Cloud M
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Cloud M was an Auckland, New Zealand software company founded by Richard Gill that built mobile-first B2B applications for education, healthcare, public safety and events. Its best-known product was Alerter, an emergency communications platform deployed by Auckland's Civil Defence & Emergency Management in 2012, and the company did the initial development of the Blerter incident-communications product. In 2019/2020 it pivoted to software for sports and entertainment events, aiming to help organizers deliver events in a safer, smarter way.
02 / Cloud M FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
The company's events-industry product was launching in 2019/2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, devastating the events sector. According to the liquidator's first report, the company was unable to raise the capital needed to scale up and continue development as demand disappeared. Its intellectual property was sold, and the shareholders placed the company into liquidation in March 2022 to prevent further losses to creditors.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Liquidation
NZ Gazette 2022-al849: on 8 Mar 2022 shareholders resolved under Companies Act 1993 s241(2)(a) to liquidate Cloud M Limited (Auckland) and appoint Meltzer Mason liquidators; creditors were invited to claim by 15 Apr 2022.
- Liquidation
NZ Gazette 2022-ds4488 (19 Oct 2022): liquidators filed a final report and gave notice of intention to remove Cloud M Limited from the New Zealand Register (objections due 18 Nov 2022).
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Launched in 2019-2020, its product ran straight into the COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated the sports and entertainment events industry; the company could not raise the expansion and R&D funding it needed.
- 02
Its intellectual property was sold at an undisclosed price to preserve value for creditors.
- 03
Shareholders voted to enter liquidation on March 8, 2022; the liquidator's report showed a pre-liquidation bank balance of about NZ$13,000 (roughly US$8,300).
- 04
No audited loss figure was publicly disclosed.