Assets of Birmingham PropTech firm Vanti have been bought out of liquidation for an initial £37,000.
RTS Technology Solutions Ltd, trading as Vanti, was founded in 2006. It entered into voluntary liquidation at the start of the week due to a lack of funding.
Certain of its assets were acquired yesterday by Torpedo Factory Ltd, part of AIM-listed Aukett Swanke.
Vanti, which provides master system integration and smart building software to commercial properties in the UK, featured on our PropTech 50 ranking last year.
“The acquisition introduces SaaS revenues from RTS’s smart buildings software and, in the opinion of the directors, marks a significant step forward in the Group’s quest to become a leading smart buildings provider,” read an Aukett Swanke statement to the London Stock Exchange.
“The group intends to employ new staff to be based in a new Birmingham office, to be leased from a third party, to form the core of the group’s smart buildings offering.”
An additional £50,000 may be payable over the next 18 months, dependent on the satisfaction of certain financial performance conditions deriving from the transfer and retention of certain RTS clients.
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Aukett Swanke also said it would raise up to £425,000 through the issue of new equity for the purposes of providing the group with working capital for its increased scale.
Of that figure, £275,000 is being raised by way of direct subscriptions by certain existing and institutional investors, while certain directors and managers of the group have indicated their intention to subscribe for up to £150,000 on the same terms as the investors.
The group expects to report a loss for the first half of the current financial year, with a stronger performance in the second half.
“Vanti has been known to the management of our Torpedo Factory Group business for many years,” said Nick Clark, CEO of Aukett Swanke. “They are well-known in the smart buildings sphere, having been contributors to the recent RIBA publication ‘Smart Building Overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work’ and spoken at this year’s Smart Building Conference in Barcelona.
“Despite its apparently small scale, this purchase provides us with access to a wealth of experience in the delivery of smart building systems. We are delighted to be expanding TFG’s interests to the West Midlands with the opening of a Birmingham office, and to welcome former Vanti employees to the group. We are also excited by the opportunities for the software assets.”