Datagate appoints business development manager

Datagate appoints business development manager

07 February 2017, AUCKLAND. New Zealand cloud software start-up Datagate Innovation Limited has appointed telco expert Julian Rivers-Smith as a Business Development Manager.

For customers including a network of Spark resellers and one of New Zealand’s largest IT services companies, Datagate’s cloud billing solution provides online billing, reporting and customer self-service for usage-based services.

Julian Rivers-Smith has over a decade of experience in the New Zealand telecommunications industry. He joins Datagate from an independent contracting role managing 2talk, an early stage telco provider started by CallPlus founder Malcolm Dick and Ray Jackson. He was one of the original staff at 2talk, looking after account management, building up its reseller channel and designing VoIP, Fibre and WAN solutions for customers.

Datagate is hiring salespeople after raising more than a million dollars in fresh capital last year, says CEO Mark Loveys.

“This new appointment is part of our broader growth strategy for the New Zealand and North American markets,” he says.

“Julian has strong relationships throughout the New Zealand telco reseller market. He has the sales and technical expertise to accelerate customer acquisition in what is fertile ground for us. We now have a base of happy customers to prove that we save them significant costs, while offering them new recurring sales opportunities and solving the difficult challenges of metered billing. There is huge headroom for growth in New Zealand and overseas.”

Formerly a wholly-owned division of NZAX-listed Enprise Group (ENS), in 2015 Datagate was established as a joint venture between Enprise Group and new investors, including the Ice Angels, NZVIF, Flying Kiwi Angels and Datagate management. First round seed funding of $1.46 million was raised and a separate board established, BankLink founder Malcolm McDonald joined the board as a director, Dr Jens Neiser was appointed chairman and Enprise CEO & co-founder Mark Loveys was appointed CEO. At the end of 2016, a second seed capital round was oversubscribed, raising over $1 million and adding Enterprise Angels as a new investor and Arron Patterson (the Asia-Pacific-Japan CTO of Dell-EMC) as a non-executive director.

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