of business
funding round before the product’s first drop.
“We were getting a lot of praise and everyone
loves a pat on the back,” says Dutton.
But Australia is a small market and pretty
soon the business had to decide whether to
“roll the dice” overseas or build the brand
locally, the latter at a possibly slower rate.
PATCH’s initial move into overseas markets
started in London. It was considered low-hanging
fruit because of connections with Australia
and it is an English-speaking country.
Given that one in four people has skin irri-
tations with current wound cover products,
Dutton was surprised the issue hadn’t been
addressed previously.
“Markets like Europe and the US warmed
quickly,” he says. “It’s a gamechanger in a cat-
egory that had been stagnant for a while. It’s
also a challenge for the category in
that it [the compostable bandage]
hasn’t been seen before. That’s
what’s really driven the growth.”
He adds that in the healthcare
sector, both here and overseas, it
can be highly beneficial to target
trade shows. But it can also be
ex pen sive, so it ’s best to do some
research. He visited trade shows
12 months in advance and got to
learn their inner workings.
After he had locked down a dis-
tributor and sold into Europe for
about eight months, the US market got
hold of t he product. I n Ma rch PATCH
won Best New Natural Living Product
at Expo West in California. After just
two to three years, the bandages are now
distributed in 35 countries.
The business recorded about $900,000
in sales in 2017-18 and has just closed off on
about $5 million in sales for 2018-19. Dutton
expects to end the calendar year with sales
nearing $13 million. “We definitely wouldn’t
have grown that fast if I had kept it in Aus-
tralia,” he says.
A couple of rou nds of capita l ra isi ng, work i ng
with the likes of Perth’s Discovery Capital,
have funded the growth. The first round raised
$2 million with a $10 million valuation and
more recent valuations are more than double.
There are plans to move into Asia in the next
12 months, as well as the launch of biodegradable
sports tape, among other projects. The businesshas 18 staff globally and Dutton advises business
owners looking to expand overseas to be mind-
ful of their operating framework. “Unless you
can support the regions and people running
the business, you run into hurdles,” he says.Leap of faith
What about an Aussie business ready to take
the plunge into overseas markets?
Halo Technologies, which runs the cloud-
based Halo investment research platform for
self-directed investors, will launch in the US
during the third quarter of 2019. Established
in 2017, it also has had a rapid rise.
Halo creator Nicolas Bryon is calling on his
years of institutional investing experience to
expand. This month he will incorporate North
A mer ica n stock s i nto t he resea rch platfor m.
“All the analytical frameworks we apply to
Australian stocks we can apply to US stocks
and Canadian stocks. Then from my perspec-
tive and a timing perspective, can we actually
start to target the US market?” says Bryon.
The integration of data has required an
entire rebuild but this will give the platform
an opportunity to test the waters with US
retail and self-directed investors. “There are
a lot of things we can do in the future to bring
everyday mum and dad into the institutional
[investment] world, but presenting it in a
way that’s simple and intuitive,” says Bryon.
He says entry into the US will require a
different business mindset. Halo’s current
sales model is direct, meaning the financial
adviser can develop a relationship with a client,
provide walkthroughs, give an overview of
their portfolio, and so on.
But going offshore is a completely different
kettle of fish. Bryon is looking to digital mar-
keting as his power tool to sell across borders.
The major challenge, he says, is determin-
ing the global price of Halo software. In its
current format there’s a one-year retail price
of $250 0, w it h mu lti-yea r d iscou nts, but t hat ’s
all to support an Australian business, not a
global one. “What is the global price of Halo
a nd ca n we leg iti m ately go i nto ot her m a rkets
and can we discount deeply? We don’t know
yet but it’s something we have to research
and ascertain,” says Bryon.
He knows it’s early days. “We’ll make
mistakes, we’ll do well in other areas, but
that’s how it works.” MWe definitely
wouldn’t have grown
that fast if I had
kept it in Australia