New and upcoming UK IPOs: Windward, 4GLOBAL, Ondine, LADbible

We will be focusing on recent and upcoming UK IPOs listed on the LSE and what they do. The investment opportunities covered are Windward Ltd., 4GLOBAL PLC, Ondine Biomedical Inc. and LADbible Group Media.

Windward Ltd.

Opening date 06 December 2021

Issue price 155p

Market cap £163.28m

Ticker WNWD

At the helm Ami Daniel

Daniel has been the co-founder and CEO of Windward since April 2009. Prior to founding the company, he served as Naval Officer from 2002 to 2008.

He was previously nominated as one of the ’40 Most Promising Businesspeople Under 40’ and ’40 Most Promising Managers Under 40’, as well as received awards like The Ilan Ramon Award for Leadership and Excellence and the Israeli President’s Award for Social Activism.

What they do

Windward is a predictive intelligence company fusing artificial intelligence and big data in the maritime industry. This IPO marked the first time a maritime technology company was ever publicly traded. The company benefits from its annual subscription-based business model and generated an annual contract value of US$ 19.7 million (unaudited) as of 30 September 2021.

Windward helps organisations make decisions in compliance, logistics and security by providing actionable predictive intelligence, and covering real-time insights into ownership structure, cargo and vessel behaviours. The firm’s partners range from banks, energy companies, governments, insurance to ship owners, with renowned global customers such as BP, Shell, HSBC, the US Department of Defence and the United Nations. The company creates value by assisting its customers in KYC, due diligence, vetting and law enforcement processes and by providing immediate actionable recommendations with 4 times fewer false positives.

The capital raised in the IPO will be used to accelerate growth, which will entail acquisitions of complementary products and improvement of its platform. Recently, the company has also won a £4million contract with Sports England for access to its data platform.

4GLOBAL PLC

Opening date 07 December 2021

Issue price 91p

Market cap £24m

Ticker 4GBL

At the helm Eloy Mazon

Mazon is the CEO and Senior Partner of the consulting arm of 4GLOBAL. In the past 20 years, he held an array of positions for various games and tournaments, with most of the roles targeted at risk and security assessment. For instance, he served in the UK Government Sector Advisory Group for Major Sporting Events between 2013 and 2020 and worked as an independent advisor for World Rugby’s tournaments around the world from 2017 to 2019. He completed an MBA at Imperial College London as well as holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a Master of Engineering.

What they do

4GLOBAL is a sports and activities data, services and software company based in the UK. The company converts its proprietary data into actionable insights, helping clients promote sports participation and reduce physical inactivity. 4GLOBAL generates recurring revenues from licensing its platform to clients as well as service revenues related to its data platform.

The company is one of the biggest physical activities databases in the world. Although only founded in 2002,  it has assisted in many sporting events, such as the Tokyo, Rio and London Olympics, 2020 UEFA European Football Championships and the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The company supports governments and cities in tackling physical inactivity problems. Some of its clients include the U.K. Government, Saudi Arabia and Manchester. Additionally, 4GLOBAL offers services for activity providers like the Football Association (FA) and The Gym Group, helping them predict customer behaviour and identify new opportunities.

Ondine Biomedical Inc. (“Ondine”)

Opening date 06 December 2021

Issue price 53.41p

Market cap £103.9m

Ticker OBI

At the helm Carolyn Cross

Cross is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Ondine since 2000. She has more than 30 years of experience in public market securities. Previously, she worked as a Vice President in managing institutional and private client funds at Royal Bank Investment Management Inc. She is a CFA and holds an MBA from York University and an HBA from the University of Western Ontario.

What they do

Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Ondine is a life sciences company that develops and commercialises therapies for bacterial, viral and fungal infections. Specifically, it focuses on its patented light-activated technology, namely, photodisinfection. Recent research suggests the use of nasal photodisinfection as a potential method of rapidly destroying COVID-19.

Photodisinfection destroys target pathogens painlessly and without encouraging the formation and spread of antibiotic resistance. Ondine’s lead product, Steriwave, has been deployed by Canadian hospitals for ten years and has since significantly reduced hospital-acquired infections. The two-step process is minimally invasive, easy and suitable for repetitive use. Approved in Canada, Europe and a few other countries, it is still going through clinical trials for approval in the US.

Currently, the company has numerous anti-infective products in the pipeline, including topical antiviral therapy for the upper respiratory tract (COVID-19, influenza, RSV, etc.), treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis and decolonisation of burns and wounds.

UPCOMING: LADbible Group Media (“LBG”)

Opening date Mid December 2021

Issue price TBC

Market cap Expected to be £360m

Ticker LBG

At the helm Alexander Solomou

Solomou is the founder and CEO at LBG. The entrepreneur co-founded LBG with Arian Kalantari when he was still a business management student at Leeds University in 2012. He is now the top shareholder of the Group.

What they do

LBG is a group of prominent UK digital media and youth content publishers with around 28 billion content views every year globally. The company operates in both in-house and third-party content across many mediums, including video, editorial, image and audio as well as new technology like virtual and augmented reality.

The company has a portfolio of ten specialist brands targeted at different interest points, all of which are designed to improve engagement and relevance on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube and Tik Tok. The Group had a record year in 2020, doubling profits to £4.1m with sales at £30.2m. Its commercial clients include NHS, Disney+, Ford, Microsoft and Netflix.

Bernice Ng