Expert360 founder and early investors miss out in $16 million exit

As first reported by Capital Brief, Expert360, which connects companies and startups to consultants, board advisors, and fractional executives, is being acquired by AI job-matching platform Swipejobs.

The deal values Expert360 at $16 million, according to media reports.

Expert360 had raised some $30 million since launching in 2013, with the enterprise becoming a star of Australia’s nascent startup sector through the 2010s.

Documents underpinning Swipejobs deal, seen by both mastheads, suggest early investors may walk away with little to no consideration for their shares in the sale.

The deal reportedly favours investors holding series C and series C1 preference shares, while those who backed Expert360 in earlier rounds may receive no consideration.

The bulk of series C shares are held by Airtree and Rampersand, with Hyper Capital Startups, Perennial, and UniSuper among those in line for a payout.

But Airtree and Rampersand are both thought to hold share tranches ineligible for consideration.

So too is Loudon-Harris, who told the AFR that founders often walk away from the companies they build with little financial compensation.

“Founders are paid last,” she said. “That’s the deal you sign, and I’d sign it again.”

Founded in 2013 by former Bain & Company management consultants Loudon-Harris and Emily Yue, Expert360 offered companies and startups access to specialist contractors and freelance workers.

Compared to fellow Australian startup Airtasker, which initially focused on household tasks like cleaning, gardening, and furniture removal, Expert360 tapped into the need for flexible professional talent.

The Sydney-born enterprise secured $1 million in investment in 2014, from investors based in Australia, New York, and Hong Kong.

It booked a $4.1 million Series A raise the next year, led by Frontier Ventures and Rampersand, and claimed to have hosted more than 1,000 companies posting $10 million worth of work on the platform.

In 2017, Expert360 raised a further $13 million in Series B funding from Airtree, with the fund’s co-founder Daniel Petrie also stepping onto its board.

As Expert360 grew, Loudon-Harris in 2020 became a non-executive director for Telstra. At 32, she became the youngest-ever director of an ASX200 firm.

That year, the startup also took on another $12 million from existing investors.

The AFR in July this year reported the platform was on the market, billing it as an early adopter of AI to help with talent screening and business-matching functions.

The offer hailed Expert360 as profitable, and generating $140 million in annual revenue.

Telstra informed the market on August 31 that Loudon-Harris would step down from the board, without associating that decision with the Expert360 sale.

The board had “benefited greatly from Bridget’s valuable insights and constructive challenge across strategy, disruption, AI, transformation, and performance culture,” wrote Telstra chair Craig Dunn, in a statement shared with investors.

Swipejobs, founded in 2013 by human resources and recruitment leader Katrina Leslie, takes a slightly different approach to job-matching.

It allows companies to describe the role they need filled, with Swipejobs using AI to provide potential ‘matches’ from a pool of jobseekers.

Swipejobs, which is reportedly mulling an IPO, has surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue while making Leslie one of Australia’s wealthiest tech founders.

SmartCompany has contacted Expert360 and Swipejobs for comment.