Sport-focused technology company Guscio PLC (LON:GUSC) lists on Aim on Tuesday with a boost from kindly old generous George Osborne.
Yes, that George Osborne; the one who is chancellor of the Exchequer and who, at the last Budget, not only announced the introduction of the much ballyhooed sugar tax but also said the money raised would be diverted to double the amount of funding the government dedicates to sport in every primary school.
It is a tremendous market opportunity for Guscio, which has products that directly address the requirements of sports departments in primary schools, and other organisations for that matter.
The company has first mover advantage in this market, thanks to its investment in two companies – Sportsdata and Dataplay.
Sportsdata's skills2achieve tool is a web-based technology that enables schools to track and assess progress in what the company calls “physical literacy”.
Speaking to Proactive Investors, managing director Gail Ganney apologised cheerfully for the phrase “physical literacy”, but it is handy to have a short-hand term for a subject that – unlike some schoolchildren – covers a lot of ground.
In this case, the phrase is short-hand for a range of abilities that go beyond simply tracking how fast a child can run, or how good their hand-to-eye co-ordination is, to the whole gamut of skills that can be developed through sport, such as team-work, creativity, social interaction and leadership.
You can add in a healthy dollop of health and nutrition planning and tracking into the mix as well.
“Initially, there can be a bit of resistance to the introduction of the system, as teachers fear it will be yet more paperwork, but they quickly come to appreciate that it actually leads to less paperwork and a more thorough tracking of the children in their group,” Ganney explained.
With close to 21,000 primary schools in the UK, Ganney said Guscio is targeting having some 18,000 of those on board, which just happens to be the number of schools in which its partner, the Youth Sport Trust charity, has products and programmes.
Ganney described the Youth Sport Trust as “the best partner we could have”.
The other part of the business is Dataplay, a white-label platform for the tracking and assessment of performance in sports.
As Ganney put it, everything is about return on investment these days, with even charities – or perhaps especially charities – and schools expected to quantify “bangs for the buck”, and the Dataplay platform makes this process easier.
The intellectual property is wholly-owned by Dataplay and not dependent on any third party software. Tiered access to the service enables customers to progressively add more elements to their package as their requirements change.
Both businesses are relatively early stage, and the listing, Ganney told Proactive, will raise the company's profile and generate £1.5mln in fresh capital that can be used to develop and market the business.
Based on the listing price of 4p a share, the initial market capitalisation will be £5.4mln.
This is not so much a “blue skies” business as a green fields one. As Ganney stressed, the company has first mover advantage and the perfect partner in The Youth Sport Trust.
With “generous George” in the mood to splash the cash, albeit with more than half an eye on heading off a national obesity crisis that could cost the National Health Service dearly in the future, the timing of Guscio's flotation could hardly have been better.