Go1 co-founder and boss Andrew Barnes oversees a $1bn enterprise but doesn’t like the “unicorn” label

The boss of Queensland’s newest $1bn company is not crazy about the “unicorn’’ label and is in no rush to list the company on the ASX.

Go1 CEO Andrew Barnes. Picture: Liam Kidston.

There’s a reason they call it “the Spotify of education’’.

Much like the music streaming colossus, Go1 has become a dominant player in the online corporate learning and training space.

In a remarkable achievement, the tech business, started in a garage by four high school mates in Logan only six years ago, just achieved coveted “unicorn’’ status this month, meaning it’s now worth more than $US1bn.

Three of those gents — Dr Andrew Barnes, Dr Vu Tran and Chris Eigeland — shed a bit of light on their astounding journey at an East Coast Forum luncheon Friday in Brisbane.

And the key takeaways? Well, we learnt that the CEO, Barnes, isn’t crazy about the “unicorn’’ badge.

“I don’t like the tag,’’ he said. “It implies we’ve solved all the problems although it is great validation for the team. But I am a bit uncomfortable with it.’’

Go1 co-founders Chris Hood, Chris Eigeland, Vu Tran, and Andrew Barnes

Barnes also hosed down speculation the company might go public soon, saying he’s in “no rush’’ to kick off an IPO despite plenty of knocks on the door from hopeful brokers.

Among those taking it all in was Steve Baxter, the investment whiz and former Shark Tank star who was one of several parties who provided early seed capital for the business.

With a 300-strong global workforce, Go1 provides learning material to more than 3.5 million people at 1600 organisations around the world.

Eventually they hope to reach up to a billion people with their training platform, which features more than 100,000 courses on just about any imaginable topic.

Notably, Go1 doesn’t create the content but facilitates access to third parties that do, including the likes of industry leaders such as EdX, Coursera, Microsoft and esteemed universities such as Harvard.

But clearly it’s found a winning formula, with revenue doubling every year since it launched in 2015 and offices in the US, UK, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Africa.

Most sales are concentrated in the US and Europe but a $US200m investment by Japan’s SoftBank this month will help it expand into new markets.

That’s probably a good omen, since SoftBank has a history of investing in start-ups that have gone on to become household names, including Alibaba, Uber and Doordash.

DÉJÀ VU FOR BATTERY MAKER

We got an odd sense of déjà vu this week when Brisbane battery maker Redflow trumpeted its success in rustling up another $9.7m from investors.

The loss-making firm headed by Tim Harris only managed to raise just over half of its $17.7m target.

Much the same thing happened the last time the company went to the market cap in hand.

Back in June last year, Redflow pulled in $6.9m, well short of its $22.9m goal.

Still, there are some promising signs for the firm, which specialises in “zinc-bromine flow” batteries suited for industrial use.

It secured a $5m investment from US private equity outfit New Technology Capital Group LLC last month and there’s potential for another $5m to come in the next three years.

Redflow also chalked up its biggest global battery sale to date in March, a $1.5m deal to supply 192 batteries for a bioenergy plant in California.