Local float a hi-tech win

Content is king as video enabler Atomos debuts

A MELBOURNE company that makes video camera addons for the increasing number of social media influencers has started trading on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Shares in Atomos were trading between 45¢ and 48¢ in the 45 minutes after trading began at 11am yesterday, following a $6 million IPO in which 14.6 million shares were sold at 41¢ apiece.

The offering valued the company at $62.2 million. It has 74 employees spread across 10 offices in seven countries.

CEO Jeromy Young (right) co-founded the company in 2010 after working in Japan at a video captureboard company, where he hit upon the idea of using a small external monitor to directly record video from a camera’s sensors.

The company’s all-in-one “monitor/recorder” products, when attached to $2000 Japanese DSLR cameras, allow users to record high-quality video comparable to that captured with a $50,000 to

$100,000 camera, Mr Young said. “We’re kind of in this nice position, where content creation is going up dramatically, and that’s just driving the pick-

up of this,” he said.

“There’s so much video being produced, to differentiate yourself you have to move to cinematic quality.”

The goal is to “enhance, simplify and ultimately democratise video content creation”, Atomos says on its website.

Most of its products right now, such as the $US1295 ($1840) Shogun Inferno and US$695 ($987) Ninja V, are aimed at content creators such

as small and medium businesses, universities and trade shows with video budgets of between $5000 and $20,000.

Atomos plans to double its product range in the next 12 to 24 months with new monitor/ recorders for social media influencers with tiny budgets and entertainment companies with huge ones.

Atomos recorded $35.6 million in global sales last fiscal year, 49 per cent to the US and 30 per cent to Europe, the Mid-

dle East and Africa.

Mr Young, a 42-year-old native of Sydney and a University of Wollongong graduate, said it was thrilling to fulfil his dreams of taking a company public in his hometown.

It had not been easy competing with Silicone Valley, Europe and Japan to recruit talent but it made the company global and better, he said.

“I want to show Australian entrepreneurs they can do it from here, in a technology environment,” Mr Young said.

“A lot of people say that but we’re living it.”