Tembusu Partners invests US$10m in NZ cricket platform
Singapore
LOCAL private equity firm Tembusu Partners has invested US$10 million in Wellington-based CricHQ, a platform that offers technology solutions to manage the game of cricket.
CricHQ has developed cricket products such as smartphone and tablet cricket scoring apps, live scoring competition management software as well as a cricket-themed social network.
CricHQ's early growth has been supported by the New Zealand government's innovation and export entities.
Tembusu Partners manages over S$300 million and has a record in investing in high-growth enterprises. CricHQ will be the second investment by Tembusu Growth Fund III - which has a target size of S$150 million.
Cricket is the world's second most popular sport after football with an estimated three billion followers worldwide.
According to Simon Baker, founder and CEO of CricHQ, 41 of 106 national governing bodies for cricket have partnered CricHQ to improve the administration of the game in their jurisdictions from club level upwards.
Cricket administration usually consists of paper-based, time-intensive methods of data collection, Mr Baker explained. He added that his company aims to change this through its digital platform which combines integrated competition management, live scoring and customer relationship management (CRM) to solve the problem of data loss.
"Our crowd-sourced and independently validated data collection process allows fans to receive the benefit of the biggest and broadest range of cricket in the world, unlocking the value of cricket that was previously unaccessible."
Tembusu's investment will enable CricHQ to expand significantly and achieve its growth targets, Mr Baker said. "An institutional investment of this significance, and the support of shareholders and clients such as New Zealand Cricket, validates our global business strategy. CricHQ will benefit from Tembusu's experience and network in Asia."
According to Mr Baker, the company will use the investment to expand its offerings in India, which accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the global revenues generated from cricket. The investment will include hiring account management teams that will be able to deal with matches at the provincial level.
The staff count in India will be increased from 40 now to around 80-100 within the next few years as CricHQ, which is now located in Kochi in the state of Kerala, expands its operations to the rest of the country.
Apart from India, the company will grow its global operations through senior appointments in the UK, South Africa and Pakistan, Mr Baker revealed.
He said that the company already has a relationship with the world governing body for cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC). "Many of the ICC tournaments - including divisional and regional tournaments - already use CricHQ's digital platform."
Commenting on the investment, Andy Lim, founder and chairman of Tembusu Partners, said that his company believes that CricHQ's business model is highly scalable and has a huge opportunity to become the world's leading online repository of cricket information. "We are proud to partner CricHQ in its exciting growth journey."
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) general manager Quentin Quin noted that his organisation has been working with CricHQ to fast-track their international growth. "We congratulate them on achieving this significant milestone."
According to Mr Quin, this deal is also significant for the New Zealand capital markets. "Put in perspective, it represents 25 per cent of all investment in early stage New Zealand companies, and 4.6 per cent of investment into New Zealand privately held companies in the last financial year."
