Other Levels IPO

This one looks very interesting indeed. Super Board and business plans. US based but Australian Backed. Fully Underwritten one as well. Possibly all the stock would have been spoken for. Cheers

Steve Baxter backed OtherLevels seeks $7.5m to ramp up marketing
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Steve Baxter backed OtherLevels seeks $7.5m to ramp up marketing
OtherLevels founder and chief technology officer Brendan O'Kane said that while he had international ambitions for the company, he hoped building a local investor base would help maintain its Australian heritage. Photo: Brendan O’Kane
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Mobile marketing business OtherLevels has lodged a prospectus to raise up to $7.5 million through a listing on the ASX after the Australian entrepreneurs behind the San Francisco based start-up found it was an easier path to funding than trying to tap venture capital markets in the United States.
The company's second-largest shareholder and director Steve Baxter, who has been appearing on Network 10 reality business show Shark Tank said the US start-up market was overflowing.
"Everybody thinks the streets of Silicon Valley are lined with gold until they actually go there to try and raise money and realise how crowded the market is," Mr Baxter said.
Mr Baxter said he first invested in the loss-making company shortly after it launched in early 2012, because he was impressed by the technical expertise and sales and marketing skills of the founders.
OtherLevels founder and chief technology officer Brendan O'Kane said that while he had international ambitions for the company, he hoped building a local investor base would help maintain its Australian heritage.
"I am very proud that in less than two years we have built a business that derives 80 per cent of revenue from offshore. There are plans in train to expand the San Francisco and London sales teams, but our technical teamis still based in Brisbane and we plan to keep it that way, " Mr O'Kane said.
"Atlassian and Campaign Monitor have both shown it is possible to build a global technology out of Australia. There is no shortage of well-educated and very capable engineers here."
OtherLevels describes itself as a "second generation digital marketing company". It is targeting big enterprises that are shifting more of their marketing budgets away from email and towards mobile campaigns. OtherLevels distributes marketing via text and app messaging services.
The company runs a software as a service business model, selling annual licenses with pricing bundles based on the number of messages tracked.
Clients include Sega and Intercontinental Hotels Group, Tatts Group and Coles. Monthly revenue in December was$184,121. The renewal rate for customers in 2014 was 90 per cent.
The IPO is set to raise a minimum of $6 million at 20 per share, with the capacity to take up to $7.5 million in new equity valuing the loss-making company at $31.5 million. The deal is fully underwritten by lead broker Select Equities. If the offer is successful the shares are scheduled to begin trading on March 30.
OtherLevels is Mr O'Kane's first start-up, although he is an experienced investor in early stage tech companies. Previous ventures Mr O'Kane has backed include parenting website KidSpot, which sold to News Corp and SMS provider Blue Sky Frog, which sold to Vodafone.
Like Mr O'Kane, OtherLevels chairman Brian Mitchell and San Francisco based chief executive Ramsey Masri are also former Oracle executives.
Mr Baxter first made his wealth in the 1990s as the founder of early internet service provider SE Net, which sold to OzEmail. He then founded wholesale telco PIPE Networks, which went public before being taken over by TPG Telecom. He was the main investor behind Indoor SkyDive Group Australia, which was the top-performing Australian IPO of 2013.
Mr Baxter also currently sits on the board of Vocus Communications.Other Levels IPO