AIM New Business of the Year 2008

Business description: Bringing banking to mobile, Monitise raised £22.2m when it listed on AIM in June last year. Founded by Lukies and CTO Steve Atkinson, the chief architect of Vodafone, it initially grew as a corporate venture within Morse Plc, before a de-merger. It has formed partnerships with major players HSBC, Alliance & Leicester, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and BT Global Services, among many others, and was named a ‘technology pioneer’ by the World Economic Forum in 2006.

Judges’ comments: The potential for Monitise’s technology is huge, the judges felt; it could transcend many others and really transform an entire sector. And this was backed up by the confidence of investors who pumped £22.2m into the business to fund growth, as well as the major banking institutions and mobile players that have signed up to its concept. There’s no doubt a clear thought process that has gone into the building of this business: from its corporate venturing with Morse Plc in order to be taken seriously by the major banks, right through to its de-merger and the timing of its flotation on AIM to maximise fundraising.

AIM is sometimes used in an opportunistic way, but this doesn’t appear to be the case here. There is a risk to selecting Monitise for this category over some well-established, excellent and growing businesses, but if its technology becomes the standard for the industry that will be extremely compelling and could not be ignored.

www.monitisegroup.com