ICreate looks to the market for capital to expand
DESPITE REPORTS that a float of its shares on the junior stock market is weeks away from execution, digital media training start-up iCreate Institute, founded by Tyrone Wilson and partners, insists it’s still weighing its financing options for an expansion push under the guidance of financial adviser Sagicor Investments Jamaica Limited.
The institute formulated its first big partnership when it became the creative training arm of University of the Commonwealth Caribbean, UCC, in 2016, under a deal in which iCreate is independently managed and operated by Wilson and his team.
Under the UCC collaboration and training programme, which has already completed one academic year and is now in its second at the privately operated university, iCreate has trained more than 400 students in the disciplines of digital media and digital marketing. Wilson, within that time frame, has been lining up other training deals and needs funds to execute those programmes.
Since iCreate’s founding, its parent company eMedia Interactive Limited, which is also owned by Wilson and partners, has poured $20 million into the training outfit to pay for equipment, training space and licensing fees. Its next move involves expansion beyond Kingston to Montego Bay, and beyond Jamaica to Miami — this is in a bid to take advantage of the franchise offered under licence by Digital Marketing Institute, which is based in the United Kingdom.
To do this expansion, iCreate will need a large injection to upgrade and expand, but Wilson declined to comment on how much capital the business needs to raise to realise its ambitions, and was murky on the preferred mode for raising the funds.
“What we’re working on with Sagicor is about iCreate and we’re exploring options, of which listing is one of them,” he said, while noting that he was not averse to private funding.
Sagicor Investments, which was one of the early investors in the institute, confirmed it was readying iCreate for a likely initial public offering of shares, IPO, but lead adviser Mishca McLeod-Hines also said the share float was only one consideration for fundraising.
A prospectus will be out in January, she said.
Although Sagicor Investments has not revealed the details of
its financial partnership with iCreate, it seems to mimic an evolving trend in which investment houses take equity positions in promising start-ups or early-stage companies in exchange for venture capital. Such deals usually have set timelines in which part of the financier’s exit strategy from the investment involves the listing of the start-up on the stock market.
Wilson says the business model pursued by iCreate is capital-intensive.
“For creative training to be effective, it has to be practical; so there is need for investment in a lot of equipment in order for the students to get in, immerse themselves, and get out with the requisite knowledge,” he said.
Pressed about the possibility that the institute may soon struggle to recruit and enrol trainees in a sector that seemed to still be in the throes of defining itself, Wilson insisted that there is a big skills gap in the creative economy and that its constant evolution is what called for and would, in fact, feed the demand for training.
“I don’t think we’re anywhere near even beginning to exhaust the supply of clients. Years ago when I got into the digital media business, I was just about the only one; now there are multiples of us. At the same time, the advertising spend is just beginning to move; consequently, there is much more room to grow,” Wilson insisted.
He also noted that his eMedia group operates with the philosophy that the creative economy intersects with all businesses, because marketing and sales are fundamental elements of commerce – in other words, the opportunities are there for creative companies to scale their own operations, as long as they have the capital.
That’s why, Wilson added, eMedia Interactive took on a partner – Guardsman Group, which now holds a 35 per cent stake in the business.