Aussie tech companies take on giants on world stage

Australian technology firms are beginning to get runs on the board as they seek markets in the US, Europe and other countries.

Israel is the traditional small-country source of new global technology. Inspired by the Atlassian example, Australian technology enterprises are beginning to get runs on the board as they seek markets in the US, Europe and other countries.

And many are prepared to suffer considerable losses as they seek to entrench themselves in overseas markets, although in Australia there is limited market toleration for long-term technology development. Those which list on NASDAQ experience large fluctuations in share price.

Not surprisingly, overseas companies are now taking a greater interest Down Under.

Australian technology enterprises are beginning to get runs on the board as they seek markets in the US, Europe and other countries. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

To illustrate, this week a most unlikely deal took place when one of the world’s largest construction machinery manufacturers, Japan’s Hitachi Group, outlaid $10m to buy 12 per cent of Envirosuite – an incredibly small deal for a company with annual revenue of $14bn.

Moreover, Envirosuite lost around $32m last year to bring total losses to just short of $100m. Hitachi looked past the current losses and saw the Envirosuite technology as a way to springboard the Japanese giant into monitoring greenhouse gas emissions in mining, aviation and many other industries.

This sort of data is being increasingly required by governments and accounting bodies. Major companies are demanding their suppliers follow them in monitoring.

Envirosuite has developed sensors which can be strategically placed in mining, industrial and airport sites to analyse and report back emission results in real time, enabling an operation to quickly adjust. The systems are designed to help industries manage environmental impacts proactively, not only to optimise operational performance but reduce risks.

Envirosuite’s global client base includes mining customers like BHP, Vale, and Teck Resources.

Airports which use the Australian pollution monitoring technology include Heathrow, Dublin, Salzburg and Charlotte Douglas International in the US. With that client base, Envirosuite should be performing much better and no doubt Hitachi will make sure management improves as well as substantially widening the customer base.

Australian technology companies are attracting a lot of interest from international players. Picture: iStock

Two years ago, AML3D was in a similar situation to Envirosuite. AML3D, which makes components which can be printed, had only enough cash to last six months.

Then the US navy recognised the Australian 3D printing technology as world-class and selected it for an important role in the development of the next stage of the US nuclear submarine program — the first Australian company to be awarded such a role.

It’s now two years later and the Australian technology has worked brilliantly, with the company forging deeper in the US defence area.

Since the Bali bombing one of the best known Australian technologies is the Perth-based burn treatment process, but extending the technology beyond Perth proved difficult until the US Federal Drug Administration embraced it, not just for burns but for other skin defects.

The difficult journey cost the developing company Avita more than $330m, but the technology is now set to move from the US into Europe and Japan.

The Australian “leader” in technology development loss-making is Atlassian. On the journey to establish its software, Atlassian lost around US$2.5bn. Despite the losses, the Nasdaq-listed company is capitalised at around $US142bn. The US market is looking to the future.

Another Australian technology impacting the world comes in a most unlikely field — detecting and enforcing laws against mobile phone use and seatbelt violations,

Acusensus has rapidly become a global leader in intelligent traffic enforcement using imaging and artificial intelligence technologies. The company’s flagship solution, *Heads-Up* was embraced by NSW and later Queensland and is now being used in parts of Europe and the US.

Of course, Australia is best known for its mining, which helped little-known unlisted Australian Explorer K2O Potash Corp to defeat one of Poland’s largest mining groups and be awarded the rights to develop part of the extensive Polish potash deposits.

Before World War II Poland produced potash and was much larger, incorporating Ukraine. After the war, a much smaller Poland went behind the Iron Curtain. Russia wanted the region’s potash requirements satisfied by mines in Russia and Belarus.

Accordingly, Polish potash remained dormant. With the improved outlook for potash and attention returning to Poland, K2O won the rights to develop two significant exploration licences for potash in Western Poland, because its plan involved new leaching technologies to extract the required material rather than conventional mining.

In Canada, BHP is developing a much larger potash deposit, involving billions in outlays and conventional mining. If K20’s plans to use Australian leeching technology succeed the capital and operating costs will be much lower and Polish potash will be much more acceptable in Europe, including Ukraine, than Russian and Belarusian potash.

BHP's Jansen Potash project in Canada. Picture: Supplied