Singapore’s Dropmysite moves forward with listing plan on ASX, rebrands as Dropsuite

Photo credit: Kamil Porembiński

Singapore-based cloud backup company Dropmysite was in the news in January 2016 for its bold attempt to go public on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). It decided to do so through a process known as reverse takeover, or backdoor listing, whereby it plans to list by entering into a merger with Australia’s Excalibur Mining Corporation.

The due diligence process was recently completed and the two companies are planning to go ahead with the next steps. Dropmysite decided to take the opportunity to rebrand itself to Dropsuite. Its products, previously under the brands Dropmysite (website backup), Dropmyemail (email backup), and Dropmymobile (phone backup), will now be part of the overall Dropsuite brand.

“It’s important to create seamless integration and capabilities, to help small businesses start using our products with one click,” CEO Charif Elansari tells Tech in Asia. At the same time, the company wanted a clear link to its past branding, hence the similar naming convention.

Charif says the decision to list on ASX makes sense given the state of the market at the moment. “The ASX is very interested in the tech space right now,” he says. With the meltdown happening in the commodities sector, the stock exchange is eagerly looking toward tech companies that seem to be doing a lot better, he explains.

Photo credit: Jason7825

Betting on experience

Charif says Dropsuite is currently at around the series B stage in terms of its revenue and growth, but the benefits of going public in this way rather than going the VC funding route outweighed the risks.

There are generic benefits of going public, like a valuation that’s determined by the market and more credibility when looking for employees and partners, but there’s a definite sense of growing up in the way that Dropsuite chose to go about it.

“It helps you put everything in order,” Charif says. “Sometimes tech companies are not very diligent in making sure everything is done in terms of compliance, security, auditing, and so on.” If the requirements for going public – even through the less common backdoor listing route – don’t get your company to shape up, probably nothing will.

See: Singapore’s Dropmysite drops a bomb, now funded by 500 Startups

Listing through a reverse takeover can hide some serious pitfalls, especially if the private company’s leadership isn’t well prepared for the challenges of going public. Dropmysuite benefited from having experienced people behind the wheel as well as backing it.

ASX is eagerly looking toward tech companies.

Charif himself became CEO of the company in 2013, taking over from founder John Fearon, after spending 10 years in senior positions at Google Asia-Pacific and Dell Japan. “The youngest officer in the company is 42 years old,” he laughs.

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