, IT services, 47%
- 4,436 — Mayvin, government services, 43%
Seven repeated from 2025: Logistics Systems, MovementX, OneZero Solutions, Bent Ear Solutions, BRG Communications, TEAL and Mayvin. Of those, only Logistics Systems climbed, moving from No. 2,688 to No. 1,210.
Five are new to the list: Sparkplug IP, Urban Legend, Patriots International, Event Strategies and Donorbox.
A shift away from federal work
Alexandria's Inc. 5000 presence has long skewed toward companies serving the federal government. Last year, 11 of the city's 19 honorees were in government services or IT services. This year it's six of 12.
The three highest-ranked Alexandria companies absent from the 2026 list — Artemis ARC, Akiak Technology and BryceTech — all served federal agencies.
Filling part of the gap are marketing and communications firms, which account for three of the city's 12 entries this year: Urban Legend, Event Strategies and BRG Communications.
National context
Growth cooled across the list. The 2026 Inc. 5000 posted a median three-year growth rate of 130%, down from 169% a year earlier. The 5,002 honorees generated $385.1 billion in 2025 revenue and employ more than 1.4 million people.
Main Street Health, a Nashville healthcare company, ranked first with 546,533% growth. Carahsoft Technology, the Reston-based government IT reseller, was the largest company on the list by revenue.
Companies qualify by percentage revenue growth from 2022 to 2025, and must be private, independent, U.S.-based and for-profit, with at least $100,000 in 2022 revenue and $2 million in 2025.
See the full list here.
