(Alliance News) - Shares in Smarttech247 Group PLC rose slightly on Thursday, as the company started trading on the AIM market in London, following its initial public offering.

The Cork, Ireland-based artificial intelligence-enhanced cybersecurity services provider said its listing on London's junior market is "a new and exciting chapter" for the company.

Smarttech247 is backed by London-listed investors RiverFort Global Opportunities PLC, Conduity Capital PLC, and Pires Investments PLC. RiverFort has 7.6 million shares, a 6.2% stake, and Conduity has 2.4 million shares. Pires didn't specify its interest in Smarttech247, which is indirect via an about 20% interest in SVV1, a venture capital fund of Sure Valley Ventures.

Smarttech247 raised GBP3.7 million in its IPO, saying this will be used to support its expansion into new products and geographies, development of its technology, and for general working capital purposes.

Smarttech had a market capitalisation of GBP36.8 million on admission, having priced shares at 29.66 pence each. The stock was quoted at 30.48p early Thursday afternoon, up 2.8% from its IPO price.

Smarttech recently launched two new security software products, VisionX and ThreatHub, with VisionX winning two multi-year contracts within months of its launch in back in June, the company noted.

"The AIM quotation represents an important milestone for the company to support our continued development of proprietary technology, increase our international presence and deliver new, innovative cybersecurity solutions," Chief Executive Officer Raluca Saceanu said on Thursday.

The IPO was run by Spark Advisory Partners Ltd as nominated advisor and Shard Capital Partners LLP as broker.

By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor

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