Sydney-based business Mooter Media has struck a $US15 million funding agreement with a California-based investor, in one of the largest ever overseas deals for an Australian tech company.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The deal, with San Francisco firm La Jolla Cove Investors, will allow Mooter to commercialise its ImageSocial product, which it has billed the web\u2019s \u2018first comprehensive social photography platform.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The technology, which will allow people from around the world to share photos, has been developed with Mooter\u2019s joint venture partner Hot Shot Media.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The funding deal with La Jolla will involve five committed convertible notes of $US3 million each, providing the company with monthly capital injections.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n La Jolla has the option to increase its monthly commitment from $200,000 to $1 million, in line with Mooter\u2019s share price. The ongoing investment could see La Jolla take a maximum of a 19.9% stake in Mooter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n La Jolla will work with Mooter to develop and promote the new technology from its US base.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite being founded in Sydney 2001, Peter Jermyn, Mooter\u2019s chairman, tells StartupSmart that the company retains an extremely nimble and entrepreneurial attitude.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe joint venture was introduced about 18 months ago and we\u2019ve been very entrepreneurial since then,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see that changing. We\u2019ve unashamedly looked at the best bits of Facebook and the best bits of Zynga and applied them to photos. I think those businesses are still entrepreneurs and I think we will be, too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe good thing about photography is that is completely agnostic, it transcends any national border. It lends itself to a lot of opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jermyn says that the escalating funding model with La Jolla suited the requirements of developing ImageSocial.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going to get $15 million equity funding in this market \u2013 a progress and escalation conversion makes a lot of sense,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe are looking to give us a stronger presence in the US in many areas, not just in funding. The Australian market is tiny in global terms, there isn\u2019t really a VC market here. The States is the key.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the year to June 2011, Mooter\u2019s revenue was $3.35 million, compared to $511,000 the year previously. The company went through an $8 million IPO in 2005, with Fairfax Media taking a 20% stake in the business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sydney-based business Mooter Media has struck a $US15 million funding agreement with a California-based investor, in one of the largest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}