{"id":41182,"date":"2023-10-20T15:12:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/oneflare-scores-15-million-investment-as-tradie-marketplace-space-becomes-a-two-horse-race-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:12:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:10","slug":"oneflare-scores-15-million-investment-as-tradie-marketplace-space-becomes-a-two-horse-race-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/oneflare-scores-15-million-investment-as-tradie-marketplace-space-becomes-a-two-horse-race-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Oneflare scores $15 million investment as tradie marketplace space becomes a two-horse race – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"OneFlare<\/div>\n

Sydney-based startup Oneflare has secured a $15 million investment as part of a new strategic partnership with Fairfax\u2019s Domain Group, transforming the tradie marketplace space into a highly competitive \u201ctwo-horse race\u201d.<\/p>\n

The investment in the online marketplace for home improvements and services is in exchange for 35% equity, valuing the startup at more than $40 million.<\/p>\n

It comes after Oneflare\u2019s biggest competitor hipages recently partnered with Fairfax rival News Corp through a reported $40 million investment in exchange for 25% equity.<\/p>\n

Two years in the works<\/h3>\n

Oneflare founder and CEO Adam Dong says he has been in discussions with Domain for more than two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just makes logical sense \u2013 home buyers, sellers and renters are all looking for the services we provide,\u201d Dong tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince November last year it got more serious and turned towards an investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the partnership will extend beyond just the funding, with Oneflare becoming integrated into Domain\u2019s \u2018ownership\u2019 section.<\/p>\n

The funding will be used to help rapidly expand different aspects of the business, Dong says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s primarily to build out the products and we\u2019ll have a hiring growth spurt, as well as a bit of marketing,” he says.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2011, the Oneflare platform connects users with experts in categories like concreting, renovating, painting and cleaning.<\/p>\n

Dong says the site now sees 1.3 million monthly visitors, has 80,000 registered businesses and has doubled in size from last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe growth has been pretty significant,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A two-horse race<\/h3>\n

With two tradie marketplace companies now aligned with large media corporates, the competition is heating up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become a two-horse race,\u201d Dong says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Australia there\u2019s only room for one or two big players in one vertical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have one solid competitor and we\u2019re definitely here to beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While hipages was valued significantly higher with its investment from News Corp, Dong says Oneflare has the edge when it comes to reviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to have users that really trust your platform,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re leading them on reviews, and they\u2019re key to the platform and to the users. It\u2019s about making sure customers really trust the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

A focus on revenue<\/h3>\n

Dong says one of the most important parts of the startup securing the large investment was their ability to demonstrate revenue and clear growth, something that many startups can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an Australian-only startup is difficult,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundraising environment here is nowhere near what it\u2019s like in the US so it\u2019s really important you do have a company that can run lean and actually generate revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe valuation won\u2019t be based off some blue sky prospect ten years from now. It\u2019ll be based on revenue, growth rate and your track record.”<\/p>\n

He says this provides a useful lesson for other local startups on the hunt for funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Australian-based startups discount revenue but it was the first thing every investor we went to asked us about,” Dong says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis big deal for us would not have been possible without us having the revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter,<\/em>LinkedIn <\/em>and <\/em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney-based startup Oneflare has secured a $15 million investment as part of a new strategic partnership with Fairfax\u2019s Domain Group,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}