New Zealand's ​9 Spokes after support for ASX listing

New Zealand-based cloud app integrator 9 Spokes is launching a roadshow in Melbourne and Sydney this week to drum up support for a AU$25 million listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

9 Spokes' platform allows small businesses to aggregate their various cloud computing applications on a single dashboard, helping them track and peer-review their performance more cheaply than a corporate ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. They also get a single bill that covers all subscriptions to apps transferred in, or purchased, through 9 Spokes.

The company recently built Deloitte Private's Connect cloud application platform.

Rumours of the planned IPO first surfaced in late 2015 when the company was holding investor meetings in a AU$4 million pre-IPO fundraising.

The company, founded in 2011 by Adrian Grant and current chief executive Mark Estall, wants to raise up to AU$25 million at 20 cents a share, valuing the business at AU$80 million.

The pre-IPO fundraising was priced at a 25 percent discount to the current offering.

Australian-based Foster Stockbroking, lead manager of the listing, said the company hopes to be trading on the ASX by May or June. A spokesman said they were unconcerned about high share prices for tech stocks being revalued downwards in recent months, saying "markets ebb and flow, and that's out of our control".

The money raised will help fund the company's international expansion plans.

9 Spokes has a number of international directors, including former Telecom New Zealand chief executive Paul Reynolds, who holds a small stake in the company, and former Walt Disney and Ticketmaster executive Wendy Webb, who is also an independent director of cloud-based software-as-a-service TV content provider TiVo.

The company plans to take its roadshow to New Zealand and Asia next week.

Meanwhile, Sky and Space Global (SSG) has secured AU$4.5 million in capital funding, in excess of the AU$4 million minimum raising amount that was required by the firm. The company is currently listed on the ASX via reverse takeover of Burleson Energy (BUR), which it plans to complete using the capital-raised funds.

BUR director Peter Wall added that the funding round will also help the company's push to launch and manage three nano-satellites to demonstrate an initial communication network.

"The achievement of this phase and those beyond should see significant value accretion for existing Burleson shareholders and these new investors," he said.

A general meeting of BUR shareholders will be held on April 1, 2016, for approval of the SSG acquisition.

9 Spokes and SSG are not alone in trying to drum up additional funding; in January, Zyber Secure Mobile Solutions raised AU$3 million during its first funding round since landing on the ASX at the end of last year via a backdoor listing of Perth-based Dourado Resources.

Similarly, technology and entertainment company MSM commenced trading on the ASX after successfully raising AU$7 million as part of a reverse takeover of Minerals Corporation.

Last September, Canadian firm Kabuni popped up on the ASX following a AU$7 million reverse takeover of Magnolia Resources, a mineral exploration company based in Perth. The client-and-designer-matching app's CEO and founder Neil Patel previously told ZDNet that his plan is to use the ASX listing to raise more funds before it can be listed on the Nasdaq.

Headquartered in New York's Times Square, cloud-based education software provider LiveTiles performed a reverse takeover in April of Perth's Modun Resources, a company which was previously involved in the acquisition, development, and mining of thermal and coking coal deposits in Mongolia.

At the same time, Hong Kong-based mobile games developer Animoca Brands found itself publicly listed in Australia in January following a reverse takeover of another Perth-based mineral exploration company Black Fire Minerals. Black Fire raised AU$2.4 million to fund the acquisition, and recommenced trading as Animoca Brands Corporation Limited.

With AAP