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Tradies locator site hipages.com.au hammers out $6m VC backing
A WEBSITE aiming to be Australia’s largest and foremost platform for finding trade services, hipages.com.au, has secured new investment of $6 million from leading venture capitalists and business investors. 
Right Click Capital drove the capital raising, with blue chip institutional investors including Ellerston Capital, Australian Ethical Investment and KTM Capital taking the majority of the book.
The capital raising saw strong demand across the board, according to the boutique technology-focused advisory firm Right Click Capital. and brought new investors on to the register including Ellerston Capital, Australian Ethical Investment and KTM Capital. Representatives from Ellerston and Right Click Capital are joining the hipages Group board.
The combined investment will propel hipages.com.au to its professed goal of becoming ‘the dominant platform for finding tradies in Australia’.
“After 10 years of hard work growing the business this $6 million vote of confidence from some of Australia’s most respected investment funds is validation that we have solved a real problem for consumers,” said hipages Group co-founder and CEO David Vitek.
“Consumers post job requirements with us every 64 seconds and for each one we take them through the process of finding the best tradie for the job among our 40,000 suppliers.”
Hipages.com.au attracts just over one million visitors each month and its network of over 40,000 tradies are connecting with 500,000 consumer members. It has won awards such as BRW’s Best Places to Work and Most Innovative Companies for several years in succession.
Co-founder and COO Robert Sharon-Zipser said, “Our aim is to be a household name across the 8.3 million homes in Australia. We have been growing revenue at an average of 30 percent per annum and this round of funding will allow us to accelerate our growth.”
Right Click Capital partner Ari Klinger said hipages.com.au was taking the Yellow Pages concept into the 21st century with great early success.
“Hipages is an outstanding company that has reinvented the Yellow Pages into a trusted service network that solves one of the perennial issues for consumers – finding a good tradie,” Mr Klinger said.
“The significant demand for the deal including from some of Australia’s premier institutional investors is a strong validation of the management team, strategy and investment potential of the business.”
Hipages.com.au connects consumers with tradesmen across 1,100 categories. It claims to have a growth rate of 1,000 users a day and place 30,000 jobs every month.
Hipages claims to ensure the quality of services by vetting every tradie on the site. Hipages.com.au continually collects customer feedback “to ensure the service offers only reliable and efficient tradies”.
Hipages was named in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia from 2008-2010 and the BRW Fast Starters in 2007-2009.
POSTED MAY 12, 2014.
