Freestyle Technology set for IPO after Korean smart meter deal
Freestyle Technology is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) after winning a AUD5.8m ($4.4m) South Korean water monitoring deal. The Melbourne-based internet of things (IoT) innovator is planning to list on the Australian Securities Exchange in order to raise capital for the launch of its Indian business and boost growth across the Asia-Pacific region. Freestyle Technology provides IoT solutions in water, electricity, gas, lighting and waste management markets, and last week announced a deal to deliver smart water meters and a management platform to the South Korean region of Gochang. The firm was valued at about AUD85m in late 2014.
Last week, the business won a $5.8 million contract to deliver the South Korean province of Gochang with smart water meters and a management platform.

South Korea deal

This deal was Freestyle's first foray into South Korea since it was founded in 2006 .

The company deploys IoT solutions in the water, gas, electricity markets, street lighting and waste management markets. The Korea deal followed more than two years of working through proof-of-concepts and use cases with the municipality.

Freestyle's technology will allow the smart water meters in Gochang County to not only detect a water leak, but determine how to fix it based on the external environment and temperature.

The meters also alert council workers of any unexpected occurrences in the system, for example if an elderly person has not used their water for two days, they will receive an alert and someone will go and check on them.

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Mr Jesudason, who joined Freestyle as managing director in 2013 having previously been the gaming and group marketing MD at Tabcorp, said this degree of intelligence set the company apart from other providers.

"In Victoria we have smart meters, but they weren't a success and that's largely because they aren't actually that smart, but we a bunch of capex has been sunk," he said.

"A while ago I left the hose on in my pool and when I came back outside I had a soggy backyard. With our technology you would have received an alert on your phone saying you don't usually use that much water on a Tuesday, prompting you to check it out, but Victoria's smart metres don't do that."

Growth

Freestyle also has deals with Taiwan's largest telecommunications company Chunghwa Telecom and Chinese and Taiwanese gas suppliers.

In China, consumers pay for their gas via cards that can be topped up, similar to how the public transport system works in Australia, so it's not uncommon for the gas to turn off mid-cooking or mid-shower.

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However Freestyle is working with gas suppliers to digitise the metres and let consumers monitor their gas usage and top up via an app.

To win deals in these markets, Freestyle has employed a diverse workforce with expertise in each of the markets. Of the company's 56 employees, there are 19 different languages spoken.

Mr Jesudason said the Gochang deal was a major win for the business because it was competing against Korean companies and he believed this positioned the company well to win other upcoming tenders with other Korean governments.

"We see ourselves as an emerging global company," he said.

"We won't be able to get enough resources or capital to possibly grow as fast as we'd like to because right across the region there are opportunities. What attracted me to the IoT category was that every forecast you look at is either very large, or very very large and it's all in the next four to five years."