Perth technology entrepreneur Kashif Saleem has begun a seed capital raising for his award-winning Track’em business ahead of a planned ASX listing by the end of the year.
The planned listing will tap into growing investor interest in the technology sector, a trend evidenced by the listing today of Alcidion Group (see more below).
Mr Saleem has hired GCP Advisory (part of West Perth-based GCP Capital Group) to assist with the capital raisings, which will start with $1 million of seed capital.
Plans are still being developed for the listing, which could be structured as either a ‘backdoor’ reverse takeover or a ‘frontdoor’ initial public offering.
The proceeds will be used to support sales and marketing of the company’s asset management software along with development of new software products.
Mr Saleem, who was a 40under40 award winner in 2014, said the Track’em software had been used on 45 projects in Australia and South Africa, with clients including John Holland, Monadelphous Group, Hertel, McConnell Dowell, and CPB Contractors (formerly Leighton Contractors).
“The momentum is huge, we are struggling to keep up,” he said.
Mr Saleem said the company was receiving inquiries from potential customers around the globe, even though it had spent nothing on international marketing and had no dedicated sales staff.
He believes the current market, where companies are looking for efficiency savings, made it an ideal time to promote Track’em.
In one example, a client spent $180,000 implementing Track’em and saved $2.9 million in efficiencies.
Mr Saleem said his software was more advanced than typical bar-code tracking packages.
“The uniqueness comes from how easy it is to capture the data and how we link it to the analytics,” he said.
The scaleable, cloud-based software can be implemented in one day, and customised to integrate with ERP systems.
The analytics and 3D visuals gave clients much greater control over their assets, Mr Saleem said.
He said his company was able to assist clients with implementation, often starting with a pilot project to demonstrate its suitability.
“The biggest challenge is getting information into the system,” Mr Saleem said.
“There is no point having the system if you don’t put the right information into it.”
He said other software products being developed by his company included Time’em, which could be used by companies doing maintenance work or shutdowns to track the time spent by workers on different tasks.
Store’em was being developed for use in warehousing while Transport’em was for supply chain and logistics management.
Mr Saleem established his development company, Saleem Technologies, in 2006.
The Track’em product was the overall winner of the Western Australia Innovator of the Year award in 2015.
Mr Saleem said he chose to work with GCP Advisory chairman Anthony Short because he had a good understanding of the business.
“He understood what we are trying to so, and he put together a really good strategy,” he said.
“It’s not just raising money, it’s what you do with it and what you plan to do next.”
Meanwhile, health informatics company Alcidion Corporation, backed by 40under40 winner Nathan Buzza, commenced trading on the ASX today after completing a reverse takeover of Perth-based Naracoota Resources.
Alcidion raised $2 million in new equity ahead of the listing at 3.1 cents per share, and closed today at 5.6 cents per share.
The $2 million raising was on top of money previously injected by Blue Sky Private Equity and Mr Buzza’s Allure Capital.
Alcidion’s Miya software was designed to provide advanced clinical decision support for clinicians and care teams and its products are used for emergency departments, patient flow and outpatient services.
It also provides hospital executives with bed management and resource allocation services from the real time, point-of-care flow of patient data.
Miya is live in several sites, including three Western Health hospitals in Victoria. Alcidion has also secured contracts with the Departments of Health in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Alcidion was founded by former chairman and CEO of the SA Health Commission, Ray Blight, and associate dean of health informatics at the University of Adelaide Medical School Malcolm Pradhan.
Blue Sky Private Equity invested $2 million in Alcidion in 2012 to help fund the development of the Miya platform.
The private equity manager led a second $1.5 million funding round in 2015 alongside Allure Capital and the Alcidion co-founders.
Mr Buzza, who is an executive director at Alcidion, said its ambitious US strategy had the potential to make the company a $100 million business.
“Obamacare means hospitals have to prove they are investing in technology like Miya, otherwise they will be penalised,” he said.
“Add this incentive to the rising costs of healthcare, which technology can help to alleviate, and it is a very good time to be in health informatics.”
Alcidion co-founder Ray Blight said South Australia’s sophisticated capability in health, medical, nursing and surgical research, coupled with that of its three universities, meant technology SMEs in Adelaide could leverage a local eHealth ecosystem with great economic development prospects.
“The listing shows other South Australian businesses in the eHealth space, and their collaboration partners that they have the potential to become very successful global operations,” he said.
