IND Technology
IND Technology is a Victorian business that provides a highly innovative technology known as the EFD® to some of the world’s largest utility companies and asset holders to predict and locate electrical faults before they occur.
Need
IND Technology needed working capital to help it fulfil multiple orders from North American utility companies for its early fault detection (EFD®) technology.
Solution
We provided a loan to IND Technology, which helped fund the gap in its payment cycle, enabling the business to cover costs associated with manufacturing and delivering its orders.
IND Technology began trading in 2013 from a small storage shed in Victoria. The business was formed to manufacture and sell its revolutionary technology, EFD®, invented by Alan Wong, Founder and CEO.
EFD® allows utility companies to monitor large electricity grids, identifying and fixing defects in the system early before they become outages. This helps avoid the major disruption of power supply cuts to businesses, communications, utilities and homes. Just as importantly, it can help avoid electrical faults that can spark wildfires and save lives.
The business started, serving major private and state-based Australian grid owners and operators. In 2019, it was approached by a Californian utility company that was looking for technology that would help it avoid electrical faults that could start devastating wildfires.
At the time we started working with Export Finance Australia, we couldn’t secure finance from other banks to fund our growth – Export Finance Australia really filled that gap.
Alan Wong
Founder and CEO, IND Technology
Andrew Walsh, Chief Operating Officer at IND Technology, said the business had a head start in bushfire prevention because of the insights it had drawn from the Black Saturday fires in Australia, where six of the eleven bushfires were ignited by powerline faults.
“The Californian utility was looking for an innovative way to prevent fires,” said Andrew. “That’s exactly what our technology offers – it works like a check engine light in the car to let you know there’s a problem before the engine stops working.”
Bridging the payment cycle gap
After winning some large contracts throughout North America, IND Technology heard about Export Finance Australia. The team was looking for finance to help fund the gap in their payment cycle while manufacturing and delivering large orders to their North American customers.
We provided IND Technology with a loan, which the business uses to help manage its working capital.
“The process of working with Export Finance Australia was very professional,” said Kok Wai Leu, Co-founder and CFO.
“It was the same as a commercial bank evaluation process. We just had to do projections and make sure that we were able to justify our need for financing.”
An Australian innovation in global markets
IND Technology’s EFD® is now used by prominent utility companies across Australia, the USA and Canada. The business grew by a compound annual growth rate of 75% in two years from 2022 and now has offices in New York and Kuala Lumpur, in addition to its Victorian headquarters and manufacturing facilities.
Founder and CEO, Alan Wong, said that being able to access finance from Export Finance Australia has meant the business did not need to find other sources of finance – such as selling part of the business to a private equity or venture capital firm.
“It’s allowed us to keep our business Australian,” said Alan. “We didn’t have to let go of control of what we do. The finance has really allowed us that freedom.”
