The post was originally published in Russian on Startup of the Day. Alexander kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.
Australian #startupoftheday MyDeal is a home goods marketplace. Sellers display goods, buyers choose them in the interface, then there’s a payment and delivery – everything is as it should be, nothing new in the business model. The main assortment is furniture, mattresses, carpets, and others, but for a loyal audience there are smartphones and dog food on the site; since you’ve come, why not buy something additionally.
Over 10 years of existence, the startup has grown to a GMV of $30 million per year, of which the commission which is the actual revenue of MyDeal – $4 million; there was no growth in 2019, but there was a loss of $1.5 million. By venture standards, there is nothing to talk about, but without growth, venture standards cannot be used; for a normal company, this is a rather sad situation. And on top of that, the startup has amassed $25 million in debt.
And then COVID came! Australia’s quarantine was tough, offline was being closed, online was working, shoppers had jumped to the Internet, MyDeal had exploded somehow incredibly with more than twofold revenue growth. This was even enough to make a small profit – probably the first in the history of the company.
Such an opportunity should not be missed, the vaccine has not yet been released, when MyDeal has already jumped out for an IPO – in Australia, this is the norm for relatively small companies. In October, the startup raised $25 million from the stock exchange (almost an exact match with the amount of debt), now the company is traded at about 200 million valuation – this is 3 yearly GMV, 20 revenues, 400 net profits. What the new shareholders will do with their shares when the epidemic is over and everything is back to normal, no one knows.
But for us it is someone else’s lesson and someone else’s example: a successful conjuncture has appeared – do not slow down and do not reflect, exit immediately.
#ipo #Australia #marketplace
Translation : Valeria Stupnikova
Alexander made his career in Russian internet companies including Mail.Ru, Rambler, RBC. From 2016 to 2018 he was Chief Strategy and Analytics officer in Mail.Ru Group. In this position, he worked on M&A, investments, and new project launches. In 2018 he became Deputy CEO in Citymobil, a Russian Uber-like company that was invested by Mail.Ru Group and Sberbank (the biggest Russian bank), then he left the company to launch his own projects. Now Alexander is a co-founder of United Investors – the platform for co-investments in Russian early-stage startups. His blog #startupoftheday (#стартапдня) is one of the most popular blogs about startups in Russia.
