Big Technologies PLC shares admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
We are pleased to announce that Big Technologies PLC, the UK-based, remote people monitoring technology company, has taken the next step in its long-term growth strategy as it is admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. It is now trading on AIM, having raised gross proceeds in excess of £200 million, with the ticker BIG. At the placing price of 200p per share, Big Technologies PLC had a market capitalisation of £577 million.
Big Technologies is the parent company of Buddi, which was founded in 2005 by its current CEO, Sara Murray following an initial idea to create a GPS device small enough for a child to carry. Today it is the leading supplier of proven innovative and high-quality products and services to the remote personal monitoring industry. Solutions are provided under several brand and trading names, with ‘Buddi’ being the most well-known and being used in respect of activities within the core criminal justice and healthcare markets.
Big Technologies has created a leading, integrated technology platform (including both hardware and software) for remote monitoring of individuals, providing state-of-the-art solutions on a SaaS-like, subscription basis. The Company’s technology is highly flexible, and the core remote monitoring technologies are deployed into the large markets of health, care services and criminal justice around the world.
Big Technologies plans to use the proceeds to further strengthen its global team and capability to deliver to customers on every continent.
Sara Murray OBE, Founder and CEO of Big Technologies, said: “This is a significant step in our growth journey and a special moment for all our staff, customers and stakeholders, to whom I am grateful for their hard work, loyalty and ongoing support. We are proud to be providing another strong example of the UK’s continued inventiveness in incubating global technology success stories and excited to begin our life as a public company. We will continue in our mission to deliver the very best technologies to our customers, enabling safety for customers and communities around the world.”
Andrew Wynn, Founder and Managing Partner at Perwyn, added: “Perwyn Growth Capital invested in Buddi in December 2020 and we have experienced a substantial uplift in valuation as a result of the IPO. Despite this we have retained our entire stake post IPO, as we firmly believe in the growth prospects for the business. Many congratulations to Sara and the entire team on achieving this important and significant milestone for the business, which lays the foundations for its next phase of growth.”
About Big Technologies
Big Technologies is the parent company of Buddi, which was founded in 2005 by its current CEO, Sara Murray, following an initial idea to create a GPS device small enough for a child to carry. Today, Big Technologies is a proven supplier of innovative and high-quality products and services to the remote personal monitoring industry. Big Technologies provides products and services under a number of brand and trading names, with ‘Buddi’ being the most well-known and being used in respect of activities within the core criminal justice market. Big Technologies (under the Buddi brand) has created a leading, integrated technology platform (including both hardware and software solutions) for remote monitoring of individuals, providing state-of-the-art Electronic Monitoring (EM) solutions on a SaaS-like, subscription basis. At the current time, Big Technologies’ EM solutions are deployed principally within the criminal justice market. The Company’s technology is highly flexible, and the core remote monitoring technologies could also be deployed into additional large markets, such as the healthcare market and the market for provision of care services.
Electronic Monitoring in the criminal justice sector involves utilising location technologies to remotely monitor and manage people at all stages of the criminal justice system. The Company’s focus on the Criminal Justice market in the immediate term has been demand-driven, with significant opportunities created by a combination of favourable market tailwinds as electronic location devices are increasingly recognised as alternatives to imprisonment, and superior technological capability enabling the Company to meet this demand effectively.
Big Technologies’ criminal justice solution has been iteratively developed over an 10-year period, utilising the knowledge of an experienced management team listening to customers. The solution consists of a proprietary software platform with modular monitoring hardware, capable of being adapted to multiple applications. The Company’s criminal justice solution is principally focussed around the “Buddi Smart Tag”, an electronic monitoring hardware device, and “Buddi Eagle”, the in-house developed cloud-based monitoring software. Collectively, the hardware and the intelligent tools integrated into Big Technologies’ software enable real-time tracking of monitored individuals with high levels of accuracy and reliability. Buddi evidences a substantial reduction in false alerts when compared to competitor systems, which combined with the reduction in subsequent investigations can result in substantial cost savings for customers.
In addition to the high levels of accuracy, the Buddi Smart Tag has several key advantages over its competitors’ devices. The tag is lighter, smaller, has longer battery life and offers a simple, contact free and shorter installation process, providing substantial staff cost savings for customers. This superior product design, coupled with the intelligent monitoring software, typically comes at a small price premium to competitor devices, however, the overall effectiveness and reliability of the solution, combined with the substantial cost savings delivered as a result of reduced monitoring costs have helped Big Technologies deliver strong revenue growth from both existing and new customers. The Company leases its devices and software solutions to customers typically based on daily or monthly rates. www.buddi.co.uk
July 2021