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ASX BRIEFS
AIRTASKER LTD (ART) - From Local Success to Global Expansion: Airtasker's Strategic Growth Journey
Ever wondered how a marketplace business can achieve profitability while simultaneously expanding globally? Tim Fung, co-founder and CEO of Airtasker Limited, reveals exactly how they're doing it.
With $1.2 million in positive free cash flow for FY25—their second consecutive year—Airtasker has proven they're not dependent on external capital even while aggressively expanding. The Australian marketplace continues to thrive with 20.7% revenue growth in Q4, driven by strategic media partnerships that boost brand awareness. As Tim explains, "Airtasker's got a long way to go in the Australian market. It's an absolutely huge total addressable market," with current penetration at just 1%.
What's truly fascinating is their international expansion strategy. The UK marketplace reached $21 million GMV annual run rate in June 2025, less than two years after launch. Meanwhile, US operations achieved a staggering 754% revenue growth in Q4. The secret? A refined "marketplace playbook" that turns the art of building marketplaces into a repeatable science, deployed city by city across new markets. Their partnerships with media giants like OohMedia, ARN, Channel 4 Ventures, and Sinclair Broadcast Group create what Tim calls an "asymmetric upside"—these companies share the risk of market entry while providing cultural insights through their local news and morning shows.
Looking ahead to FY26, Airtasker is focused on building Australian brand awareness, improving repeat booking functionality, and refining their city expansion strategy. For investors and business leaders alike, this episode offers valuable insights into how a marketplace can achieve that elusive combination of profitability and rapid growth.
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Andrew Musgrave Host
Welcome back to ASX Briefs, the podcast bringing you quick, insightful conversations with leaders of ASX-listed companies. And today we're joined again by Tim Fung, the co-founder and CEO of Airtasker Limited, a global marketplace connecting people who need tasks done with those ready to do them. FY25 marked Airtasker's second consecutive year of positive free cash flow, continuing strong growth in Australia and accelerating momentum offshore. Tim, thanks for joining me again and welcome back to the ASX Briefs podcast.
Tim Fung Guest
Thanks for having me, Andrew.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Now, Tim, we did speak last year, but there's been plenty of water under the bridge since then, and Airtasker has delivered $1.2 million in positive free cash flow for FY25, your second year in a row and finished the year with $19.1 million in cash and term deposits. So how significant is this milestone for the business and your growth strategy?
Tim Fung Guest
So, it's been you know, obviously, over the last few years the cost of capital has been very, very high, and so it's very important for Airtasker to prove that we absolutely are not reliant on third party capital. We've got a positive cash flow generative business in Australia, and even after we invest money into scaling in the US and the UK, we're still group cash flow positive. So, we just wanted to prove without a shadow of a doubt this is a very sustainable cash generative business. Now that we've proven that with two years in a row, we can get back to the core focus, which is really scaling the business into new markets.
Andrew MusgraveHost
Okay now in Australia, Airtasker marketplaces grew revenue by 20.7% for the fourth quarter in 25, with platform revenue up nearly 23%. So, what's driving this growth and how sustainable is it going forward?
Tim Fung Guest
Airtasker's got a long way to go in the Australian market. It's an absolutely huge total addressable market. One of the things that we believe is very important to capture and expand into this very large market in Australia is our brand salience, which is essentially that when something happens you know you need some IKEA furniture assembled, you need your house cleaned, you've got a roof that needs a repair, Airtasker is the first thing that pops into your head. We are measuring that by measuring unprompted brand awareness, so making sure that people just have Airtasker at top of mind. We have done some incredible partnerships with OohMedia, the Australia's leading outdoor company, and ARN, Australia’s leading audio and radio company, to really invest into the Airtasker brand and make sure that we can increase that unprompted brand awareness and that's what's driving this growth momentum that we have.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, now just looking at the offshore markets. Your UK marketplace achieved $21 million GMV annual run rate in June 2025, just under two years after launch. So, what's been the key to this rapid scaling and how close to you are you to that $25 million target?
Tim Fung Guest
Two things that we're doing in the UK is that we've got some great media partnerships with Channel 4 in the UK, which is allowing us to really get the word out across all of the UK, particularly London, Manchester and Birmingham. That's been combined with the second element of our growth strategy, which is our marketplace playbook, and that is that we are able to send a very lean team into each city and have them literally kickstart those marketplaces and solve the chicken and egg problem and get from those first sort of 5,000 tasks a week happening on the platform. Once you've got that momentum, you can actually stop investing because it's a very, very network effect driven business. Once you've got the scale, you've got a very, very profitable and cash generative business.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and looking at the US, you've had some incredible growth there as well 754% revenue growth in the fourth quarter. So, what lessons from Australia and the UK are you applying to accelerate adoption in the US?
Tim Fung Guest
Starting marketplaces is a real art, and we're trying to turn that art into a really repeatable science that we can just replicate city after city after city in the US market. It actually is part of our secret sauce, so we are a little bit cautious about sharing too much of the specific details of it, but we have a five-point playbook, and we are literally turning that into a science which is executable city by city, by city. We've started with three cities in the US market Los Angeles, Austin and Vegas and we also have some great media partners that are helping us to accelerate awareness in that market too.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and you touched on some of those media partners, including OohMedia, ARN, Channel 4 Ventures and Sinclair Broadcast Group. So how do these partnerships give you an edge over competition?
Tim Fung Guest
These partnerships are really, really powerful because, first of all, the way that they are structured is really, really favourable to Airtasker and create an asymmetric upside.
What do we mean by that is that these companies are taking on all of the risks, together with Airtasker, of launching into these new markets. And I think that turns out to be very asymmetric for Airtasker, because we are leveraging the website and the platform that we've already built for Australia and, as we go into these new markets, the only real investment that we have to make is all of the marketing, and we've got these marketing partners, these media partners, going on that journey with us and essentially funding our growth into these markets. On top of that, the real stalwarts of culture and localization are really these media companies. They own news, they own the morning shows. Over 32 morning shows across the US are owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and that allows us to be able to know what makes people in each of these cities tick, so that we can grow our brand in each of those individual cities.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and when you talk about expansion particularly when you're going offshore comes challenges. So, what have been some of the biggest hurdles you've come across in entering both the UK and the US markets?
Tim Fung Guest
I think, first of all, is to say what is really similar. So, in each of these markets, there isn't a direct competitor to what Airtasker is doing, which is quite interesting. Secondly, as mentioned, is we're really leveraging our platform to go into each of these new markets. So, we're not going out and building big teams or building new websites. We've got one website; one app and we're just doing repeating sales and communicating that message to people in these new markets.
In terms of the challenges, I think it's really just the challenges of growth and expansion at this kind of pace, when you're growing 7x a year in the US and 2x a year in the UK. It definitely comes with scaling issues. Things like there are too many people coming to the site. We need to be able to load balance how the platform works. The more people come to the site, the more people want to scam people or do spam. So, we've got to up our game in terms of security and trust and protection in the marketplace. So, all of these are the great problems. I think that come with scaling rapidly.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and now, just to wrap things up, looking ahead, with momentum building in all regions and significant prepaid media on hand, what are the top priorities for FY26 and how should investors think about Airtasker's next stage of growth?
Tim Fung Guest
In terms of investing in our core platform, really important that we keep investing into the Airtasker brand and improving our brand awareness in the Australian market. There's a huge way to go and we are about 1% of the market in what we believe is an enormous opportunity in Australia. We're also addressing a really important aspect of Airtasker, which is repeat bookings. So, after you've found someone on Airtasker, we're now facilitating with very, very low fees, you're able to keep your task on the platform, you get covered by insurance, you get secure payments and you're able to manage that all through our platform. So that's going to improve customer frequency and purchase frequency through our app and reduce leakage Then into the US and the UK, as mentioned before, really focused on refining this scientific playbook of how we repeatedly launch new cities, alongside investing with our media partners and building that brand awareness, as we've done in Australia.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, Tim. Well, it's been great to chat again to get an update on where the company is at. So, thanks for your time and we look forward to further updates from Airtasker in the upcoming months.
Tim Fung Guest
Thanks so much for having me.
Andrew Musgrave Host
That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.