Straker shares surge as revenue doubles - but border restrictions force jobs offshore

Straker Translations' ASX-listed shares rose 18 per cent in Monday trading to A$1.60 after the Auckland-based firm revealed a 101 per cent rise in quarterly revenue to $15 million - putting it on an annualised run-rate of $60m.

In a broad-strokes third-quarter trading update, co-founder and chief executive Grant Straker said adjusted ebitda was positive as it pushed into the black. Debt was at zero, cash at $17.5m.

The software company's headcount, which sat at 140 in 2019, is now close to double that figure..

Straker's string of deals over the past couple of years shows no signs of abating. Earlier this month, his firm made its ninth acquisition as it bought Belgian translation provider Idest for $3m.

Straker co-founder Grant Straker. Photo / Michael Cragi

However, the CEO says growth and existing operations chipped-in in equal measure.

"It's 50 per cent organic, 50 per cent acquisitions driving revenue.

"Our global deal with IBM as their primary provider has driven a good portion of the organic and is now a significant global contract with one of the world's leading AI companies," Straker told the Herald.

"I can't think of any other kiwi tech companies that have a similar global deal with one of the top five global tech players. We won that business through innovation and ability to deliver globally at scale."

In November 2020, Straker inked a deal that saw his company's RAY platform link directly to IBM's Adaptive Translation Services to provide translation capabilities across 55 languages.

At the time, Straker did not put a dollar value on the deal but described it as "transformative" and said it would create 40 new jobs at his firm.

This morning, he added, "Our move to bottom-line profit has also been driven through tech as we see the operating leverage coming through in our business. This is what many high-growth tech companies promise, although many do it with a very high burn rate - which might be biting some in the backside right now as liquidity gets harder to source - and we have generally done it at around break-even."

But some of the gloss has been taken off this success story - at least for New Zealand - by the fact the company's co-founder says border restrictions have forced him to send jobs offshore.

"We have around 240 staff globally now," Straker said.

"Unfortunately, due to MIQ and immigration restrictions, we have had to put new roles offshore rather than in New Zealand and I know I'm not alone in having to do this."

In December, Mario Wynands, founder of New Zealand's largest video gaming firm, PikPok, said while his industry had added 200 staff as video gaming had boomed during lockdowns, border restrictions and a failure to match Australia's incentive regime meant further hiring was difficult as his firm, and its peers, tried to fill 331 positions in 2022. He had reluctantly decided to open a studio overseas.

The Government had been set to relax border restrictions from January 17.

A staged timeline was outlined late last year, but was quickly pushed back because of the risks posed by the Covid-19 Omicron variant.

The latest plan states that from the end of February, vaccinated New Zealanders in Australia, and possibly elsewhere, will be allowed to skip managed isolation and isolate at home.

The same conditions are set down for most foreigners from the end of April.

Cabinet is expected to discuss the reopening timeline when it meets today ahead of a press conference by Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson around 4pm.

Robertson - standing in for the self-isolating PM - may not reveal all, however.

RNZ reports that although cabinet is expected to finalise border reopening dates today, they will not be revealed until later.