Three US tech firms line up for Aussie money

The disparity between the vibrant US venture capital scene and Australia's tiny startup sector have been well publicised. 

The lack of funding down under has driven many Australian technology companies to turn to Silicon Valley for investors.

Examples include online design startup Canva, which counts the likes of a Facebook director of engineering, the chief financial officer of Yahoo! and a Silicon Valley venture capital firm as investors. Others that have received investments from overseas include Invoice2go and Kaggle. 

While it’s less often we see the reverse, we've noticed three North American technology firms getting a leg-up from the unlikliest of places - Australia.

The Silicon Valley recruiter: 1-Page

Who are they?

Founded in 2011, 1-Page is an online jobs site where rather than simply submitting a resume, candidates are invited to compete for a job by respond to “challenges” set by a hirer. The company is based in San Francisco and was co-founded by Patrick Riley, author of a book titled The One Page Proposal. Key leadership includes ex-Yahoo!, salesforce.com and Oracle figures, while users include Williams-Sonoma, Orange and Pandora.

Why should I care?

The company made headlines in October when it reportedly became the first Silicon Valley technology company to list on the ASX, raising $8.5 million. It listed on the ASX to attract additional clients and use funds for marketing to achieve scale, according to a statement. 1-Page is far from the first company using the Web to try and disrupt the market for job vacancy sites and recruitment agencies. Australian-developed site Recruitloop lets recruiters pitch for work, for example.

What do they say?

Earlier this year CEO Joanna Weidenmiller told Fox Business: “We are closing a lot of companies right now, and our business model is a land and expand model, so it is key that we focus on our client success team.”

The cloud partner: Acumatica

Who are they?

Based in the US, this self-described “cloud ERP” company offers browser-based, AWS-hosted products range from financials to CRM and project accounting. The company has four offices, a partner program and has boasted the likes of KFC and Pizza Hut as customers. This year the company also introduced its Cloud xRP Platform, a .Net cloud development platform used by software companies and developers to port applications to the cloud

Why should I care?

Acumatica recently raised over US$13 million. Among the investors? Australia’s MYOB. The Australian company announced the plans earlier this year, including its intention to take a board seat. The move followed a multimillion deal by MYOB last year to OEM the US company’s platform.

What do they say?

"Our competitors are abandoning the midmarket, while Acumatica is continuing its commitment to serve midsize businesses,” stated Acumatica CEO Jon Roskill recently.

Meanwhile MYOB CEO Tim Reed stated: “Last year, we announced our multi-million-dollar deal to OEM Acumatica’s ERP solution platform. One year later, we are in final phase of piloting the advanced product, and have customers live on MYOB Advanced, powered by Acumatica technology.”

The disruptor: Filemobile

Who are they?

Formed in 2006 and based in Toronto in Canada, Filemobile’s Saas platform is used by TV networks and other media to manage user-generated content such as photos and videos for use in news reports and other media. The platform boasts various big names as clients, including Fox News, Wall Street Journal, iTV, Network Ten in Australia and CTV in Canada, as well as “brand” clients from Cisco to Kraft and Tim Hortons. Filemobile’s software integrates with various content management systems and video platforms.

Why should I care?

Australian startup Newzulu last month announced it was entering into an agreement to acquire Filemobile for approximately $5 million. Founded only last year, Newzulu is also a user-generated media platform claiming over 120,000 “citizen journalists” across the world. It specialises in providing “verified” stories to news agencies and lists the AFP and AAP among agencies it supplies content.

What do they say?

Speaking about the proposed acquisition, Newzulu executive chairman Alexander Hartman said in a statement: “Newzulu and Filemobile will together form the world’s foremost crowd-sourced media company. With the explosion of rich media, the combination of “always on” 24/7 news cycles and multiple communications distribution platforms, audiences require quality timely content that is constantly updated.”