{"id":44943,"date":"2023-10-20T15:39:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/nine-entertainment-takes-4m-stake-in-web-start-up-styletread-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:39:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:39:54","slug":"nine-entertainment-takes-4m-stake-in-web-start-up-styletread-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/nine-entertainment-takes-4m-stake-in-web-start-up-styletread-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine Entertainment takes $4m stake in web start-up StyleTread – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hopes of an investment boom in Australian tech start-ups have been fuelled after the Nine Entertainment Company invested around $4 million into online shoe retailer StyleTread, which is just six months old. <\/span><\/p>\n

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StyleTread, despite only launching in November, is valued at around $20 million through the deal, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review<\/i>.<\/p>\n

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The company says it has attempted to set itself apart from its competitors with a user-friendly website, large and detailed photographs, exceptional customer service, and various delivery options.<\/p>\n

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While StyleTread managing director Mark Rowland would not confirm the investment price, he says the company has received the money at a critical time for the fast-growing company.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve had to move out of the warehouse we leased out six months ago because we\u2019ve already outgrown it. The growth has been extraordinary,\u201d Rowland told SmartCompany.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe offer everything you expect in a bricks-and-mortar store, including delivery. So we offer next-day delivery, and we have a 100-day return policy as well. We want to give a full retail service to our customers online.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nine Entertainment\u2019s stake in StyleTread follows on from its investments in group-buying site Cudo and financial management group Yellow Brick Road.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re continuing to expand our presence in eCommerce, following on from our earlier investment in Cudo and our upcoming launch of Getaway Lounge,\u201d director of strategy and digital David Coleman says.<\/p>\n

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Getaway Lounge is an online extension of the Getaway travel television series.<\/p>\n

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Coleman, who will join the StyleTread board, reportedly said the company will increase its stake in StyleTread in the future with more capital raisings.<\/p>\n

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The investment follows several recent stakes taken in Australian tech start-ups, including Firemint<\/a> and 99designs<\/a> .<\/p>\n

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Phaedon Stough, co-founder of investment network Innovation Bay, says the valuations occurring within the tech sector \u201caren\u2019t so much high as they are interesting\u201d due to changes within the investment cycle.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are platforms where you can distribute products really quickly, resulting in fast-tracked growth,\u201d Stough says.<\/p>\n

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Foad Fadaghi, research manager at market analyst firm Telsyte, agrees there are more technologies and platforms available to companies, suggesting the sector could be headed for another dotcom boom.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re going through a period that many see as an opportunity to raise capital. The market is hot with liquidity \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of money in the market right now and the cost of borrowing is quite low,\u201d Fadaghi says.<\/p>\n

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Michael Fox, managing director of online shoe retailer Shoes of Prey, says the StyleTread valuation provides a validation to the local online and digital shoe retailing sectors.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt definitely shows there is confidence in people buying online,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t necessarily view them as a competitor… because I think their offer is quite different. But this is a fantastic validation about the marketplace at the moment, and is certainly a welcome development.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hopes of an investment boom in Australian tech start-ups have been fuelled after the Nine Entertainment Company invested around $4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44943"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}