Moxian, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOXC) Raises $10 Million in 2016 Despite Drought in Technology Offerings

Moxian, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOXC) continues to buck the trend. Despite the dearth of technology issues in 2016, the company completed a successful best-efforts public offering of 2,501,250 shares of its common stock at a price of $4.00 per share in November 2016, raising $10 million in new capital. Now, Moxian is poised to extend its unique online-to-offline (O2O) platform to a wider market.

Just as the NASDAQ uplisting raises the company’s investor visibility, this infusion of capital will be used to heighten awareness of Moxian and give it a larger footprint. With its new stash of cash, Moxian is set to continue the O2O commercial innovations it has set in motion.

The IPO Intelligence Report from Renaissance Capital (http://nnw.fm/YvX5A) gives some indication of the market skepticism that afflicted the IPO market when Moxian shares were uplisted. Even though the S&P attained record levels in 2016, the capital raised by new issues fell to the lowest level in 13 years. The lack of activity was particularly noticeable in the technology sector, described in the report as the ‘the bread and butter of the IPO market’.

In light of such obvious risk aversion, Moxian’s successful uplisting signals investor endorsement of its strategy. Unlike other O2O companies that seek to add consumers and then rely on that user base to attract merchants, Moxian signs up merchant clients who pay a fee, and it intends to build a Moxian marketplace by bringing together all of those merchant clients’ customers.

The O2O market is one of great potential, particularly in mainland China, where Moxian has its operations. Inc. magazine recently published its reasons on ‘Why O2O Commerce is a Trillion-Dollar Opportunity’ (http://nnw.fm/os89P). In 2014, Jack Ma’s Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) made a $692 million investment in Chinese department store operator Intime Retail Group. It followed that up in 2015 with two major O2O initiatives.

Together with its affiliate, Ant Financial, the internet giant invested $1 million in a joint venture called Koubei. Later that year, Alibaba formed an alliance with the giant brick-and-mortar Chinese electronics chain Suning Commerce Group. Alibaba now owns about 20 percent of Suning, for which it paid $4.63 billion. Suning, in turn, has put out $2.28 billion to acquire 1.1 percent of Alibaba.

Moxian plans to use most of the proceeds from the issue to expand its business in China and throughout Asia. This will include setting up regional and sales offices in first and second tier cities in China, as well as infrastructure investment for the build-out and expansion of offices in these cities. Some part of the funds will be reserved for general corporate purposes and to finance acquisitions of complementary businesses, assets and technologies.

The market opportunities for Moxian are very promising. In 2014, the China Internet Network Information Center reported that there were approximately 618 million internet users throughout Asian countries, representing a penetration rate of approximately 46 percent. Among these internet users, over 90 percent have a social media account. For comparison, just 67 percent of U.S. internet users engage in social media. However, the opportunity in China extends beyond the ability to reach a large target audience. The Data Center of China Internet reports that 38 percent of users claim they are more likely to buy items recommended by other social media users.

Industry analysts estimate that China’s O2O market reached 418 billion yuan (approximately US$67 billion) in 2016. Moxian believes its platform will be able to capture a substantial part of this market very soon.

For more information, visit www.Moxian.com

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