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Presight to use IPO as springboard to global expansion

March 17, 2023

Thomas Pramotedham, CEO at Presight, is confident the company can use its data analytics in the climate change sector — “The health of our balance sheet gives us the potential to accelerate our growth through future capital deployments," said Thomas Pramotedham, CEO of Presight

Analytics company to list on ADX
Aim is to raise $495m
Sees opportunity in climate change and sport sectors

Big data and analytics company Presight is targetting international expansion once they have listed later this month.

The firm, part of Abu Dhabi’s G42, plans to raise $495 million from its floating on the ADX. The subscription period for the initial public offering (IPO), which was 136 times oversubscribed, closed on Friday with a total gross demand amounting to AED94.9 billion ($25.8 billion).

Presight CEO Thomas Pramotedham said it was time to “take the brand out of the UAE and into the Middle East, Central Africa, Central Asia region and even South Asia”.

“Getting through the listing is the beginning of the work we want to do,” Pramotedham said. “It will give us the ability and the capacity to grow exponentially.”

Presight’s first international deal was struck in December 2021 with Angola’s national transformation programme, Digital Angola 2024.

“That showed the world we could take UAE technology, a UAE brand and our UAE successes to neighbouring countries,” Pramotedham said.

In November the company signed a deal with Indonesian healthcare AI company Asa Ren. And at the beginning of this year it signed a memorandum of understanding with Astana Hub, the largest international technology park for IT startups in Central Asia.

Set up in 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic, Presight used big data and analytics algorithms to manage locations of where the virus was spreading in the country and where PCR tests should be concentrated.

It then pivoted to work on the delayed Expo in Dubai in 2021, monitoring the 24 million visitors to help ensure their safety.

“We have found the opportunity as a company every time there was adversity,” Pramotedham said, in reference to the current turbulent economic climate.

Presight’s revenue growth has been strong at $423 million for the financial year ending December 31 2022, up 16 percent on 2021. Pramotedham said this financial performance “has given us the confidence that now is the right time to list”.

This will be the second IPO from G42’s portfolio. Bayanat, a geospatial and data analytics firm, raised $171 million in an IPO in October, backed by US private equity firm Silver Lake.

Further listings include G42 healthcare and AIQ, its joint venture with UAE national energy firm Adnoc, according to reports from Bloomberg. Earlier this month, Adnoc raised $2.5 billion from the IPO of its gas business, breaking the record for the largest listing on the ADX.

“I think we are part of the trailblazers, the early adopters, of really going to the market to tap on the capitalisation that is available here and the liquidity that’s coming into the region,” Pramotedham said.

“The Abu Dhabi Exchange and the UAE have given us a springboard to capitalise on this liquidity and to grow.”

In the UAE, Presight has been involved with the World Police Summit, looking at how big data and analytics can change policing. The company has also been working with the Abu Dhabi Accounting Authority.

Pramotedham said that while sticking to its core business – the $1.2 trillion market to digitise public services across the world – Presight sees opportunity in the climate change sector.

“There is $8 trillion of environmental, social and governance funds looking to find ways of making businesses less environmentally harmful,” he said.

Opportunities also exist for big data in the billion dollar sports industry. Presight has a partnership with cycling’s UAE Tour to sponsor a stage in the women’s and men’s event.

It also became the analytics partner for the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders at the UAE’s inaugural international T20 cricket league.

And through an agreement between parent company G42 and Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1, Presight is looking at ways of deploying AI into the Formula One team’s operations.

“We can pivot into associating and working with a brand like Mercedes, working for a better car, working to get Lewis [Hamilton] up the leaderboard, and looking at how we can use big data and analytics to claim back that championship,” Pramotedham said.

Presight is expected to list on the ADX on March 27.