Education software company LiveTiles raises AU$12m and lists via reverse takeover

Cloud-based education software provider, LiveTiles has listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after a successful capital raising of AU$12 million.

The listing follows a reverse takeover in April of Perth-based Modun Resources, a company which was previously involved in the acquisition, development, and mining of thermal and coking coal deposits in Mongolia.

Headquarted in New York, LiveTiles' Australian office is in Melbourne, with a third office in Richland, Washington State.

"This listing on the ASX sets up LiveTiles to expand to the next stage of its development," non-executive chairman of LiveTiles, Mike Hill said. "The opportunities for growth of the LiveTiles business are really exciting."

LiveTiles Mosaic, the company's kindergarten to year 12 education product, deploys on top of Microsoft's cloud collaboration platforms.

"We are now moving to accelerate our growth opportunities with partners like Microsoft," CEO and co-founder Karl Redenbach said.

"Our core product is an add-on software tool to Microsoft SharePoint, which has an estimated 200 million users, so we have a very large addressable market to pursue.

"In the short to medium term, we will focus on increasing market penetration with existing and new customers through increased sales and marketing, grow our sales team and fund the development of new products."

In August, LiveTiles completed the sale of the Nuurst coal asset it acquired as part of the Modun transaction, which generated approximately AU$2 million in net earnings.

The AU$12 million raised, which includes the sale of Nuurst, as well as AU$11 million in capital, will be applied towards ongoing product development and expansion of LiveTiles sales and marketing activities, the company said.

Since April, LiveTiles said it has added 43 new commercial customers including European football governing body UEFA, Pepsico, and the Canadian Olympic Committee.

As of August 31, 2015, LiveTiles also had a total of 86 partners, a 36 percent increase since announcing the reverse takeover. The company said it is focused on growing its global partner network for FY2016. In the same timeframe, LiveTiles Mosaic has also been deployed on an additional 190 schools and school districts, which has seen its total school base exceed 2,400.

"LiveTiles is currently exploring opportunities to deploy Mosaic at the department of education or school district level in a number of markets," the company said.