McCusker Holdings, the family office of former governor Malcolm McCusker, has sold its stake in WA education and cyber safety firm Qoria for $96 million.
McCusker Holdings, the family office of former governor Malcolm McCusker, has sold its stake in WA education and cyber safety firm Qoria for $96 million.
The investment vehicle held a 1.15 per cent stake in the firm when it floated on the ASX in 2016 at 20 cents per share, and had steadily increased that to 12.5 per cent in the years prior to the sale.
That equated to 155 million shares at time of the sale, which were sold at 62 cents apiece.
The Tim Levy-founded and led company has had a strong run as of late, with the share price lifting to 65 cents through July, double its price the same time last year.
Formerly known as Family Zone Cyber Safety, Qoria has developed a suite of cloud-based solution specifically aimed at cyber safety for school-aged children.
Its key products include internet usage monitoring software for schools and parental control software.
Speaking to Business News, Qoria chair Peter Pawlowitsch said McCusker Holdings had supported the company for years.
"We just want to the thank McCuster Holdings for sticking with us," he said.
"Without their support, we would not have been able to scale the business to become what it has today, and hundreds of thousands of kids would not be as safe as they now are online."
In April 2024, the firm batted away an unsolicited 40 cents per share takeover offer from US-based enterprise software investment firm K1.
It was unanimously rejected by the board, which at the time said it significantly undervalued the company.
Qoria moved to acquire advanced data analytics and AI innovator Ayra International, which was trading as OctopusBI, in late September for $5 million cash and some 11 million performance rights contingent on OctopusBI achieving approximately $8 million in ARR within 30 months.
Its first OctopusBI product, Edtech Insights, launched in January and was expected to propel the company to a strong back half of the year, despite the March quarter being traditionally its quietest.
Complementing its acquisition of OctopusBI was the company’s rollout of several AI-driven products in the past year including real-time categorisation of websites using integrated AI image analysis.
It allows websites to be categorised accurately regardless of language or text content and automatically blurs sensitive content – it’s a technology the company is touting as a major turning point education and cyber software.
In Q3, the company will launch AI analysis of student cloud accounts as an additional feature of its Monitor safeguarding solution.
The scans will essentially screen student cloud accounts for illegal or harmful material.
It will also provide AI-driven behavioural alerts for parents, covering internet searches, messaging and more.
In the company’s quarterly update, it indicated an internet search for ‘sad songs’ on multiple occasions could notify a parent of potential mental health issues for their child, like depression.
It could be used to identify bullying in messaging apps – or even planned truancy, should a student receive a message saying, “let’s skip class”.
Overall, cash flows from operating activities were $4.2 million for the December quarter, up from $2.7 million on the prior corresponding period, or 56 per cent.
The company’s debt position also remains healthy, with some $40 million in funding and net debt of $10.8 million on December 31.
Shares in the company are currently trading at 65 cents per share.
