Australian Internet of Things (IoT) telco Thinxtra has raised $5 million in its pre-IPO funding round to support its planned public listing later this year and expansion in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

The company intends to invest in sales and marketing resources, as well as implementing its inaugural partner program.

Thinxtra will continue developing productised solutions for new markets.

Regal Funds Management was among the largest investors in this funding round.

Phil King, chief investment officer at Regal, said “we are attracted to the positive macro tailwinds powering the Massive IoT sector worldwide this decade and in Thinxtra for its leading marketplace solutions in the significant Asian markets of Hong Kong and Macau, alongside Australia and New Zealand.

"These in turn are continually generating strong annual recurring revenue streams that investors highly value."

Another investor, Blue Ocean Equities, also talked up the outlook for the IoT industry.

“The IoT industry has a positive long-term outlook both internationally and locally, with among the most predictable growth scenarios for investors interested in recurring revenue business models,” said Peter Gray, executive director and co-founder at Blue Ocean Equities.

“Thinxtra is a major player in this space in Australasia with a variety of attractive product and service solutions in current use and roll-out."

"This is the result of a highly experienced board and management team which deliver proven technologies as reflected by its strong customer base and international presence.”

Thinxtra's asset tracking and facilities management applications are used in government, commercial and residential property, supply chain and logistics, theft recovery, and by utilities, among others.

The company is investing in "Industry 4.0" applications, including energy efficiency projects, indoor air quality (IAQ) and CO2 monitoring, asset tracking and smart building initiatives.

It owns and operates a Sigfox 0G Network dedicated to IoT in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Macau.

Thinxtra works with Coles, CouriersPlease, Optus, Loscam, Konvoy, CORT Community Housing, AGP, PB Traffic, Programmed, LBS, IoTree and Tether, among others.

CouriersPlease uses Thinxtra's asset tracking offering to track use of thousands of parcel cages. The project was a finalist in the 2023 IoT Awards.

In February, CRN Australia reported that Thinxtra was seeking new partners in the IT channel, following the launch of its inaugural partner program, including value-added resellers, systems integrators and managed services providers.

Thinxtra chief executive Nicholas Lambrou told CRN Australia at the time that Thinxtra was developing productised solutions, "where a traditional partner is not looking to pull together a solution of best of breed products – going to a separate manufacturer, separate software platform."

"Rising costs and environmental responsibility are putting pressure on organisations to look for operational and energy efficiencies which are being achieved through the access of data insights from M-IoT," Lambrou stated today.

“Massive IoT is at an inflection point," Lambrou stated, "and adoption is rising at similar rates to the broader IoT market, which IDC expects to hit US$436 billion in 2026."

"There is an incredible breadth of use cases for driving outcomes with digitally connected devices, sustainably and at scale, and this is spreading rapidly across value chains.”