Family tracking app Life360 debuts up 11pcTech8 hoursago |...

Family tracking app Life360 debuts up 11pc

Tech

8 hoursago | Rachel Williamson

Familytracking app Life360 (ASX:360) has debuted up 11 per cent onits issue price at $5.31.

Thecompany’s flagship product is a smartphone app that provides information suchas where families members are, details on their driving performance includinghow fast and how quickly they brake, and even how close they might be to acrime scene.

The San Francisco-basedcompany operates what is called a “freemium” model, which means users cansubscribe for free but have to pay to unlock premium subscription options. Thecompany has a plan to offer products from third parties such as discounted carinsurance to its users as another way to make money.

Life360raised $145.43m by issuing CHESS Depository interests (CDIs) priced at $4.79each, for a market cap of $820m.

CDIs are aproxy for trading foreign shares on the ASX.

Thecompany says it’s added more than 2m monthly active users (MAU) since Decemberand had 20.6m MAU at the end of March, most of whom are in the US.

However,its accounts are still deep in the red.

Totalrevenue was $US32.1m in calendar 2018, of which about 23 per cent comes fromsharing anonymised user data with third parties, but it burned $US20.2m anddelivered a net loss of $US29.7m.

Life360has raised over $100m in five private funding rounds.

CEO Chris Hull says issues around selling and sharing user data to thirdparties is not as much of a problem for them as for, say, a Facebook, becausethey do so to provide value for their users.

We’refocused on using the data to provide value to our users,” he told *.

“Consumertrust is paramount.”

With an$818m market cap the company could have qualified for a listing on thetech-heavy NASDAQ bourse in the US.

But Hullsaid the ASX had “actively” pursued them so they made a decision betweenraising another round of money privately and a public listing in Australia.

He saidthey liked the long-term focus of investors here as well as the disciplineimposed by being a public company.