Equitise, an equity crowdfunding startup that was founded in Australia and part of the first Australasian Wealth Investment Limited's (AWI) Ventures Program intake announced this morning that it had acquired New Zealand based startup Rabble for an undisclosed sum.
Equitise officially launched its service at the end of January 2015. Although the team would describe the company as a trans-tasman play, there is a clear focus right now on the New Zealand market right now. Its first raise, for mobile technology and tourism business Tourism Radio NZ is 37.5% subscribed with 40 days to run, and management believe the investment will result in revenue growth compounding by 50% year on year.
Rabble was acquired from Rowan Simpson who also founded Point of Sales software company Vend and was a key player in the early days of tech company TradeMe, he was also an early investor in Xero.
Rabble is is an online community of over 600 New Zealand companies that allows members to raise their profile, recruit great talent and attract help from suitable investors and advisors. The site was created in 2013 by Southgate Labs, a Wellington based company that helps growing software businesses with seed capital, strategy and execution.
"We’re excited to announce today we have just bought Rabble from Rowan Simpson" said Equitise co-founder Chris Gilbert in a statement today."This brings together over 600 NZ tech companies, investors and advisers with an equity crowd-platform that has an Australasian focus and investor base. And we’re celebrating by launching a new competition for NZ businesses with over $20k of prizes". These prizes include business services such as coaching and mentoring as well as access to services that help support startup growth.
Equitise has stated that it intends to run the Rabble platform in parallel with its equity crowdfunding platform, giving Rabble members easy access to crowdfunding opportunities.
“We originally built Rabble because we thought it was an important resource for early-stage companies in New Zealand who wanted to raise their profile, grow their team and attract investors and advisors,” said Simpson. “We’re excited the team at Equitise share this view and look forward to seeing it continue to flourish in the future as part of their platform.”
In addition to being part of the AWI Limited accelerator program and receiving seed funding as part of that program. Equitise has also recently raised additional funding from Tank Stream Ventures and Bridge Lane capital and other angel investors including the founders of Spreets (sold to Yahoo!7 for $40m) and founders of Brands Exclusive (sold to APN for $70m). Though the amount of capital raised has not been revealed at this point in time.