A scaleup company or just scaleup is defined by the OECD as a company having an average annualized return of at least 20% in the past 3 years with at least 10 employees in the beginning of the period. A scaleup can be identified as being in the "growth phase" life-cycle in the , or the "Direction phase" in the . The importance of scaleups and the rise of their terminology according to the World Economic Forum is that, although not all startups make it big, the ones that do greatly impact society by means of new technology, services and increased employment.