CXi sets course for scale up
CXi Software has ended the financial year with a strong quarter of activity, as it moves from a “start up” to a “scale up” business model.
The company made a number of new senior management appointments in March and April – which preceded a move to new (and larger) premises on Queen Street in Melbourne’s CBD. The company also completed a Series A capital raising over the same period.
New staff
Adam Gernon was recently appointed as Chief Technology Officer, joining CXi from CenITex, where he was General Manager, Innovation and Delivery. Prior to CenITex, Adam had over 10 years’ experience in financial services technology at organisations such as NAB, Vanguard Investments and Credit Suisse, working predominately in the applications space. Adam will report to Managing Director, Séamus Ó Concheanainn, who said “We are delighted to have a resource of Adam’s calibre join the CXi team. Since joining CXi, he has had a very positive impact on the scalability of our business and delivery to existing and prospective clients – including our new investor portal capability, which we will be rolling out to clients in early July”.
Concurrently, CXi also appointed Chris Aylen as Chief Operating Officer. Chris has 25 years’ experience in financial services and extensive experience working with registry systems. Chris’ recent roles included Head of Operations, Fund Services at OneVue, Head of Fund Accounting and Administration at Vanguard Investments and CFO at Lachlan Partners. “Chris’ appointment gives CXi the operational capacity we needed to move to realise our scale up ambitions”, said Mr Ó Concheanainn, who added “he is very highly regarded in the funds management industry and has added significantly to our client outcomes in a very short period”.
Daryl Webb has been appointed as Director of Sales in March 2018. Daryl Webb has spent the majority of his working life involved in roles based around financial market trading and risk management software system, including for Sungard in Australia. He has also successfully run a couple of small businesses, creating alignment with many of the boutique fund managers who are looking to CXi for an enterprise solution at an affordable price.
New premises
CXi relocated to 50 Queen Street in Melbourne’s CBD, taking a long-term lease on 400sqm. “This office move allows us to scale our business, both in terms of accommodation for up to 35 staff and in terms of the modern fitout and new dedicated infrastructure that we have acquired at the same time as we made our move”, said Mr Aylen, who also commented that “the premises are ideal for a DevOps company delivering software in an Agile environment”.
Completion of Series A funding
In May, CXi completed at $2.25m Series A funding round with convertible loan notes, underwritten by an independent Melbourne multi-family office. The deal also included access to $0.75m in a factored finance revolving facility.
Sales
“The level of sales enquiries in the June Quarter was very exciting – though not surprising”, said Mr Webb. He continued: “We have been fielding enquiries and assisting with trials of the software for entities across all major Australian capitals and in New Zealand. We expect to make a number of very exciting announcements during the remainder of 2018”.
