Family tracking app Life360 debuts up 11pc

Family tracking app Life360 (ASX:360) has debuted up 11 per cent on its issue price at $5.31.

The company’s flagship product is a smartphone app that provides information such as where families members are, details on their driving performance including how fast and how quickly they brake, and even how close they might be to a crime scene.

The San Francisco-based company operates what is called a “freemium” model, which means users can subscribe for free but have to pay to unlock premium subscription options. The company has a plan to offer products from third parties such as discounted car insurance to its users as another way to make money.

Life360 raised $145.43m by issuing CHESS Depository interests (CDIs) priced at $4.79 each, for a market cap of $820m.

CDIs are a proxy for trading foreign shares on the ASX.

The company says it’s added more than 2m monthly active users (MAU) since December and had 20.6m MAU at the end of March, most of whom are in the US.

However, its accounts are still deep in the red.

Total revenue was $US32.1m in calendar 2018, of which about 23 per cent comes from sharing anonymised user data with third parties, but it burned $US20.2m and delivered a net loss of $US29.7m.

Life360 has raised over $100m in five private funding rounds.

CEO Chris Hull says issues around selling and sharing user data to third parties is not as much of a problem for them as for, say, a Facebook, because they do so to provide value for their users.

We’re focused on using the data to provide value to our users,” he told Stockhead.

“Consumer trust is paramount.”

With an $818m market cap the company could have qualified for a listing on the tech-heavy NASDAQ bourse in the US.

But Hull said the ASX had “actively” pursued them so they made a decision between raising another round of money privately and a public listing in Australia.

He said they liked the long-term focus of investors here as well as the discipline imposed by being a public company.