CricHQ - IPO?

[steve fleming]

I guess it is appropriate I post this!




CricHQ seeks capital raise ahead of potential 2015 listing, CEO say






CricHQ, a privately held New Zealand social media platform for the cricket community, is seeking to raise NZD 6m (USD 5.2m) for product development and international roll out, particularly in India, ahead of an initial public offering (IPO), CEO Simon Baker. He spoke at the Wholesale Investor Conference in Sydney on Friday.

The company was founded by former New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming, current captain Brendon McCullum, together with entrepreneur Simon Baker.

CriCHQ has hired financial advisory firm Global Investment Partners to assist with the capital raising, said CFO Andrew Dalziel. Its pre-money IPO valuation is NZD 19.4m (USD 16.8m), equating to NZD 12 a share, Barker said. It hopes to close a deal by 31 May, he added.

It is considering listing at the end of this year or in early 2015 on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) or the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NSX), Dalziel noted. CriCHQ is also talking to second tier firms in New Zealand to appoint an advisor to handle a potential IPO, he added.

The company is seeking investment mainly from high net worth individuals, Dalziel said. It is not looking for strategic investors or private equity firms at this stage, he said.

Funds will be used for product development and accelerate its expansion in India. CriCHQ is also looking at increasing its sales, focusing on marketing and brand awareness capabilities and hiring more staff, he said.

Founded in Wellington, New Zealand, the company has 90 staff across eight offices in India, USA, Australia, UK, South Africa and Sri Lanka. It has over 20 international shareholders.

CricHQ is a social media platform providing cricket live scoring, live feeds and notifications designed for players and cricket fans globally.



by Silvia Garcia in Sydney, mergermarket.com

[blackcap]

Interesting. Have not really heard of them. I wonder if cricinfo are a competitor or collaborator? With 90 staff though they are a reasonably sized company it seems.

[muss1]

Interesting. Have not really heard of them. I wonder if cricinfo are a competitor or collaborator? With 90 staff though they are a reasonably sized company it seems.

Their niche is mainly club cricket etc that cricinfo doesn't cover. So there is definitely a large market for them.

I play club cricket in Wellington and we have been using it for the last 2 years instead of a scorebook. Cricket Wellington gave each club an ipad so they could score with it rather than having to enter the results online after the game. It also means you can follow the live scores online if the scorer is on the internet.

The scoring app is great and easy to use. It is also great to have access to your stats online. They have various features rating players in your competition (most wickets, run, MVP) against each other.

However, there is a lot of work to be done on the website before it becomes easy to use. The app is also pretty poor for the non-living scoring side of things. Another annoyance is that trying to follow club cricket becomes difficult because you have to wade through all the games where young johnny has stolen mums ipad and uploaded his BYC game.

It has huge potential once they sort their product out a little more. They are continually upgrading it however, so hopefully not too far away. I would like to see that before they seek rapid expansion into India etc. Hopefully the above is useful from a user point of view

[blackcap]

Their niche is mainly club cricket etc that cricinfo doesn't cover. So there is definitely a large market for them.

I play club cricket in Wellington and we have been using it for the last 2 years instead of a scorebook. Cricket Wellington gave each club an ipad so they could score with it rather than having to enter the results online after the game. It also means you can follow the live scores online if the scorer is on the internet.

The scoring app is great and easy to use. It is also great to have access to your stats online. They have various features rating players in your competition (most wickets, run, MVP) against each other.

However, there is a lot of work to be done on the website before it becomes easy to use. The app is also pretty poor for the non-living scoring side of things. Another annoyance is that trying to follow club cricket becomes difficult because you have to wade through all the games where young johnny has stolen mums ipad and uploaded his BYC game.

It has huge potential once they sort their product out a little more. They are continually upgrading it however, so hopefully not too far away. I would like to see that before they seek rapid expansion into India etc. Hopefully the above is useful from a user point of view

Cheers muss1. This seems very similar to something my club used when I was playing cricket in Holland during 2010. We had an online scoring system as well (using an i-phone or similar) that worked very well. I know it made scoring a doddle and meant that anyone could score. Im glad that there is a market out there for such a product and really hope this company can make a fist of things. I know with the online scoring it also helps so much as opposed to paper based scoring and also omits a lot of errors that can inadvertently be made with the pen and paper method. Also (a big plus) it keeps tabs on how much your batsmen have scored as they go along rather than having to keep adding it up as they approach their milestones.

[macduffy]

Yes, I'm told that the iPad scoring system is widely used in junior cricket in Wellington. Not so many old time scorebook types among today's mums and dads, I guess! All good reports, I gather, other than the hassle in deducting the five runs compensated for an " out but not out" on the first ball received in certain age groups.

[Harvey Specter]

I play club cricket in Wellington and we have been using it for the last 2 years instead of a scorebook. Cricket Wellington gave each club an ipad so they could score with it rather than having to enter the results online after the game. It also means you can follow the live scores online if the scorer is on the internet.A few, non-investment related questions just out of general interest:

Do you still have two scorers - one for each team? And to they sync such that errors are highlighted or would it be two different scorebooks.

Do you know the cost. Seems like a huge market with alot of small, but recurring income.

Is it avaliable on lower cost Android tablets - something that would be important for the indian market I would think.

Do players have profiles such that their stats can be tracked from season to season as they move through the ranks and different teams/clubs/grades/rep teams etc? At some stage this historical data could become valuable.

[muss1]

A few, non-investment related questions just out of general interest:

Do you still have two scorers - one for each team? And to they sync such that errors are highlighted or would it be two different scorebooks.

Do you know the cost. Seems like a huge market with alot of small, but recurring income.

Is it avaliable on lower cost Android tablets - something that would be important for the indian market I would think.

Do players have profiles such that their stats can be tracked from season to season as they move through the ranks and different teams/clubs/grades/rep teams etc? At some stage this historical data could become valuable.

Yes - two scorers still (at prems level anyway don't know about lower grades, but I don't think it's caught on as well). Uploading the scores at the end of the game can be an issue if the game is scored manually. If one team is using the app then you just need to check its correct as you go like normal scoring - no syncing with each other.

Not sure of the cost. I believe cricket Wellington must pay to have their competitions hosted by crichq. I don't think there is a cost to the club.

I think it is - a quick search of the android store would confirm.

Yes all historical data is stored (from when the competition started using crichq). You can see which level a player played in a season and their stats. It's grouped by season currently and not lifetime.

I think you can just browse the website without needing a profile etc