VEEVVeeva Systems Inc.

Veeva makes software solely for the pharmaceutical industry — and that is its main advantage.

Industry specialisation means the product embeds regulatory requirements for clinical trials, data quality and interaction with physicians. A general-purpose system does not, and making one compliant costs more than buying a ready one. Customers include almost every large pharmaceutical company in the world.

The risk and the strength are the same: the market is limited by the number of pharmaceutical companies, so growth comes not from new customers but from expansion within existing ones — new modules for trials, regulatory reporting and quality. The company migrated off a third-party platform onto its own, a major technical risk. It pays no dividend.