Mobi2Go Accepts Investment
We are pleased to announce that Punakaiki Fund portfolio company Mobi2Go has closed a $5 million investment round with Movac, a fellow (and larger) New Zealand venture capital fund.
From the Press Release
Mobi2Go, a leader in digital ordering and engagement solutions for hospitality, announced today a $5m round of new investment to further accelerate the company’s already impressive growth and product development. Founder and CEO Tarik Mallett says the funding “is further validation of the efforts over the last 12 months to build the foundations for scale and the investment will allow us to continue to build on existing international growth, and to scale out our operations and enterprise features, as larger brands move to adopt the Mobi2Go Platform.”Mobi2Go powers the digital ordering and engagement for a growing number of Australasia’s most respected hospitality brands, including Burger Fuel, Pita Pit, Tank Juice, Mad Mex, Sumo Salad and Little Caesars Pizza. Mallett says “Our clients love the flexibility of Mobi2Go and in most cases are driving at least 20% of their revenue through Mobi2Go within three to six months of launching.
Mobi2Go allows both large and small hospitality businesses anywhere in the world to offer innovative, integrated and branded ordering solutions to their customers without large upfront costs or specialised expertise. Now with some serious fuel in the tank we are excited to be able to take things to the next level.”
Read the full press release
This is the third company, after Vend and Timely, in which Movac has made an investment following on from an earlier Punakaiki Fund investment. While we hold a relatively small share of Timely and Vend, we hold a much more substantial share of Mobi2Go as we were able to place over $2 million in funding at a relatively early stage in their growth. Our funding allowed Mobi2Go to hire staff and build their product and revenue, growing their valuation substantially.
Our current holding valuation for Mobi2Go will not materially change following this announcement, as we have known about this pending investment for quite a few months and revalued the holding as this information became clear. It is notable, however, that our previous cross-check valuation based on Mobi2Go’s recent operating metrics was, and still is, a lot lower than the valuation for this transaction. I hasten to add that Mobi2Go’s recent progress and near term customer pipeline should easily justify the valuation received and that Chris and I would very much have liked for Punakaiki Fund to be able to make this substantial investment. But if we couldn’t make the investment, we are almost as happy that Movac was able to.
Punakaiki Fund participated in this investment through our late-2018 $200,000 convertible note, which converted directly into shares with the same rights and benefits as the new shares issued to Movac. Punakaiki Fund now owns 16.12% of Mobi2Go’s shares, which we expect to be diluted over time through a share option scheme for employees. Movac holds 21.4% for their $5 million investment, which, to save you the mathematics, would value our shareholding at $3.8 million.
We are very happy for Tarik Mallett and the team at Mobi2Go, and looking forward to their continued growth in staff, revenue and value over the next few years. We regard Vend, Timely, Raygun and now Mobi2Go as PFL “graduates”, and are very content to watch from the sidelines as they continue their fantastic growth stories.
