Details emerge on ComTech founder's tech investment house

Publicly listed company Montech is on the hunt for Australian companies with annuity revenues streams or software development expertise.

Montech attained a backdoor ASX listing in March through its acquisition of Sirius, an asset management company that collapsed last August. Sirius was subsequently renamed Montech.

It is now looking to raise almost $2 million through a share issue, $500,000 of which will be paid to remove the company from administration.

As Montech, the company will no longer focus on asset management, but on investing in cloud-based companies, said non-executive director David Shein.

One of the driving forces behind Montech, Shein is an IT channel veteran who grew his distribution company, ComTech, to revenues of $700 million and 1400 staff before selling it to Dimension Data in 2001.

Now Montech is looking for smaller tech firms to get behind. "We see ourselves as building a company that can add value held in smaller companies to grow locally and globally and providing capital to take the business to the next level. Any ISV that is focused on the cloud that has a customer base or revenues base would be a organisation we would love to work with," said Shein.

While it will look to acquire tech firms, Montech is not a private equity company, said Shein, and will offer more than just capital.

"We don't see ourselves as bank or PE company, we see ourselves as tech company with a management team that can add a lot of value around helping smaller companies grow and with access funding.

"We have access to really good IT lawyers, really good IT accountants, and a lot of expertise, so whether you are providing managed services to move clients from a traditional environment to the cloud or if you are writing a piece of software, you will need accounting, legal and HR back of house.

"The difference is that Montech wants to build a long-term sustainable IT business; a PE company doesn't care if they are investing in outdoor signage or a new deodorant spray – they just want the best return on their capital so they can dispose in the investment in the next few years.

"We want to build a long term. We want to acquire and attract some of the best cloud based companies out there in the marketplace

Tech industry funding is close to Shein's heart: he has personally backed a number of local tech startups since selling ComTech and also recently launched a crowdfunding outfit, OurCrowd.

One venture was Macromatix: Shein was the founding investor of the retail software firm that "started in a shed in Double Bay" and went on to win clients such as Starbucks China and Chipotle in the USA before being sold to US-based TPG Ventures in 2012.

Montech has also licensed the last remaining asset management software product, Pinnacle, to one of its resellers.

The administrators for Sirius had already stripped most of the failed company's IP, with Brisbane-based channel player FM Tech taking over Pinnacle on 27 May.

FM Tech was previously a reseller of Pinnacle and now has exclusive rights to develop, enhance and market the product, said FM Tech owner Nurali Prasla.