Updater's US market share surges in second quarter
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Updater chief executive David Greenberg says the business was seeded by Australian investors and he had planned the ASX float for some time.
by
Max Mason
New York based and Australian-listed technology business Updater has surged beyond its prospectus market share expectations, grabbing more than one-tenth of US home locations in the second quarter of 2017.
The company's chief executive and founder David Greenberg believes Updater has passed a tipping point and is aiming for 15 per cent of US relocations by the end of 2017.
Updater provides a platform which helps consumers relocate homes with services such as mail forwarding, connecting utilities, finding moving companies and updating the US Department of Motor Vehicles on relocation.
"We're still on the right trajectory to achieve that by year end, we're confident in that goal," Mr Greenberg told
The Australian Financial Review.
"We continue to sell a lot of new companies every quarter. We're adding many new real estate companies every quarter and the great news is we're see nearly no churn. As a result it enables us to keep growing our market penetration each quarter. It's really because of the lack of churn while we keep adding real estate partners."
Updater listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in December 2015 and was targeting market penetration of 5 per cent by December 2016.
By December last year it had hit 7.1 per cent market penetration and on Thursday morning announced it jumped to 11.7 per cent of all US household moves in the second quarter of calendar 2017.
Updater estimates 45 million consumers and 17 million households move every year in the US.
Updater shares are up 5 per cent in early Thursday trade at $1.05 - it listed at 20¢.
Local investors include Domain chief executive Antony Catalano, who is also on the company's board, Thorney Investment Group founder and chairman Alex Waislitz and Fidelity International. Updater's major US backers include SoftBank Capital (investors in BuzzFeed, Fitbit and Alibaba), IA Ventures and Commerce Ventures.
Mr Greenberg said Updater's market share puts the company in a unique position to form partnerships with all types of companies, including marketers, internet service providers, cable TV providers, retailers and more.
"All of them recognise that a key time for them to communicate with their customers is when they're moving. We have the leverage to negotiate some really interesting partnerships with those companies."
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