Software company Checkit is planning a major equity raise to help expand in North America and boost trade with firms in the deskless worker sector.
The ‘intelligent operations’ business hopes to raise around £21million from offering shares to investors at 46p each, a modest discount to the group’s closing share price on Thursday.
Up to £10million will go towards sales and marketing, including £2million to £3million on marketing in the United States, with most of the remaining £11million being spent developing products, such as smart buildings technology.
Technology provider: Software company Checkit is planning a major equity raise to help expand in North America and boost trade with firms in the deskless worker sector
In the short term, Checkit aims to double its annual recurring revenue (ARR) on the way to eventually earning £100million per year, partly by transitioning to being a wholly software-as-a-service business.
It revealed that it has already more than quintupled its sales pipeline since the start of the year to £13.2million, thanks to strong demand from its existing clients.
Based in Cambridge, Checkit offers technology focused on boosting productivity and monitoring the progress of employees and assets in industries with high levels of ‘deskless’ jobs.
Current customers, which the business said number more than 500, include big companies such as French food services group Sodexo, Center Parcs and petroleum giant BP, and organisations like the National Health Service.
The software provider thinks the potential for expansion is significant as the majority of firms still use paper and other manual processes in their work, and this can result in what it calls ‘dark operations.’
Checkit defines the term to be when a ‘large proportion of operations are hidden from view, making it difficult for managers to measure productivity and identify risks and opportunities within their business’.
Raison d’etre: Checkit offers technology focused on boosting the productivity and monitoring the progress of employees and assets in ‘deskless’ sectors like healthcare and hospitality
Around 2.7 billion people are employed in the deskless workforce worldwide, according to business management consultancy Quinyx, which is about four-fifths of the entire global labour force.
Digitising this industry would, Checkit suggests, lead to lower costs, greater efficiency and enable companies to better track and enhance the performance of their employees and assets.
The firm estimates that around £570billion could be potentially spent on technology by the deskless work sector to strengthen its operations, and it could potentially grab a 5 per cent share, or £27billion, of that market.
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It said its ‘platform is designed to make pen and paper obsolete by providing deskless workers with the technology they need. By optimising and automating business’ operational performance levels, it can help customers evolve and expand through improved efficiency.’
Bosses at Checkit also believe it is well-placed to benefit from a ‘large, fragmented market’ as its competitors offer a more limited product offering.
They want to expand the group’s reach into four other sectors – logistics, manufacturing, education and construction – to add to its presence in hospitality, retail and healthcare.
‘By evolving both the product and the go-to-market functions, there are significant expansion opportunities across these adjacent industries,’ the firm remarked.
‘In this context, the company has identified a number of areas in which it believes it can continue to accelerate growth in order to capture market share as well as enhance its products to maintain market position and further grow its customer base.’
Checkit’s share price closed trading 2.1 per cent lower at 47p on Friday.
