{"id":42352,"date":"2023-10-20T15:20:34","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/freelancer-makes-its-14th-acquisition-scooping-up-online-marketplace-donanza-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:20:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:20:34","slug":"freelancer-makes-its-14th-acquisition-scooping-up-online-marketplace-donanza-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/freelancer-makes-its-14th-acquisition-scooping-up-online-marketplace-donanza-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Freelancer makes its 14th acquisition, scooping up online marketplace DoNanza – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Freelancer has acquired the assets of freelance job marketplace and aggregator DoNanza for an undisclosed sum.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The acquisition, funded from Freelancer\u2019s existing cash revenues, is the 14th deal for Freelancer since it was founded by Matt Barrie in 2009.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It follows a 39% jump in revenues for the online freelance marketplace in the financial year ending December 2014.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Israel-based DoNanza closed in the second half of 2014 so Freelancer has only handed over cash for the company\u2019s assets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But before things went pear-shaped, DoNanza had received $1 million backing from some high-profile investors, including Google chairman Eric Schmidt through his Innovation Endeavors Fund in 2011. Other investors included Yossi Vardi and AfterDox.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The company was founded in 2008 by Ami Dudu, Liran Kotzer and Gil Pal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really nice fit for us,\u201d says Pete Cooper, regional director for Freelancer in Australasia, citing DoNanza\u2019s global databases of freelancers and clients.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to mix apples with oranges. [DoNanza] worked with freelancers and small businesses doing online work and that\u2019s exactly what we do. We just worked out the market fit and profitability first.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While Cooper told SmartCompany<\/em> the conversation between Freelancer and the founders of DoNanza started some time ago, the importing of DoNanza data has happened over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The DoNanza founders are not joining Freelancer, with Cooper saying they are \u201csmart guys who are working on other things\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cooper says given Freelancer has now acquired 14 other businesses\u2014including Warrior Forum, Fantero.com and the technology startup conference founded by Cooper, SydStart\u2014it\u2019s likely there will be more acquisitions \u201cin the bag\u201d. Freelancer is \u201ccertainly looking all the time\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting quite good at absorbing other businesses,\u201d Cooper says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this isn\u2019t a small company either. There is a database of over 360,000 freelancers.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While Cooper says Freelancer\u2019s ability to acquire other companies may not yet be a \u201cwell-oiled machine\u201d, \u201cit\u2019s definitely a machine now\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cooper says Freelancer\u2019s strategy of growing through acquisitions is about \u201csupplementing and consolidating\u201d the company\u2019s organic growth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe overtook Elance and O-desk combined recently,\u201d says Cooper, adding that acquiring other businesses gives Freelancer\u2019s organic growth a significant boost.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes one plus one equals three.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Having spent much of his career in the mergers and acquisitions arena, Cooper recommends other business owners and managers be \u201cvaguely cautious\u201d when approaching an acquisition or sale.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the seller it\u2019s worth spending the time getting clear what the buyer will be getting and as the buyer, you want to spend the time on due diligence to make sure you don\u2019t accidentally miss assets that you want or pick up risks you don\u2019t want to pick up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But exercising caution doesn\u2019t mean acting slowly, Cooper says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the great balancing game\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This story originally appeared on<\/em> SmartCompany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freelancer has acquired the assets of freelance job marketplace and aggregator DoNanza for an undisclosed sum.   The acquisition, funded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60385,"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\/42352"}],"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=42352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}