By FIONA ROTHERHAM
Strathmore Group has made its sixth investment, taking a 30 per cent stake, worth $1.2 million, in United States web software developer Inspar.
The San Francisco startup company recently released its main product, MediaPoster, in the United States.
The product enriches e-mail connections with voice and video pictures and is specifically targeted at portal users, online auction sites, dating services and online greeting card companies.
Strathmore chairman Phil Norman said Inspar's revenue potential was reasonably strong for a young company. Revenue forecasts are for $4 million by the end of the year, and double that by December 2001.
It is expected to be profitable later this year.
All six investments made by Strathmore in the past few months have been related to e-commerce but there are no obvious synergies.
The first investment, in Auckland telephony company CommSoft Group, is seen by analysts as the big test of Strathmore's investment strategy. It holds 32 per cent of CommSoft and is likely to take up an option next week for a further 5 per cent. The total outlay amounts to $3.3 million.
CommSoft is due to be floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in three months.
Its closest relation on the ASX is telecommunications software company Telemedia, whose share price has skyrocketed.
"If CommSoft performs anywhere near Telemedia it will go a long way towards explaining whether or not Strathmore's strategy is one that works," said Ord Minnett's Arthur Lim.
The market has already approved Strathmore's investments: its share price has soared from under 20c last December to 47c yesterday.
US stake for Strathmore
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