Since its admission to AIM last November – when it raised £4 million from Gartmore, Invesco and an array of private client brokers – Software Radio Technology (SRT) has done its level best to impress the market. Its biggest achievement was to unveil full year results showing turnover more than doubled to £3.13 million and, while losses also leapt 50 per cent, this was at least in line with expectations.

New contracts were signed, generating fees for the transfer of SRT’s wireless technology. Further royalties from the pre-mass-production manufacture of products using its proprietary platform will begin to flow in Q4 this year. This will, hopefully, cancel out losses incurred from crucial product development.

Given that SRT seems to be on the verge of a breakthrough, it’s no surprise that founder and commercial director Simon Tucker is leaking enthusiasm from every pore.

Trainspiration

For Tucker, SRT is a classic example of what can result from overhearing a conversation on a train. ‘Everyone earwigs on the train don’t they? I know I do. Anyway, in April 2002, I was listening to a guy sat a few feet away complaining that Securicor was trying to sell its wireless technology division, saying that it was a great business… had loads of potential… fantastic technology… just needed investment and direction, etc etc. So, on leaving the train, I tapped the guy on the shoulder and gave him my card. Twenty-four hours later he called me, I went to visit the company and everything took off from there.’

Gadgets and gizmos aplenty

‘Walking through the doors, it was like entering Q’s lab in a James Bond film, with engineers scurrying round developing amazing technology. They had been solving wireless technology issues for companies like Nokia and Motorola, but I felt the business could be run more commercially. The sheer volume of intellectual property it held also made it an attractive proposition.’

With backing from private investors, Tucker bought the company for £525,000 and the business model was changed to a so-called ‘reference design license’ approach, focused on two distinct opportunities – TETRA (a wireless standard, like GSM, but with military-level encryption for digital professional mobile radio systems) and AIS (Automatic Identification System for ships and boats, which the International Maritime Organisation has made a requirement for all large vessels).
 
First sell locally…

Tucker admits that he’s not a ‘tech-geek’ himself – ‘I hardly even use text messages’ – but he knows a good opportunity when he sees one, has an uncanny ability to sell to the Asian market and has a history of setting up successful businesses. After leaving Birmingham University, ‘I did various things to keep my head above water,’ he says, quirky highlights including his chocolate mousse business supplying Harrods from his tiny flat in Vauxhall, a cigarette vending business he came across at a party and a large screen TV company supplying major pub chains.

‘I cut my teeth in international trade when importing scooters from the Far East,’ he recalls. ‘They turned up without front wheels – that was a learning curve on checking the small print in overseas deals!’

…and then take on the world

SRT licenses its technology to manufacturers supplying TETRA mobile radio systems to those requiring a secure method of communication, such as the police and military. Each customer pays initial fees for the technology transfer, then ongoing royalties for every product manufactured using all or some of SRT’s electronic blueprint.

‘Every time a manufacturer makes a handset using our technology, we get $30,’ enthuses Tucker. ‘The handsets are going into production at the end of this year, which our entire business model has been geared towards.’

Regarding the AIS side of SRT’s model, Tucker says, ‘Tracking vessels is a key part of homeland security, so having taken the risky decision to invest in AIS-standard technology for the last three years, SRT is now the at the forefront of that market as well, with the only fully-compliant technology in the world.’ It’s all blue-sky high-risk stuff but Tucker is ready for the ride.

Software Radio Technology	AIM	£10.03m	10.25p	0.00p
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Other company articles:
SRT wins Lifeboat support			02/08/2007
Strangers on a train			03/04/2007
Software Radio seeks new funds			29/03/2007
Profits in sight, says SRT			07/03/2007
In the Hot Seat with Sally Giles			08/08/2006