£18m fundraising launched by South Yorkshire big data firm
BIG data firm WANdisco plans to raise £18m from a share placing to fund its growth plans.
On Monday the Sheffield-based firm announced it has enjoyed a good final quarter of the year as it continues to build strong momentum for its big data products. Sales were up 8% to $4.7m (£3.1m) in the last three months of 2014 as the full-year reached sales of $17.4m (£11.5m).
It is targeting institutional investors with a non-pre-emptive placing, to reduce the cost and time involved. The 4,798,859 new ordinary shares at 375 pence per share will raise £18m, reduced to about £16.5m after expenses, and will represent 19.6% of the existing share capital.
The company believes that its sales momentum has occurred at the same time as an acceleration of Big Data market growth, which has resulted in an increasing shift from customers – such as British Gas – undergoing proof of concept trials to live installations.
David Richards, WANdisco’s chief executive officer, said: “The sales success we have recently seen, particularly in the most recent quarter, has emboldened our view of the Big Data opportunity open to us and of our ability to win in that marketplace.
“Our pipeline of opportunities has continued to grow, helped by increasing customer understanding of our products, the problems those products can solve and the ever increasing importance of data availability to enterprises of all shapes and size. The funds sought today will help us to push ahead with our growth plans.”
WANdisco has so far been loss making, with the investment planned to boost sales and marketing capabilities as well as product development.
