Fadel Partners Inc, which handles automated rights management for Marvel Entertainment and other big brands, has become the fifth float on London's AIM so far in 2023, raising £8mln via a share placing and loan.
Headquartered in New York, the company's initial public offer run by broker finnCap is a slight reversal of what has seemed a one-way flow of UK companies going to list in the USA in the past few years.
The brand compliance and rights and royalty management software provider will have a market cap of just under £29mln based on the placing price of 144p.
Founder Tarek Fadel, who set up the group in 2003, said the board believes "AIM is a natural fit for Fadel as it has a proven track record for helping technology companies achieve their growth ambitions".
He said completion of the IPO "represents the beginning of a new chapter and this investment will allow us to expedite our growth strategy to scale alongside the rapidly expanding digital content and IP market and to capitalise on the significant opportunity available to us".
New cash raised as part of the IPO will be used by the company to invest in sales, marketing, R&D and provide general working capital.
As well as early adopter Marvel, clients include media groups Conde Nast, Hachette, ITV PLC (LSE:ITV), the Financial Times, Hello, Reach PLC (LSE:RCH), The Telegraph, Dennis,
Its two main product suites are IPM, a rights and royalty management software for publishers, and Brand Vision, a platform for brand compliance and monitoring.
These provide automated talent and content rights management across videos, photos, ads, music, products and brands, "combining the power of rights management and content compliance with sophisticated content services, AI-powered visual search and image and video recognition", according to its website.
Brand management aims to "eliminate content misuse and maximise asset reuse", checking if publication or social media users are using brand images without permission - though hopefully using the attached image from Marvel's Black Widow constitutes 'fair use'.