Big Sofa Technologies Group Admission to AIM and First Day of Dealings

London(19 Dec 2016)

Big Sofa (AIM: BST), a fast-growing video analytics provider to consumer brands and market research agencies, announces that its shares will begin trading at 8.00 a.m. today on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

The Company raised approximately £6.1 million by way of a placing of and subscription for new ordinary shares at 17 pence per share to accelerate near-term growth opportunities with key customers and facilitate the expansion of the Company’s U.S. resource.  

Highlights:

• Big Sofa has developed a scalable software platform for video analytics, which delivers two central technological benefits to consumer brands and market research agencies, the ability to:

• manage, organize and search video content at speed and scale, from multiple sources, and

• mine data, analyse and gain an understanding from large volumes of video in a time and cost efficient manner

• The market for video analytics is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate in excess of 20 per cent annum to £7.19 billion by 2023 with video expected to account for 79 per cent of all consumer internet traffic by 2020

• Big Sofa now has the opportunity to leverage key relationships with existing customers as well as capitalizing on the near-term U.S opportunity

• Current customers already include Procter and Gamble, Unilever, SC Johnson, British Airways, Ipsos, Flamingo, Kantar and GfK Group

• Key growth drivers include:

• Significant demand for video analytics from marketing and consumer insight sector

• Big Sofa’s software platform is already transforming video analytics

• Existing blue chip customer base creates a strong platform from which to upsell Big Sofa’s solutions

• Potential to expand into new vertical markets, exploiting Big Sofa’s expertise in video analytics

• Strong management team and board in place to capitalise on near term opportunities

• The Company raised approximately £6.1 million by way of a placing of and subscription for new ordinary shares at 17 pence per share

• Key benefits of the listing include:

• Facilitate expansion of U.S. resource to target large market opportunity

• Accelerate near-term growth opportunities with key customers

• Strengthen management’s ability to recruit, retain and incentivise employees

• Provide currency for selective bolt-on acquisitions

Simon Lidington, Chief Executive Officer of Big Sofa, commented:

“Big Sofa is at the forefront of helping major brands and consumer insight agencies make genuine use of their video content in order to better understand customer behaviour. Our belief is that video is transforming the consumer insight sector; but to be truly valuable, brands and agencies need to be able to manage the vast amounts of video content they acquire. Big Sofa’s technology enables them to do exactly that.

“The market is growing at a substantial pace and Big Sofa has a growing list of blue chip customers. Our listing on AIM gives us the means to accelerate our growth ambitions both domestically and internationally in order to create a highly profitable business of scale. We have a fantastic team in place and are excited to enter our next phase of growth as a listed company.”