• Bailador revalues investment in Rosterfy up by 27% reflecting strong performance over past 12 months
  • Rosterfy’s customers include some of the largest not-for-profits, cities, major event providers and sporting federations in the world
  • Bailador says it’s excited about the long runway of growth ahead for Rosterfy, a company with high gross margins, sticky recurring revenue and strong unit economics

 

Special Report:  Tech-centric capital fund Bailador Technology Investments has revalued its investment in Rosterfy up by 27% ($2.7m) as of April 30 to reflect the company’s strong operating performance over the past 12 months.

Bailador Technology Investments (ASX:BTI) says during past 12 months, Rosterfy has grown its annual recurring revenue by more than 60% with BTI’s investment now held at $12.4m after its initial investment of $9.8m in April 2023.

Rosterfy provides volunteer and workforce management software to not-for-profit organisations, government volunteering bodies and mass-scale sporting and other events.

The company recently celebrated reaching the milestone of more than 100 million volunteer hours powered by the Rosterfy platform.

 

Source: BTI

 

Market-leading product gaining traction

BTI’s co-founder and managing partner David Kirk says Rosterfy is a great example of BTI’s investing philosophy and the characteristics the fund looks for in a potential portfolio company.

The company was founded by a mission-driven, passionate team that has a thorough understanding of the customer problem they are solving, having lived their customers’ problems while previously running an events management business.

BTI has two directors on the Rosterfy board in Kirk and Investment Director Michael Hayes.

“Rosterfy has developed a market-leading product addressing a global market which solves a mission critical pain point for not-for-profit organisations – recruiting and retaining volunteers,” Kirk says.

“The company continues to add new features and functionality to the product to enhance the value it provides to customers.”

Kirk says since BTI’s investment, Rosterfy has demonstrated strong ARR growth, driven by a combination of new customer wins and account expansion from existing customers.

Despite being founded and headquartered in Australia the company continues to generate more than 50% of its ARR internationally and has a very large addressable market.

“Not-for-profits generally have been slow to digitise but are now rapidly doing so,” he says.

“In the US, UK, and Australia there are more than two million charitable organisations who together receive $750 billion in donations every year and 95 million people spend 7.6 billion hours each year volunteering in these three countries.”

 

Impressive international customer base

Rosterfy’s customers include some of the largest not-for-profits, cities, major event providers and sporting federations in the world.

Among sporting organisations using the Rosterfy platform are FIFA, UEFA, Tennis Australia, and Golf Australia.

In the not-for-profit sector the company counts Lifeline Australia, the St Vincent de Paul Society, British Heart Foundation, Meals on Wheels Queensland, and NAPCAN among its customers.

In the cities and local government sectors Greater London Authority, Brisbane City Council, Auckland Council, and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority use the Rosterfy platform.

Rosterfy has also recently added several new clients to its platform including the British veteran’s charity Help for Heroes, Islamic Relief Canada, Tamworth Regional Council, homelessness prevention support centre The Light House, and Kidney Foundation of Canada.

 

Global expansion continues with a focus on North American market

As with many of BTI’s SaaS investments, Kirk says the key task for Rosterfy in the first 12 months following its investment has been to build a global Go-To-Market function, with a focus on North America.

“When we invested in Rosterfy the company had a market-leading product and a global customer base, including several large international customers such as FIFA and UEFA,” Kirk says.

“In North America, however, Rosterfy had no ‘boots on the ground’ and acquired customers via inbound interest only.”

Over the past 12 months, Rosterfy has built a global Go-to-Market function. The company has:

  • Appointed a global chief revenue officer
  • Opened a North American office in Dallas
  • Appointed a US head of sales, and added experienced sales and marketing executives and customer success staff
  • Further developed a strategic partnership with not-for-profit sector software leader Blackbaud
  • Added new customer success and delivery staff in the UK; and,
  • Expanded marketing globally.

 

Strong unit economics

Kirk says the company continues to exhibit compelling unit economics and strong capital efficiency.

Strong unit economics comes from efficient new customer acquisition, low churn, and strong revenue growth from existing customers.

“Rosterfy’s high gross margin and sticky recurring revenue means the company achieves high lifetime values from its acquired customers,” he says.

“Prior to our investment, Rosterfy had only raised ~$2m of external capital.

“High capital efficiency has continued post our investment.”

Kirk says BTI is excited about the long runway of growth ahead for Rosterfy as the team continues to execute on its mission to connect communities to events and causes they are passionate about.

 

Portfolio companies in strong position

2024 is looking like a strong year for BTI portfolio companies.  The company says the merger in 2023 of portfolio company Rezdy with independent global tours and activities booking software providers Checkfront and Regiondo has provided significant value for shareholders.

The new company, called RC TopCo, created the largest independent tours and activities booking software provider in the world tapping into a $300bn+ market.

Channel manager platform for hotels Siteminder (ASX:SDR) released its Q3 FY24 results to the market with highlights including revenue rising 23.3% YoY to $46m and ARR up 24.8% YoY to $187.6m.

BTI was a significant early backer, first investing in SDR in 2012, supporting them through multiple investment rounds and an eventual IPO on the ASX in 2021.

SDR growth guidance was unchanged and continues to target organic revenue growth of 30% in the medium term.

The company expects to be underlying EBITDA profitable and underlying FCF positive for H2 FY24.

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Bailador Technology Investments,  a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.  

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.