High-growth video analytics provider Big Sofa Technologies (BST:AIM) makes a big splash in debut AIM dealings with its shares jumping 23.5% to 21p.

Investors are keen to cosy up to the London-based tech company. It offers a play on the booming market for video analytics being driven by the proliferation of smartphones and tablets.

For more detail on Big Sofa, a provider of video analytics at an enterprise level, you can pick through the admission document.

In short, its cloud-based analytics platform enables users to ingest, manage, search and perform detailed analysis on the content of any video, from any device, across any spoken language.

CHANGING SITUATION

Until recently, video has been difficult and expensive to capture, upload, store, manage and analyse as a consumer insight tool.

However, Big Sofa's platform for video analytics gives consumer brands and market research agencies the ability to manage, organise and search video content at speed and scale from multiple sources, as well as mine data, analyse and gain an understanding from large volumes of video 'in a time and cost efficient manner'.

SUCCESSFUL IPO

Big Sofa joins the junior AIM exchange having raised £6.1m at 17p to accelerate near-term growth opportunities with key customers.

The current roster is impressive, spanning major brand owners and international companies such as Procter and Gamble (PG:NYSE), Unilever (ULVR), British Airways and Public Health England, as well as renowned market research companies including Ipsos, Flamingo, Kantar and GfK.

The listing will also help Big Sofa expand its business in the vast US market and provide a currency for acquisitions.

Given the opening day pop in the share price, investors are clearly excited by the growth potential on offer.

As Big Sofa explains, the market for video analytics is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate in excess of 20% per annum to £7.19bn by 2023, with video expected to account for 79% of all consumer internet traffic by 2020, up from 63% in 2015.

Big Sofa Technologies Group - Screen Shot 1

The proliferation of smartphones and tablets is transforming video into a fundamental means of communication, between companies and consumers and between consumers themselves.

Mobile data traffic is expected to grow at three times the rate of fixed IP traffic between 2014 and 2019, and between April and September 2015, the number of videos being played back each day on Facebook doubled from 4bn to 8bn video views per day.

Chief executive Simon Lidington, insists 'Big Sofa is at the forefront of helping major brands and consumer insight agencies make genuine use of their video content in order to better understand customer behaviour.

'Our belief is that video is transforming the consumer insight sector; but to be truly valuable, brands and agencies need to be able to manage the vast amounts of video content they acquire. Big Sofa's technology enables them to do exactly that.'

So far, so exciting, although risk-averse investors should note Big Sofa made a £964,000 loss on £452,913 turnover for the 15 months to 30 April 2016. Since then, it has remained loss-making while it invests in its infrastructure and staffing headcount.

Admission Document 2016

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Issue Date: 19 Dec 2016