Don't Be Put Off By Tech Floats As Long As You Understand What They Do (By Andrew Main)

Are we being inundated with technology floats? That depends on who you talk to, and of course that question entirely evades the issue of whether they are any good. Those of us who remember the dot com boom of 1999-2000 will inevitably throw an element of caution into our decision making but these companies are more than just an idea: several of them are actually making real money. Another factor is that around one in five of the new companies seeking ASX listing are based offshore. That’s not a negative. Two of the stocks whose IPOs closed in the last week, DroneShield [ASX: DRO] and 9 Spokes [ASX: 9SP], are overseas based and both closed off early because of solid investor demand. The first is based in the US, run by Australians, while the second is from New Zealand. There are push and pull factors at work here. One push factor is that early stage funding for technology companies is actually hard to get in many countries, unless they go the hazardous and highly competitive venture capital route, more: (VIEW LINK)