CANDA's Continued Inc. 5000 Growth
CANDA Solutions Achieves No. 538 Inc. 5000 Ranking, Boosted by 646% Growth and Vetting Tech
Key Points
Columbia, MD – August 14, 2026: CANDA Solutions' ranking announcement is datelined from Columbia, Maryland in the 2026 Inc. 5000 coverage.
COO Michael Miller frames the rise as about consistency, not just a single good year: 'Moving up to No. 538 says something about consistency, not just a single good year.'
He adds that when a program moves from periodic reviews to continuous vetting, the old process doesn't scale and has to be rebuilt.
Erin Gill, Head of Field Investigations, emphasizes field impact: investigators gain hours instead of chasing records, allowing more time for analysis and judgment.
Fresh Haystack is described as CANDA’s 'purpose-built platform for personnel and company vetting, industrial security, insider threat programs, and investigations management.'
CANDA Solutions has landed at No. 538 on the 2026 Inc. 5000, the annual ranking of America's fastest-growing private companies. The Columbia, Maryland firm jumped nearly 200 spots from No. 734 in 2025, posting three-year revenue growth of 646%, according to KBEW 98 Country.
It is the company's fourth time on the list. CANDA credits the climb to rising demand for personnel vetting, insider threat programs, and investigations work inside the Defense Industrial Base — the network of private companies that support U.S. national security.
Consistency Over Four Years Drives the Ranking Jump
COO Michael Miller says the jump is not a fluke. 'Moving up to No. 538 says something about consistency, not just a single good year,' he said. The company has now made the Inc. 5000 list four times, a sign that growth has held steady across multiple business cycles, not just one strong stretch.
Miller also pointed to a structural shift in how the government handles security clearances. When a program moves from periodic reviews to continuous vetting, he said, the old process simply does not scale. It has to be rebuilt from the ground up. That rebuild is where CANDA competes.
Trusted Workforce 2.0 Opens the Door for CANDA
The federal government's Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative is pushing agencies and defense contractors to move away from one-time background checks. Instead, workers get checked on a continuous basis. That shift creates demand for technology that can handle large volumes of vetting quickly and consistently.
CANDA has built its business around that demand. The company works across personnel vetting, industrial security, and insider threat programs — all areas that Trusted Workforce 2.0 directly affects. As more of the Defense Industrial Base adopts the new framework, CANDA's addressable market grows.
Fresh Haystack Platform Cuts Red Tape for Investigators
At the center of CANDA's strategy is Fresh Haystack. The company describes it as a 'purpose-built platform for personnel and company vetting, industrial security, insider threat programs, and investigations management.' It is a low-code tool, meaning users can set it up and adjust it without writing complex software code.
The platform automates compliance steps and standardizes how risk is assessed. That means investigators spend less time chasing paperwork. Erin Gill, CANDA's Head of Field Investigations, put it plainly: investigators gain hours instead of chasing records, freeing them for analysis and judgment — the work that actually requires a human.
What a 646% Growth Rate Signals for the Vetting Market
A 646% three-year revenue growth rate puts CANDA well inside the top tier of the Inc. 5000. The list ranks roughly 5,000 companies, so No. 538 places CANDA in the top 11%. That kind of growth, sustained over multiple years, points to a market that is expanding fast, not just a company that had one good contract.
The broader signal is that national security agencies and defense contractors are spending more on modernizing vetting workflows. Complex risk processes that used to run on spreadsheets and phone calls are moving to purpose-built software. CANDA is betting that demand will keep climbing as Trusted Workforce 2.0 rolls out further across the Defense Industrial Base, according to Capital City Rock.
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