Life360's "Find My Family, Friends, Phone" app is currently the sixth most popular social networking app on iOS. It includes free features such as location sharing and has a $7.99 per month Driver Protect plan that includes crash detection and roadside assistance. The majority of its 20 million monthly active users are in the U.S., concentrated in southern states like Georgia and Mississippi.
When Hulls and his family were in Australia on vacation in 2017, Synge suggested that he sit down with representatives of the ASX. Synge knew the company was preparing to raise another round of capital and he wanted Hulls to explore the possibility of taking the unusual route of going public in Australia.
Hulls said one of the key things that attracted him was that the ASX presented a viable way to avoid late-stage U.S. investment firms, who can offer quite a lot of money for start-ups but also add unfavorable terms for founders. For example, their money can come with preferences that make it hard for employees to make much money in an IPO or acquisition.
Meanwhile, there's rising demand in Australia for more tech companies to join the ASX and provide some high-growth diversity, said Max Cunningham, ASX's executive general manager of listings and issuer services. Currently, about 65% of the company in the S&P ASX 200 benchmark index are in the mining and financial sectors, he said.