AgTech and food retailer Wide Open Agriculture rang the ASX bell this morning after a $5m IPO offer price at 20c per share — but in its first hours on the market there wasn’t much activity.

After listing at 10am AEST the shares briefly hit 21c before settling back to the offer price.

Only about $30,000 worth of shares had changed hands by 1.50pm AEST.

The Perth-based business (ASX:WOA) focuses on ecologically sustainable food in three ways: producing premium crops in high-tech greenhouses, selling produce via an eco brand called Food for Reasons and regenerating farm land in WA.

The prospectus also came with a heart-rending note from chairman Anthony Maslin, that tells prospective shareholders the project “originates from my quest for meaning and positive change embarked upon following the death of my three children, Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin on Flight MH17”.

Wide Open Agriculture will enter uncertain waters given recent listings have run hot and cold.

Real estate comparison site RMA Global and dinner delivery service Marley Spoon debuted at discounts to their issus prices this week, while computer chip software maker Pivotal is up 45 per cent.

More than three dozen more ASX floats are in the pipeline.

Wide Open lists after raising $5 million selling 38 million shares at 20c each.

About $2 million will go towards expanding the greenhouse ag-tech project. Some $910,000 will fund product development and marketing of the Food for Reasons business, which has an online sales channel and provides products like seasonal vegetable box deliveries.

In the December half, Wide Open generated $89,000 in revenue and posted a loss of $612,000.

It had $74,000 in cash on hand and valued its property, plants and equipment at $742,000. The business had $710,000 in total liabilities at the end of December.