PickMe preparing to go public
View(s):Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka Ltd (DMSLL) which operates PickMe, after their successful capital-raising in May, is aiming for a public listing possibly within the next two years, officials said.
The novel innovations in mobile app development domain which gave birth to transportation app PickMe aims to be a ‘super app’ tailor made for the local public, while ‘democratising’ transportation and in future possibly the logistics industry. These sentiments were expressed by the company’s Chairman Ajit Gunewardene at Asia Securities – Wealth Insights Series that discussed “The Logistics Sector: Exploring Potential Investment Paradigms” in Colombo on Wednesday. He added that PickMe expects a million rides a day within the next year.
With the rapid penetration aimed at sectors other than taxi hires, the company hopes to go for an initial public offering within the next two years.
Mr. Gunewardene noted the company aims to adopt robust custom mobile solutions for logistics. From start to end point of delivery customers are quick to integrate technology for the logistics industry. PickMe aims to connect the now fragmented and disorganised logistics of small and medium sized enterprises (SME). “We want to democratise the economic activities of these small businesses around the mobile phone,” he explained. Analysts noted that SME whose goods and consignments are carried from manufacture point to the ultimate storage and delivery points will benefit by partnering with such connectivity. The whole process with a mobile app will be carried out in a way that ensures efficient operations, timeliness of delivery and swift performance.
At the panel discussion. From left: Mangalee Goonetilleke, Vice President – Research, Asia Securities (moderator); Ruwan Waidyaratne, Managing Director, Hayleys Advantis Ltd; Jagath Pathirane, CEO, Expolanka Freight (Pvt) Ltd; Ajit Gunewardene, Chairman, PickMe and Tissa Wickremasinghe, COO, Hambantota International Port Group (Pvt) Ltd.
DMSLL’s Rs. 1 billion capital infusion in May saw a large portion of Rs. 693 million employed to venture into food delivery and logistics. Changes in lifestyle have increased the Internet dependability for people in Sri Lanka, analysts noted. They said that proliferation of digital technologies over the past few years has been substantial and will continue to experience high growth in the near future. The surge in ICT, growth in usage of mobile phones, and other devices, boost in broadband subscriptions and adequate infrastructure development stimulates the progress in digitisation. In this light, Mr. Gunewardene added that PickMe is now pushing food delivery. “Right now ‘food industry’ is a wide open market,” he added.
Analysts said that now new technologies are enabling greater efficiency and more collaborative liaisons within the financial services as well. As a natural progression, PickMe is also aiming to get into the financial services spectrum. New technologies are reforming the financial marketplace in ways that are only just beginning to become apparent, Mr. Gunewardene noted adding that they will get into the financial sector with tailor-made solutions to the drivers as well as the passengers. He said that the company will get into the full spectrum of financial services, from payments and accounts, to loans, investments, and insurance.
The latest fundraising at DMSLL saw the World Bank’s private sector investment arm IFC Group invest up Rs. 385 million in its first venture capital investment in Sri Lanka. In their earlier fundraisers, PickMe had collected Rs. 44 million, Rs. 100 million and Rs. 170 million.
At this discussion it was elaborated that in this era of rapid technological advances, mobile applications have become one of the major tools that individuals use daily both in their personal and professional lives as well as businesses in their day-to-day operations. It was also discussed how transportation infrastructure and services have value to the extent that they aid a society to achieve higher-order social and economic goals. Mr. Gunawardene noted that logistics and mobility has huge scale and it is a massive part of the GDP.