THAT simple ideas can take significant amounts of money, time and research effort to bring to market readiness is not news to the team at Intierra.
The idea was to gather a range of information important to the resource sector, from licence deals to mining news and maps, and deliver it in a single, succinct online information package.
It sounds great in today’s environment but when Intierra managing director Rod Pridmore first pitched the idea in 2000 the dot.com bubble had burst and the resource sector was in a downturn.
But directors and senior staff in junior and mid-cap mining companies saw merit in the project and invested their own money to give the venture a kick start.
That was followed by $1.5 million in funding from Entrepreneurs in Residence and Foundation Capital.
The investors agreed with Mr Pridmore that there was a need to bring together diverse information so people could make better decisions.
“People are struggling for context,” Mr Pridmore said.
“You get announcements about resolutes and you want to know where it is, who has the right to strike, and how much gold the district has produced. You need the answers so people know what to do in response to those announcements.
“We provide context for the industry.”
But while it’s a simple idea – gaining access to industry publi-cations, government announce-ments, maps and other data – compiling it in an efficient and user-friendly way was a big job.
Intierra formed in June 2000 to do just that, making deals around the globe to get the information.
Intierra now takes content from 50 organisations.
The company aims to reach revenue of $1.4 million this year, thanks to the fact that more than half of the world’s 24 largest mining companies in terms of market capitalisation are subscribers to its service.
“We have had a good response in our domestic market and we are in the middle of rapid overseas expansion,” Mr Pridmore said.
“The biggest market by far is North America and to expedite that we merged with a business in Canada called Mineral Information Maps. They have existing clients in more than 250 companies.
“The other side of our expansion plan is to merge with key content providers.”
Intierra successfully did this in Perth in 2003 when it merged with Minmet.
Intierra launched its subscriber information service in August 2002 following significant investment.
“We had our commercial launch in 2003, we merged with Minmet in November 2003 and Mineral Information Maps in 2004. Now we are a global business with 40 per cent of our revenue coming from outside of Australia,” Mr Pridmore said.
INTIERRA FACTS
• Delivers a range of resources information in a single online package.
• Kick start funding from mid-cap mining companies, followed by $1.5m from Entrepreneurs in Residence and Foundation Capital.
• Subscriber service launched in August 2002.
• Intierra now takes content from 50 organisations and has many of the world’s biggest mining companies as subscribers.
• Commercial launch in 2003.
• Merged with Minmet in November 2003 and Mineral Information Maps in 2004.
• 40 per cent of Intierra’s revenue comes from overseas.
