Pushpay signs deal with NZ Post for text messaging service

Pushpay Holdings [NZAX: PAY], the mobile payment app developer, has signed a deal with New Zealand Post Group to manage its SMS communications with clients through Pushpay subsidiary, Run The Red.

The Auckland-based company will provide the service for all of NZ Post's operations, including its Kiwibank and Express Couriers businesses. Pushpay didn't reveal the value of the contract, but a spokeswoman said it added to Run The Red's other large clients, which include Westpac Banking Corp, Sky Network Television, Vodafone New Zealand, Z Energy, Facebook and the Department of Internal Affairs.

Its shares, which trade on New Zealand Alternative Index, climbed 9.5 percent to $2.30. The company listed on the NZAX in August at $1 per share in a compliance listing, meaning it raised no funds from the float. In June, it raised $9 million in new equity among private investors, issuing shares at $1 each and valuing the company at $50 million. The capital raise was underwritten by cornerstone shareholder Christopher and Banks Private Equity, an investment vehicle for the Huljich family.

According to its listing documents, Pushpay reported a loss of $1.6 million in the year ended March 31, widening its $561,000 loss from the previous year. Annual sales were $328,000, from $8,000 a year earlier. The company didn't provide prospective earnings, but said to date it had raised over $15.6 million in capital, with $9.6 million cash in the bank at the time of listing.

Last December, Pushpay raised $5.1 million in two tranches, which saw the Huljich family take a 23 percent stake.

Established in 2011, Pushpay last year also attracted $1 million in backing from Douglas Kemsley, the Hamilton-based former chairman of internet and cloud services provider Maxnet, and a $253,000 development grant from the government's Callaghan Innovation Fund.

The company said it intends to migrate to the NZX main board when the stock market operator phases out the alternative index to be replaced by its NXT market.

(BusinessDesk)

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