An Irish technology company is planning a major expansion into the United States market, funded by a flotation on Dublin's Developing Companies' Market and London's Alternative Investment Market.
Rapid Technology Group, based in Dublin, plans to raise £5 million with around 20 per cent of the company's shares being floated, giving the firm an estimated market capitalisation of £25 million. Some 60 per cent of the company - which will be valued at around £15 million - are held by the senior executives, Mr Pat McDonagh, Mr Jim Barry and Mr Roger Bannon. The rest is owned by private shareholders.
The company is to start "roadshow" presentations to investors next week and the flotations will be completed within the next month. It will be a boost to the DCM, as the third company to go on the fledgling market for small companies.
"All of what we raise will be used to expand our sales and marketing operations in the US, and for new product development," said RTG's development director, Mr Jim Barry. Currently, the firm has 10 employees in Dublin and three in Dallas, Texas.
"The problem to date has been that we didn't have enough troops on the ground. One of the first things we'll do, before Christmas, is hire five or six more people in the US," he added.
The company designs and makes keyboards where each button, rather than containing just a single letter of the alphabet, is a mini-display. Linked to the software, the front of the button changes as the user makes choices, presenting the next set of options.
A sales assistant who, for example, pushes the button for fruit and vegetables will see the names of various categories flash up, choosing the one marked "lettuce" it will then drill down to another level, offering all the different types of lettuce.
The keyboard, simple in concept and easy to use without training, was invented by Mr Barry. They are also exceptionally robust; check-out staff at Bruno's, one of the largest supermarket chains in the United States, have been pounding away on some 2,300 of the devices for the past 18 months.
"Computers are not easy for most ordinary people, and Graphic Use Interfaces are getting more and more difficult," he said. "I like something that's simple and easy to use, where I can see my choices."
The software that drives the keyboards was named DataCat, "because it kills mouses", Mr Barry said.
The company, whose chief executive is Mr Patrick McDonagh, a founder of the highly-successful designer CBT, believes that aside from supermarket, restaurant and other point-of-sale use, the product could be a boon in many industries.
"Our second target is the financial services industry. This is an interface that gets you into data in an easy, simple way, and we have found that people working in financial services far prefer the keypad to a touch-screen," Mr Barry added.
