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Thinxtra, a Sydney-based Internet of Things (IoT) telecommunications company, has been placed into voluntary administration just two years after raising $5 million in pre-IPO funding from investors.
The company, which also has operations in New Zealand and Hong Kong, provides mobile IoT cellular connectivity services to customers and has exclusive rights to the only public, low-power 0G (zero generation) network and Soracom cellular connectivity in Australia.
Grant Thornton partners Phil Campbell-Wilson and Lisa Gibb have been appointed to oversee operations at Thinxtra which was founded in 2015 by Loïc Barancourt, Sam Sharief and Patrick Sieb to establish a national wireless IoT network in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
The plan was to deliver secure and accessible data for SMEs with the company noting in 2023 after the capital raise that its network was transmitting more than two billion messages each month.
The administrators have been appointed to three entities within the group - Thinxtra Limited, Thinxtra Solutions Pty Ltd and Thinxtra Network Pty Ltd.
However, Thinxtra’s fully owned subsidiaries in New Zealand and Hong Kong are not affected by the voluntary administration.
The Grant Thornton partners have sought “urgent expressions of interest” from potential purchasers to acquire the business and its assets, including its international subsidiaries.
Expressions of interest for the business and the assets will close on 11 December.
Thinxtra, currently led by executive chair Geoff Neate who co-founded Spirit Telecom, posted revenue of $4.7 million in FY25 with 88 per cent of that recurring and the company performing on a gross profit margin of 52 per cent.
The administrators have not clarified the reasons for their appointment.
They note that Thinxtra has a diverse customer base across transport, utilities, retail, manufacturing, healthcare and smart infrastructure.
Thinxtra’s technology portfolio includes asset tracking, smart utilities and smart facilities with its end-to-end solutions said to create additional revenue from the insights of untapped data.
The company’s business is also supported by exclusive distribution agreements and strategic partnerships, with customers previously revealed to include Coles and Optus.
In 2023, Thinxtra raised $5 million in new capital to support a potential ASX listing and to drive expansion in its key markets of Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong to tap into demand for “sustainable and scalable tech”.
The pre-IPO funding round was backed by Blue Ocean Equities and Regal Funds Management.
The company earlier this year announced a strategic partnership with Akila, a Singapore-based digital twin and smart building technology group with plans to scale the agreement beyond an initial focus on energy management to cover a wide range of connected building solutions to enhance efficiency, reduce waste and improve ESG outcomes.
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