Perth entrepreneur taps public market

More than a decade after leaving Perth, a local entrepreneur has returned west to drum up investment for his latest venture.

Ruwan Weerasooriya has launched an offer to list his company, Rewardle, on the Australian Securities Exchange, with Perth-based broker DJ Carmichael handling the deal.

Rewardle is described as a “commerce-based social network” which, in its simplest form, replaces loyalty cards at retailers with an electronic system.

Those retailers are then able to capitalise on the data captured and integrate other sales strategies, such as mobile ordering and pushing out offers to Rewardle-registered customers.

So far Rewardle has developed a national network of more than 1,500 merchants and around 300,000 members.

The initial public offering is seeking to raise $4 million through the sale of 20 million shares priced at 20 cents each.

Mr Weerasooriya is known in Perth circles for his co-founding of web development company Method + Madness, alongside Quickflix founder Stephen Langsford, in 1997.

The company was later sold to listed company Sausage Software, which Mr Weerasooriya then joined as head of new venture development of subsidiary Myretsu.

Since then he has launched two successful digital media companies, an online clothing retailer and his own personally-funded startup incubator - Huge - which has funded the development of Rewardle.

The company recently announced it had secured former Fairfax head Jack Matthews as its chairman.

Mr Matthews said Rewardle was positioning itself to be a leading player as the worlds of social media, marketing, mobile and converge.

“Rewardle is on a mission to provide local SME merchants with the digital engagement tools and business intelligence typically only available to large retail chains by unlocking the power of mobile computing, cloud based software and Big Data analysis,” Mr Matthews wrote in the IPO prospectus.