Australia virtual data room provider gets $18.5m
Australia’s Ellerston Capital has led a A$24 million ($18.5 million) Series A round for Ansarada, a domestic business services company that provides virtual data rooms and artificial intelligence-enabled due diligence.
Ellerston invested via its first fund dedicated to private company investments, Ellerston Ventures, which was launched in 2016 with a target of A$30 million. Other participants in the round included Tempus Partners, Belay Capital, and Australian Ethical Investment. The capital will be used for technology development as well as the hiring of sales and customer support staff.
Ansarada uses machine learning technology to organize business information and optimize a range of transactional process for corporate clients such as Google and Sony. Services include support around M&A, fundraising, and IPO activities. It claims to have informed more than 20,000 business transactions since 2005.
“The language an investor or buyer speaks is not the language a company tends to structure their data under,” Sam Riley, co-founder and CEO of Ansarada, said, according to The Australian Financial Review. “Risks get discovered way too late, after a transaction is under way, and it can cost business owners a lot of time, stress and money.”
The company claimed revenue and after-tax profit reached A$31 million and A$1.2 million, respectively for 2016-17. Revenue is projected to surpass A$40 million in 2017-18.
About half of Ansarada's income is generated from overseas activities. Its Asian presence includes offices in Hong Kong and Vietnam. It also operates via bases in the US, UK, Netherlands, Germany and South Africa.
Founded in 2007, Ellerston invests across various market-neutral and private equity strategies encompassing direct public equity and managed fund investments, as well as early-stage venture capital partnerships. It claims to have about $5 billion in funds under management across separately managed accounts, wholesale funds, and retail vehicles for institutional and individual investors.
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