For investors looking for the next opportunity in Australian tech stocks, cutting through the noise is more important than ever.
In that environment, the timing was prescient for Series 9 of the TechKnow Invest Roadshow run by Vertical Events, which took place in Sydney and Melbourne last week.
Speaking with Stockhead, Vertical Events’ business development manager Jaxon Crabb said the team behind the event was focused on execution, after making the decision to scale up capacity.
“We expanded out the number of companies presenting at TechKnow this year, and we knew the challenge was to accompany that with a larger investor audience,” Crabb said.
“So to get over 900 registered investors and brokers across the two cities was an outstanding result.”
Guests in attendance gained insights into 24 companies across the tech and biotech space, comprising 18 ASX-listed stocks and six companies at the pre-IPO stage.
Crabb said a well-established conference such as TechKnow provides “ideal exposure” to the companies presenting.
One company that attracted plenty was medical technology company Novita Healthcare (ASX:NHL), which provided a key update to the market coinciding with the TechKnow Melbourne conference on Thursday.
The company announced that its TALi Detect program — a tool used to identify potential attention deficit disorders in children — had been approved for reimbursement by the American Medical Association, opening up a revenue opportunity in the huge US market.
Novita shares rocketed higher to end the week, closing on Friday at 4.6c — a gain of 228 per cent from Thursday’s opening price of 1.1c.
And based on Stockhead’s observations at the Sydney conference on Tuesday, there was also plenty of investor interest in pre-IPO companies.
AI-tech platform iCetana, which provides video analytics software for real-time surveillance systems, had a healthy lineup of investors registering their interest.
And aged-care tech company Intelicare also attracted attention with a live demo of its end-to-end home monitoring service.
“The feedback we got was that a lot of the companies presenting were rapt with the opportunity the conference provided to them,” Crabb said.
“We felt that on one hand they enjoyed the chance to meet up with existing shareholders, but also use the event to promote their business to potential new investors.
“Hopefully in the foreseeable future they’ll continue to build on the strength of those relationships.”
As for TechKnow, the team behind the conference is now looking forward to its Series 10 event, which will take place in Melbourne (March 31) and the Gold Coast (April 2) next year.