Proxama, the recently AIM-listed m-commerce company majoring in NFC (Near Field Communications) technology has announced a successful placing to raise £8.6m. This was done at a deep, 41% discount to the share price, with the placing shares now representing over 40% of the issued share capital. Nonetheless, this is a handsome amount of cash for a company that generated revenue of less than £350k and pre-tax losses of £1.35m in the six months to end June.
An investment in Proxama is all about the massive potential of NFC technology in payments (TechMarketView Subscribers can see our report, Setting the Scene for Mobile Banking, here). Proxama has a different angle, its TapPoint platform making mobile wallets much more useful by enabling the mobile phone to read NFC tags attached to adverts or in stores. These enable the user to learn about the product, access vouchers and offers and to purchase it using funds in his/her mobile wallet.
Proxama has already won contracts to provide an NFC solution for ISIS, the mobile commerce joint venture in the US linking AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless and a global agreement with CBS Outdoor to add NFC tags to their adverts. Closer to home, Proxama worked with our Little British Battler, Paythru, to provide an innovative “Tap and Donate” option for this year’s Royal British Legion appeal and they are now working together to explore other opportunities to link payments to the back end of user journeys initiated by NFC tags. Read the LBB Paythru comment here.
Mobile commerce is growing strongly, and the Proxama tag can significantly boost the appeal of mobile wallets. It may well be that the institutions that took part in the placing have got themselves a bargain!