Being able to consistently deliver out-sized investment returns, is all about managing risk and finding high quality, growth stocks at the right price. We’ve seen this already in 2016 with many such smallcaps, like Keywords Studios, Fevertree Drinks, Boohoo, GW Pharmaceuticals and Tristel. Another stock we think that in due course could join this select band, is FastForward (up 100% since mid Oct’15) which invests exclusively in rapidly expanding technology firms. Today FFWD holds non-controlling positions in nine such privately owned businesses, which we understand are all either meeting or exceeding their internal plans. Here, progress was said to be “incredibly positive and very encouraging” yesterday, with updates being released in relation to three of them.
Firstly, Yooya (15% stake), a Chinese online content streaming platform, is currently generating >1bn monthly video views (vs 700m in August), up 600% YoY – and importantly now offering the scale to attract major international advertisers. It is also worth noting that neither Facebook nor YouTube (Google) are allowed to operate fully in China, meaning that Yooya’s services have a major head-start locally vs these two global operators.
Next, Schoold (12.3% owned) - which is already the market leader with regards to number of US student downloads of its innovative university career counselling App - has just launched its first commercial product (Viewbook) and is gaining significant media exposure. Here, in September the firm was featured by the Huffington Post and Forbes Magazine, with the former describing Schoold as the “The Amazon for Education”. In addition >20 paying US Colleges & Universities have already purchased Viewbook, as part of a possible $5bn pa student advertising market. Looking ahead, Schoold plans to extend its footprint across America’s entire 3,300 colleges/universities asap, along with entering new overseas markets in 2017.
Finally, it was reported that Moon Active (5.9% stake), an Israeli developer of social multi-player casual games, had almost doubled revenues (YoY) for the 3 months ending Sept’16. What’s more, the Board has decided to substantially increase its marketing and personnel to support global expansion, namely in support of its latest and most popular title, Coin Master
