Postr raises $3 million from NZVIF, Singapore-based investors to fund expansion into Asia

Postr Media, an ad-tech company which has contracts with Skinny Mobile and Optus in Australia, has raised $3 million from investors including the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund in its first significant raising.

The company builds branded white-label apps, where users hire out their Android lock screens for advertising in return for mobile data or airtime from major mobile carriers. In 2016, it created Skinny's first white-label app, Skinny Collect, and developed an app for pre-paid Optus customers. There have been more than 60,000 downloads of Postr's Skinny Collect app and its own direct-to-consumer app, the company says.

Postr had previously raised $600,000 in early seed funding in mid-2015, on top of $200,000 raised from family and friends when it was founded in 2014. The latest capital raising was well-supported by previous investors though more than half of the $3 million raised is from new investors, founder and chief executive Milan Reinartz said. The investment was led by private investors in Singapore, with others including NZVIF, Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall's investment vehicle K1W1, Gunung Sewu Group from Indonesia, and senior leadership from PayPal in the US.

NZVIF Investments now owns 8.7 percent of Postr, with Angel HQ's nominee holding 11.1 percent while Ice Angel's nominee has a 7.7 percent stake, according to Companies Office filings.

The money will be used to expand into markets in Australia and south-east Asia, though Reinartz said he wouldn't be more specific about locations due to commercial sensitivity, with a small number of major telcos in its target countries.

"Our intention has always been to eventually grow globally, with an initial focus on large developing markets in South East Asia where Android is dominating and mobile penetration growing incredibly fast," Reinartz said. "Sponsored data is a phenomenon on the rise, with mobile data being the most sought after source of connectivity. In the meantime, telco ARPUs (monthly average revenue per user) are shrinking as people are no longer willing to pay for minutes or SMS, instead using providers like Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger to make calls and send texts."

(BusinessDesk)