Seven West Media has nabbed a stake in Airtasker, a mobile platform that connects people to outsourced tasks and services. The media giant signed on for a 15 per cent shareholding and has also agreed to provide media support and investment to get the brand off the ground.
Seven West Media will commit to driving brand awareness for Airtasker, using tools such as a national integrated TV sponsorship and digital support across Seven’s own brands.
Airtasker has also taken on two new additions to its board of directors: James Spenceley (founder
and CEO, Vocus Communications) and Jenny Hosie (sales director, Seven West Media).
“Airtasker is an exciting investment for SWM and we will drive brand awareness and engagement for Airtasker via our massive audiences in a way that only Seven West can,” CEO and MD of Seven West Media Tim Worner said.
“We continue to pursue opportunities to build our company through key strategic investments in new disruptive ventures which can scale rapidly with the benefit of the promotional power of our assets.”
Commenting on the investment, Seven West Media’s chief digital officer Clive Dickens added, “Airtasker is a unique and highly innovative Australian brand in the fast growing mobile ‘peer to peer’ economy, with over 600,000 already having transacted in everyday tasks.
“Airtasker has a highly scalable online platform that simplifies the end-to-end task process and provides a rich and valuable data platform, which is a strong competitive advantage.”
The four year-old startup will use the additional funding to further develop its core marketplace product and grow Airtasker as a household name for local consumer services.
““Whilst we’ve seen rapid organic growth over the past year, we’re only scratching the surface of a multi-billion opportunity – we still have a huge way to grow in Australia alone,” Fung said.
“Seven’s investment is super exciting and will help take Airtasker to the next level, reaching everyday Australian people and businesses get more done with their day. Over the past year, we’ve zoomed past 600,000 community members on our platform with more than $40 million worth of tasks completed annually via Airtasker.
“With Seven’s backing, we’re getting excited about the journey ahead and making our goal of creating Australia’s no. 1 local services marketplace a reality.”
