A smartphone advertising firm that received start-up funding from investors including Crown scheme NZVIF Investments and Stephen Tindall's K1W1 has collapsed.
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Postr Media was an ad-tech startup that sold white-label software to phone companies that wanted to sell ads on mobile phone lock screens. Just over a $1 million is owing to employees and trade creditors, the first liquidator's report said.
Liquidator Heath Gair said Postr's shareholders couldn't get any more funding, and, while the company was moved into liquidation on April 2, covid-19 was not why the Wellington-headquartered business went under.
Same outcome
"I understand that covid-19 was not the cause of the liquidation. However, given the nature of the service provided, it would have in all likelihood led to the same outcome," Gair said in an emailed response to BusinessDesk questions.
"Part of the trading difficulty was that some contracts required a higher level of consumer uptake before profitability than the company was able to achieve," he added.
According to previous company statements, investors had sunk $5.7 million into the company at September 2018. This included the NZVIF, K1W1 and angel investor James Sweetbaum in New Zealand, as well as Singaporean angel investor Koh Boon Hwee and MDI Ventures. It had also been awarded more than $350,000 in Callaghan Grants.
Gair said that only three people were employed at the time the company went under, although the firm had employees at other subsidiaries and contractors through an overseas call centre. Postr had 25 employees in September 2018.
The liquidator said it had not quantified the firm's intellectual property or customer lists but it had $154,000 in receivables outstanding. It won't try to collect the money until covid-19 lockdown restrictions lift.
Negative effect
"Unfortunately, the virus will have a negative effect on accounts receivable collection and the value of the intangible assets. The bulk of the company's debtors are based overseas in industries and economies that will be devastated by the outbreak."
The report says $44,000 is owing to employees, while $1.02 million is owing to trade creditors, and there is a $46,000 shareholder loan.
Postr had several global partners including Indonesia's Telkomsel, Germany's Telefonica and Portugal's Altice.
The company's original founder, former advertising creative Milan Reinartz, did not respond to BusinessDesk's request for comment. Current chief executive William Ku, who has been in the role for about a year, said he did not have board approval to talk.
(BusinessDesk)