Aroa Biosurgery CEO Brian Ward: IPO on the cards this year. Photo / Supplied
Aroa Biosurgery CEO Brian Ward: IPO on the cards this year. Photo / Supplied
The New Year holds new opportunities for these five local technology startups, each of which is poised major growth in 2020.
1. Aroa Biosurgery
High-tech wound-care company Aroa Biosurgery is gearing for a big capital raise this year.
The Auckland startup makes "Endoform" - a kind of artificial skin or"bioscaffold" that helps surgeons deal with serious tissue injuries. It treads quietly, but now employs 120 locally, and another 30 in the US through a product-development partnership with a US company.
Chief executive Brian Ward told the Herald the raise would be in the order of "tens of millions", and could come through a private round or a listing on the ASX or NZX.
Aroa made a maiden profit in 2019, which ward said was in the "single digit millions" on revenue that jumped 118 per cent to $24.2 million.
Ward saw revenue doubling again this year - which is good news for early investors who include Phil McCaw, Sir Stephen Tindall, Movac and the taxpayer via the NZ Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF).
Just before Christmas, Aroa made another step towards its major capital raise by appointing Australian John Diddams to its board.
Diddams is also a director of the Wellington-based, ASX-listed breast-screening software company Volpara, and Aroa chairman Jim Mclean was not shy of talking up the Australian's experience in managing secondary capital raisings and IPOs.
"Aroa continues to grow strongly and is considering its options for a possible IPO and capital raising in 2020, as it looks to grow to the next level of scale, consolidate its footprint in the US, broaden into other markets and introduce new products," Mclean said.
Parkable co-founder and chief executive Toby Littin. Photo / Dean Purcell
2. Parkable
"Airbnb for parking" startup Parkable got a strong vote of confidence toward the end of 2019 in the form of a $4.6m Series A round led by Spark, with Trade Me alumnus Rowan Simpson, former Vista executive Peter Beguely and early PushPay backer Jason Kilgour also chipping in.
The raise was at a $36m valuation, which Parkable will try to increase in 2020 as it builds on its early efforts to push into Australia and China.
When the Herald first caught up with Parkable in 2015, the three-man startup was using its app to list driveways and off-street parking spaces near Eden Park for an All Black test.
With its latest raise, it's looking to increase its headcount to 65. And while it still lets you rent out a spare carpark (or find one), it's point of difference its new enterprise product, which lets large organisations manage their carparks in terms of wrangling free spots for visitors or "hotdesking" spare spaces. Early clients for the enterprise product - which combines Parkables app with sensors mounted on each parking space - include Datacom, IAG and KPMG.
Today, Parkable has around 60,000 parking spaces on its books across Australia and New Zealand.
Co-founder and chief executive Toby Littin said the nascent move into China - through a joint-venture run by expats familiar with navigating the country's bureaucracy - had alrea
