New Zealand-based technology company VMob is using a reverse listing on to the NZAX to target the large Asian markets with its location-based mobile consumer businesses.
Shareholders in shell company Velo Capital last week approved the reverse takeover, accepting the tech start-up's plan to grow its revenue base to $16.6 million by 2014-15 by clipping the advertising ticket through its discount voucher offering.
The deal will pay $100,000 in cash and issue 609 million shares at 0.7c each for VMob, valuing the voucher app firm at $4.36 million, within WHK's valuation range of $3.52 million to $5.6 million.
VMob chief executive Scott Bradley told the Otago Daily Times smartphone users could download an app and see the deals offered around them, usually gender and location-specific.
"We looked at our intellectual property and technology and decided it would have huge value to telcos who could target their customer base."
In Asia, mobile companies offered loyalty programmes to retain their customers and stop them "churning" to other companies, he said.
If someone spent $100 on the network, they would be rewarded with a free lunch using one of the voucher deals sent to a smartphone.
VMob was working with telecommunications companies in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia and India.
It had signed memorandums of understanding with two large telcos and expected to have seven signed up by the end of next year.
In Indonesia, smartphone users often used four or five SIM cards on prepay phones to get the best calling, data and text rates at certain times, Mr Bradley said.
The companies knew nothing about their customers. But with the VMob technology, the voucher deals would allow them to understand their customers slightly better.
In the United Kingdom, 10 million of O2's customers opted into a rewards programme.
VMob hosted the technology in the cloud so companies could deploy the loyalty programme with no capital expenditure.
After 90 days, VMob could write out a cheque to the telco companies after taking its own share of the revenue, he said.
The programme asked customers to opt in to receive the offers by mobile.
If they logged on through Facebook, the telco companies would know the age, gender and some interests of the person signing up.
That would allow them to target the deals to location and gender.
"You won't get a deal in Dunedin if you are in Auckland and they will know if you like burgers and beer or fashion."
Mr Bradley described himself as a "serial entrepreneur", returning home to New Zealand two years ago after 10 years in the UK where he ran an energy trading company.
The reverse listing would give the company credibility when it approached investors, he said.
"We are an early stage company but we felt it is the right thing to do.
"When we talk to big telcos in Asia, a small start-up from New Zealand would find it hard to get through the door. But a publicly listed company raises our profile."
The company would also have a wider range of avenues from which to raise capital.
It was subject to the continuous disclosure rules of the NZX and the other requirements of a listed company.
"It is not right for everyone, but it's right for us," Mr Bradley said.
