Raising $45m is a great milestone for this Aussie tech company and we were curious to find out what's next, so we spoke to the team at Phocas to get the inside scoop:
Q - Why did you finally opt to go with Ellerston Capital in addition to OneVentures?
We had loads of interest in Phocas in the last five years, so we decided to embark on a growth equity capital raise. The process was highly competitive and we spoke with many blue-chip growth equity investors in Australia, America and Europe.
Phocas looked far and wide and in the end decided on a local investor, Ellerston Capital. It was difficult not to meet any of the international investors face-to-face during the raise. Ellerston understands our product portfolio and saw our growth potential straight away. They are also a good cultural fit and support Phocas becoming a bCorp and our plans for growth that are good for profit and the planet.
Q - How will the funds raised primarily be used to grow the business?
The funding will enable Phocas to supercharge our sales and marketing capacity in the US and the UK, where our products are in high demand by mid market manufacturing, wholesale and retail businesses. We’ll also expand into new industries.
We plan to substantially invest in our core data analytics and new financial products and grow out our AI capabilities.
Q - Why should talented people around the globe join Phocas at this stage of it's life?
Phocas has always put customers and people first and our core values of fun, fulfilling and forever drive and guide our decision-making. This growth equity will enable us to continue to nurture the culture and be less restricted with our funds. We can grow faster, we’ll have bigger budgets and more talent to develop our products and add value to customers.
Q - What attributes and behaviors have your people shown that have gotten Phocas to this level of success?
Phocas was sought-after in the equity raise because we earned A$40m in revenue alone last financial year - as a bootstrapped company. We achieve these numbers and growth rates because our people are terrific and care about making people feel good about data.
Our people continually learn and expand their knowledge across our agile environment. Our people are supported and feel safe to question the status quo, development new ideas to improve processes and ultimately, the business.
Sound like a company you'd like to work with?
Phocas are a truely global business with teams based all around the world. If you'd like to explore a move check out their vacancies in Australia, New Zealand, the US and UK here.
Despite being in business for over two decades, Phocas’ product launch cadence is still very much like a hot new startup. Engineers get to learn something new every day while exploring new tech stacks while working to fix a lot of ‘world’s first’ problems and assessing the latest technology available to improve existing products and create new ones.
Whether you’re looking to switch roles, advance in your career, or just looking for a change of pace - this article is for you.
You don’t need to look further than the news to know that there’s a lot of pressure on employees in tech… Burnout, the great resignation, tech valuations… It’s a lot. And showing your team some love can make a big difference at times like these.