Freelancer.com announced today that it has filed for its initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange. The company aims to raise $15 million AUD (about $14.2 million USD). Thirty million new shares will be offered to the public at $0.50 AUD per share. Its IPO values the online services marketplace at $218 million AUD (about $2.06 million USD).
Freelancer.com disclosed in its IPO prospectus that it forecasts 2013 revenue at $18.3 million AUD (about $17.3 million USD), with gross margins of 88% and consolidated net profit after tax of $0.471 million AUD. Gross payment volume in 2013 is expected to reach $80.9 million AUSD.
5.1 million new shares will be made available to eligible employees under Freelancer.com’s new employee share plan, which is part of an effort to attract and retain new freelancers.
Freelancer.com is currently the world’s largest online marketplace for outsourcing and freelancing services, as measured by the total number of users and projects. The site has over 9 million users and 4.9 million projects that it says is worth over $1.2 billion AUD.
Shortly after founding in 2009, Freelancer.com acquired GetAFreelancer. Since then, it has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy to increase its global footprint, scooping up Scriptlance in Canada, EUFreelance, LimeExchange in the U.S. and RentaCoder/vWorker. Freelancer.com has itself been an acquisition target. Last month, Japan-based HR site Recruit Co., which is also preparing for an IPO, reportedly made a $400 million offer. Like Freelancer.com, Recruit Co.’s has been busy buying up competing sites, including NuGrid in India and Indeed.com.
In Freelancer.com’s IPO prospectus, CEO and Chairman Matt Barrie said that Freelancer.com’s growth strategy focuses on the next wave of people to go online in developing economies.
“Today, I find it hard to believe that with 7.1 billion people in the world, only 2.7 billion people are on the Internet. Almost 4.5 billion people are yet to connect. We are confident that there is tremendous growth potential ahead for the Company, as the rest of the world’s population goes online,” he wrote.
