INVESTING IN APPS TO BE THE NEXT BIG THING

INVESTORS wanting an easy return are shying away from traditional stocks, and exploiting the 'significant investment opportunities' that exist in the mobile and tablet app market, says general manager of AMMA App investments Adam Courtney (pictured). 

Headquartered on the Gold Coast, AMMA App Investments specialises in commercialising apps and manages a number of boutique investments in the technology, mobile and environmental space.

Courtney says with the Queensland Government's recent $76 million cash injection into nurturing the state's entrepreneurs and technology sector, there is an increase in investors finding more opportunity for their money in the app market.

He says investors are moving away from sectors such as banking and mining and searching for viable investment opportunities that embrace the state's changing commercial landscape.

"They are looking for other options where there is some considerable upscale and, let's face it, technology is only ramping up and it is starting to consume our lives in all sorts of ways," he says.

"The app space is one of the fastest growing areas in the technology sector and provides a great investment vehicle for savvy investors.

"The app space, software and technology is only going to strengthen in the future."

AMMA App Investments was founded 18 months ago and since then has assisted in the growth and commercialisation of a number of applications, including The Modern Practice Portal by HubOne - an award-winning cloud-based business management software.

AMMA App Investments helped to raise funds to commercialise the HubOne software which Courtney says has changed the landscape of accounting firms worldwide through its unique subscription model for practice and document management.

The investment group seeks to reduce the technology risk by investing in proven concepts and all investment applications must be live and generating revenue to receive expansion capital.

Courtney says it's quite easy to develop and take an app to market, but creating sustainable and profitable products is the challenge.

"What AMMA App investments is all about is basically taking really good ideas and making them profitable and sustainable for the long term," he says.

"That is what happened with HubOne - they had a fantastic piece of technology and I guess they were struggling to commercialise it, and they needed a little bit of additional funding.

"They needed to take some steps to do a bit of extra development so the capital we provided, the commercialisation experience and the advice and consultancy, has helped them deliver a pre-eminent software package."

Courtney says the company has seen a tremendous return on applications in the enterprise division.

"Enterprise applications traditionally provide businesses with solutions to complex issues, adding measureable value to an organisation's business through technological developments," he says.

"It's a very powerful proposition to be able to offer increases in productivity and cost benefits associated with cloud-based platforms."

Courtney says AMMA App Investments aims to strengthen its business model while adding further diversity in its investment portfolio.

"Ultimately we are on a growth curve. We have gone through our first 18 months of development and we have got five investments under the banner at the moment in our investment portfolio.

"And we would probably like to put on that many investments each year over the next five years."

AMMA App Investments is part of the broader AMMA Private Equity Group.