Laurence Escalante could more than double his stake in AI-driven surveillance company icetana and become its largest shareholder, as the company gears up to enter Iraq.
Perth billionaire Laurence Escalante could more than double his stake in AI-driven surveillance company icetana AI and become its largest shareholder, as the company gears up to enter Iraq.
Mr Escalante, the founder of VGW – one of Australia’s largest private companies with $5 billion revenue last financial year – has fully underwritten a placement to raise $2.65 million through Lance East Holdings.
The money would be used to fund the company’s planned move into Iraq as part of the Baghdad Safe City project, and could boost LEH’s holding from 15.95 per cent to 43.96 per cent, making it the largest shareholder.
Mr Escalante first invested in icetana in 2022 when venture capital fund Yuuwa Capital exited its investment.
The company also boasts backing from Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Macnica Inc – currently its largest shareholder with 19.1 per cent – and the company of WorleyParsons founder Peter Meurs, Skiptan Pty Ltd, with 14.39 per cent.
Mr Escalante’s and his company VGW have links to icetana AI chief executive Kevin Brown, with Mr Brown having worked in several key executive roles at VGW over a six-year period prior to joining icetana.
News of the raise comes as icetana released its Q2 results today.
Headlining the results was a six per cent drop in revenue for the quarter, down 80 per cent year-on-year, which the company attributed to a large hardware sale in the prior corresponding period.
Annualised recurring revenue was down by four per cent to $1.7 million, while net operating cash outflow was $1.2 million for the quarter.
Its cash at the end of Q2 stands at $698,000.
Despite the slightly disappointing results, shares rallied after release of the report off the back of a possible contract in Iraq.
The Baghdad Safe City contract negotiations are in an advanced proof on concept phase, and could be worth up to A$1.77 million.
Mr Brown said there continued to be strong market interest across icetana analytics, licence plate recognition and facial recognition products.
“Our pipeline in the Middle East remains strong, with significant progress made across multiple areas,” he said.
“We’ve also secured several important deals in the Asia Pacific, including a landmark agreement with the largest shopping mall in Malaysia.
“In what would be our largest deal to date, a Safe City project in Iraq is in the final stages of proof-of-concept. We have been working very closely with our local partners in the region to secure this deal which would be worth up to USD$1.1 million to icetana AI.”
The Iraq contract would add to several other contracts won this year, including a 36-month contract from Malaysia-based AE Security Systems for 1 Utama shopping centre, worth $465,000; a 36-month $100,000 contract from Singapore-based Henderson Technology and other contracts in the US and Japan.
The company also managed to boost its Q2 ARR retention metric to 98 per cent after losing just one customer during the period.
Shares in icetana were trading at $0.02 per share at time of print.
