Billionaire Melbourne investor Alex Waislitz and BRW Rich Lister Rod Jones are among those backing the ASX listing of an American technology company.
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The company, Updater, specialises in home relocations, arranging the forwarding of mail, updating of accounts and records and organising other relocation logistics, via a centralised online platform.
It will list on the ASX on Monday after raising $22 million from Australian investors for a market capitalisation of $85 million.
Founder and chief executive David Greenberg said Updater commanded about 2 per cent of the US home relocation market and hoped that would rise to 5 per cent by the end of 2016.
"We have spent five years building relationships and the technology infrastructure to enable that growth and it's just starting to grow really quickly for us now," he said.
That traction attracted Mr Waislitz.
"We thought Updater was a unique opportunity to invest in a highly scalable US business at a stage when it is typically only available to US venture capital firms, and such companies are usually only available to the public markets when the valuation is much larger." Mr Waislitz said.
Other investors include Hoperidge Enterprises – the family office of Mr Jones who is ranked 170 on the BRW Rich List – K2 Asset Management and Antony Catalano, the chief executive of Fairfax Media's real estate business, Domain. (Fairfax is the owner of BusinessDay and The Australian Financial Review).
Although the company is listing on the ASX, it won't sell any products in Australia, preserving itself for the US.
Mr Greenberg said the goal was to become a Nasdaq-listed company, but it was too small to join the stock exchange, which was dominated by technology companies including Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.
"Long term, we do want to be Nasdaq-listed company. Our goal is to be a business that dominates its industry . . . and we believe that listing on the ASX at this stage is an optimal pathway to achieve that," Mr Greenberg said.
Updater will list on the ASX via Chess Depositary Interests (CDIs), which allow international companies to trade on the local stock exchange.
It will be priced at 20¢ a CDI, 25 of which will equate to one share of the company's common stock.
Moelis & Co and Euroz Securities were the co-lead managers for the float.
