http://www.smh.com.au/business/ex-m...le-tech-firm-in-adelaide-20160210-gmqdot.html
Ex Microsoft exec opens arm of Seattle tech firm in Adelaide
February 12, 2016 - 6:29AM
A Seattle-based technology firm with backers including Microsoft and an investment fund established by United States singer Lady Gaga and her former manager has set up an Australian office in Adelaide.
Buddy Platform, a company which provides data storage and analysis for connected devices and sensors in cars, dishwashers, light bulbs, door locks and washing machines, says Adelaide has an advantage being away from the main population centres.
"We have a hiring advantage. Software engineers can really be based anywhere," chief executive and founder David McLauchlan said.
Buddy Platform listed on the Australian Securities Exchange on December 29, through a backdoor listing of battling resources firm Potash Minerals.
Mr McLauchlan worked for the past 15 years in Seattle, first for Microsoft and then branched out by forming Buddy Platform in 2011. He stayed close to Microsoft by being an advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the fund set up by the computing billionaire to help fund education and health projects around the world.
Mr McLauchlan was born in Adelaide and grew up in the north-eastern suburbs of the city. "I left when I was 24 to join Microsoft," he said.
Buddy's data management platform collects, processes and secures real-time data from the devices and sensors in the objects and machines that have previously not been connected to the internet. Known as the internet of things it is viewed by experts as one of the biggest growth areas in IT as companies use the raw data for commercial applications.
"This is the third wave of the internet. It's absolutely huge," Mr McLauchlan said.
The first wave was the web itself along with email, the next was mobiles, and the internet of things has commercial applications in industries such as aviation, robotics, consumer electronics and transport which seek to store, analyse and use the data as people use equipment and machines.
South Australian Minister for Investment and Trade Martin Hamilton-Smith said Buddy Platform was expected to create up to 30 new jobs. He said the investment was helped along by the new state government investment attraction agency set up in October, 2015.
Mr McLauchlan said Buddy Platform is operating from an office in Adelaide's main thoroughfare, King William St, and he expects the Australian workforce will soon be larger than the office in Seattle, a city where there is fierce competition for software engineers.
He said there are about 300,000 "Cloud" developers in the Seattle precinct alone. Microsoft and AF Square, an investment fund set up by Lady Gaga and her former manager Troy Carter were early investors in Buddy Platform.
Buddy Platform has just appointed a former chief financial officer of Coopers Brewery, John van Ruth, to its board.
Mr Hamilton-Smith, a former South Australian Liberal leader, has been a minister in the Labor Government of South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill since May, 2014 after he stunned political circles by defecting from the Liberals, infuriating senior Liberals including Federal frontbencher Christopher Pyne, who labelled him a traitor.
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