Microequities backs New Zealand's Fergus
Microequities Venture Capital Fund, a vehicle set up by Equity Venture Partners and Microequities Asset Management, has invested A$3.5 million ($2.7 million) in New Zealand software company Fergus.
Founded in 2011 by veteran tradesman Dan Pollard, Fergus specializes in job management services for plumbers, electricians and other trade businesses. The company is said to promote business growth by freeing up time, reducing paperwork and streamlining back-end inefficiencies. It claims to have thousands of users across Australasia.
"Customers are telling us that Fergus has become a critical aspect to their own ability to manage their businesses," Howard Leibman, founder of Equity, said in a statement. "We're certain that Fergus has developed the best job management product for the mid-market trades sector and we look forward to working with Dan and the team to help establish a dominant market position in Australia and beyond."
Adoption of the service to date is said to be primarily driven by word of mouth. The fresh capital will be used for sales and marketing with a view to extend the customer base outside of Australia and New Zealand. The company has reportedly tracked some preliminary uptake in the UK and US markets.
Microequities Venture Capital was launched last year with a target corpus of A$20 million. The technology-focused fund is expected to concentrate largely on software-as-a-service providers, making deployments of A$100,000 to A$3 million for stakes of up to 50% to be held over 5-10 year horizons. It is targeting return rates of at least 25% per annum.
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