Capital Chaos

Under the category of utterly amazing, PayByTouch CFO Robert Sigler told investors yesterday on a shareholder’s conference call that the company plans to raise another $150M in 2008.  Keep in mind, these guys have burned through $300M since 2004.  What is even crazier about their fundraising capabilities is that somehow their CEO, John Rogers seems to have retained about 2/3 of the company and has dominant position in voting rights.  John and his crew convinced suckers investors such as: Mobius Venture Capital, the Getty family, Och-Ziff Capital Management, Farallon Capital Management, Plainfield Asset Management, Ron Burkle, Rembrandt Ventures and Hockey star Mario Lemieux .

In less than 3 years these guys had a headcount of 750+, this crazy office in downtown San Fran (plus another 10 offices around the country) and little to no revenue.

We are going to keep on eye on who jumps in a next round.  As PT Barnum said….