Building a Robust Business in Australia: Investorist CEO Jon Ellis (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: In 2016, have you raised more money?

Jon Ellis: We’re about to. We’re just raising now. We opened on Tuesday. We received a commitment from shareholders already for $3 million, and we intend to raise $7 million.

Sramana Mitra: What does that mean? Is this some sort of a stock exchange in Australia?

Jon Ellis: Because of the way we have structured our company, all shareholders have ordinary class shares. It’s still a private company owned by shareholders. Those shareholders have the first right to purchase more shares if they want to. If they’ve exhausted their allocation, then they can invite other people in the market.

Sramana Mitra: Is this on some sort of a platform?

Jon Ellis: No, it’s a private placement.

Sramana Mitra: Are you doing the same thing again? Are you raising money from your customers?

Jon Ellis: Yes, we are. We did the same thing last time. We invited a couple of experienced technology investors.

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. Your geographies right now are Australia, UK, China, and US.

Jon Ellis: In Australia, we have our head office in Melbourne. Then we have offices in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth. That covers the four states of Australia. We have an office in London and in Singapore.

Sramana Mitra: Where is the bulk of the business from?

Jon Ellis: The bulk is still from Australia. UK just broke even for the first time ever in February. They’re heading in the right direction. We just opened our first office in America in Miami this month.

Sramana Mitra: What is your monthly revenue run rate right now?

Jon Ellis: We’ll probably do AUD 400,000 this month. Our approach to our business is a little bit different. We have a bottom-up model. We work on fairly lean market penetration rate. We haven’t looked at any market and said, “We’re going to get 100% of the market.” We’re about 9% of the Australian market now. At our current absorption rate, we believe that we’ll get to about 30% of the Australian market in two years time. We’d love to get to 50% but we’re forecasting 30% in just selling data products.

Sramana Mitra: What happens to the company in the way you are thinking about it? Do you then take the company public in the Australian stock exchange somehow?

Jon Ellis: That is our hope. We’re planning, in three years, to look towards an IPO.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Building a Robust Business in Australia: Investorist CEO Jon Ellis
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