AIRTASKER LTD (ART) - Inside Airtasker’s Q3 Growth And The New Membership Play

A marketplace can tell you more about the economy than a headline number, especially when thousands of everyday jobs are priced in real time. We sit down with Tim Fung to break down Airtasker’s Q3 performance and what’s really driving momentum in Australia: rising job volumes, strong completion rates, and an uplift in average task prices that reflects both demand and the cost-of-living squeeze pushing more people to earn on-platform. We also talk candidly about what’s next as consumer sentiment darkens and interest rate settings start to bite.

From there, we zoom out to the brand battle. Airtasker’s focus is simple: when a roof leaks, a tap drips, or IKEA furniture needs assembling, we want Airtasker to be the first name people think of. We unpack the strategic media partnership with Nine Entertainment and how it complements other channels to lift unprompted brand awareness, while also using the balance sheet in a disciplined way through delayed settlement structures.

Internationally, the story splits in two. The UK approaches a scale point where the marketplace can become cash generative quickly with low fixed costs, while the US remains in build mode, investing to strengthen network effects. We also cover the newer membership product, designed to lift frequency and create sticky recurring revenue through an annual fee and added credits. If you care about the gig economy, marketplace growth, ASX tech, and how pricing power shows up in the real world, this one is packed with signal. Subscribe, share it with a mate, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Andrew Musgrave

Welcome back to another episode of ASX Briefs, where we bring you the latest insights from ASX listed companies. And today we welcome back Tim Fung; the Chief Executive Officer of Airtasker Ltd. Airtasker is Australia’s leading online marketplace for local services connecting people and businesses who need work done with skilled taskers ready to do it. The company has just delivered a standout third quarter while it’s UK & US operations continue to accelerate at pace. Tim, great to have you with me again and welcome back to the ASX Briefs podcast.

Tim Fung

Thanks for having me, Andrew.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, Tim, Q3 was a strong quarter for Airtasker in Australia. GMV up 17.8% to a record $56.7 million and revenue up 14.4% on the prior comparable period. What's driving that acceleration and what does it tell you about the health of the marketplace right now?

Tim Fung

We actually saw that some really strong consumer confidence in the last quarter. And I think that you know continued to stay high into Q3. So, we saw a combination at all levels of the funnel an improvement. One in terms of consumer demand increasing, two, in terms of supply, the cost of living is going up. A lot of people are coming to our platform looking for ways to earn extra money, and that resulted in a high completion rate of jobs. So, job volumes increased. But on top of that, we also saw that the average task price did increase by about six or seven percent. And you know that that probably does point to some of the inflationary aspects of the market. So, we saw that really strong in Q3, and then but then of course, you know, we've seen some very some interesting consumer headwinds ahead from the consumer sentiment scores that are coming out. They're pretty ominous as well as the RBA's budget, which I which I'm guessing has sort of dampened some of consumer sentiment.

Andrew Musgrave

And you've also seen booked tasks up 9.2% on PCP with 7.9% uplift in average task price, as you mentioned. Is that price uplift something you'd expect to continue, or how does it flow through to your monetization rate?

Tim Fung

Well, first of all, Airtasker is a really, really good bellwether for the labour market because, you know, we get close to 20,000 completed jobs per week across three geographies, and the tasks are being priced in real time. You know, this is a day-to-day, hour-to-hour real-time view of what people think their time is worth and what willing people are willing to pay for that service. What we generally see is that prices will go up in periods of high demand, and those prices will never really come back down. So, it's somewhat sticky. But if they're, you know, when interest rates go up and demand is sucked out of the market, then those prices will tend to flatten out and they'll stay steady for a couple of periods or quarters before you know growing again. So, we don't expect average task price to go backwards. We've never really seen it go backwards. But the growth in that number, the growth in the average task price is dependent on whether we're in a high demand or a low consumer sentiment phase of the economy.

Andrew Musgrave

You've also secured a $5 million strategic media partnership with Nine Entertainment, giving Airtasker access to free-to-air channels, nine now, and nine's broader publishing and digital network. So, how does this fit into your broader brand building strategy alongside existing partners such as oOh!media and ARN?

Tim Fung

In the Australian market, one of our key focus points is to increase brand salience. And what that is, is that you know, when you have a leaking roof or a leaking tap, or you need some Ikea furniture put together, you we want you to immediately think Airtasker. So, we invest a lot into unprompted brand awareness and making sure that we're top of mind for our customers. Together with the media partnerships that we put together with ARN and oOh!media, we've increased our unprompted brand awareness by about 30% over the last 12 months. So that's been great. We are top of mind for 30% more Australians in the past 12 months, thanks to the great media of ARN and O. And we wanted to double down on that. So, partnering with Channel 9 gives us access to even more brand building opportunities through all of their different properties. It's also a really smart use of our balance sheet. So, the way that these deals work effectively means that we pay for the media about two years later. And so, when you're in a business with such big opportunity as Airtasker has, being able to have a smart use of your balance sheet is a huge advantage. And the partnerships in Nine, ARN, and O all reflect that.

Andrew Musgrave

Looking now offshore, the international numbers are striking. UK revenue up 43.5% on PCP and US revenue up 116%. So, can you walk us through where each market is in its growth journey and what's fuelling that momentum?

Tim Fung

The UK is really about to hit that inflection point. So, in the third quarter, as you mentioned, revenue is up about 44%. Importantly, we hit a GMV or a sales run rate of $23 million during the quarter. One of the markers that we've talked about in terms of getting to a sustainable marketplace is getting to a GMV of about $25 million per year. Because when you're at a sales or GMV of $25 million per year, our business model is to that we earn about 20% of that. So that generates about $5 million. We have three employees in the UK, so an incredibly lean team that's generating that revenue and that sales, which means that most of that $5 million can be recycled into growing the business. And so, these businesses become cash generative very, very fast. And we haven't even hit the high season yet in the UK this year, so 23 million in the third quarter, and expecting to fly by that $25 million run rate in the fourth quarter of this year. So, the UK really proven itself now, and I think going to become we’re very close to becoming a cash generative asset over the coming periods. In the US, we're in that earlier phase where we we're building the marketplace up and we hit a GMV run rate of a close to $7 million in the last quarter. And we're in that phase of investment into growing that network effect because we know that when you get these marketplaces up to 25 mil run rate, you've got a really, really great asset on your hands that's generating cash and growing.

Andrew Musgrave

And the company launched its membership product in February and surpassed 1,000 subscribers in the first four weeks. So, can you explain how the membership model works, what it means for recurring revenue, and how you see it scaling from here?

Tim Fung

Airtasker's business model is that we earn fees when tasks are transacted. We earn about a third of our fees, about 7% of the tasks that go through our platform from the customer, charging a connection fee to the customer, and about two-thirds, about 14% from the tasker. What we've done with membership is we want to scale frequency. We want to make it a great deal for customers to use AirTasker over and over and over again throughout the year. So, for $89 a customer pays up front, we do not charge them any fees on tasks for a year. And what that means is that once you paid your $89, boy, are you incentivized to use Airtasker a lot to make the most out of your membership. Recently, we've also added into that membership $120 of Airtasker credit that you also get, 12 monthly vouchers of $10 each to use throughout the year. And so, if you're a high volume Airtasker user, which increasingly Australians are becoming,the membership is a no-brainer. And as a business, it's really great because we're generating recurring sticky revenue and we're getting commitment from our customers up front, which brings cash forward and creates a much more sticky recurring revenue base.

Andrew Musgrave

And with over $26 million in cash on the balance sheet and FY26 guidance reaffirmed, how are you thinking about capital allocation, balancing continued investment in the UK and US growth against the optionality around your Australian convertible notes coming due in July?

Tim Fung

So, the first thing is to say that for the past two years, in FY24 and FY25, Airtasker was group cash generative. And the way that we did that is that our Australian business was producing or generating about $15 million of cash last year, and that's going to continue to grow in the years ahead as our operating leverage really gets proven out. That $15 million that we generated was enough to invest into the UK and the US and to scale up this sort of you know triple digit growth rates in the UK and the US whilst being group cash flow positive. So, we're going to continue that theme into FY27 beyond. We want to be really responsible about not being dependent on external capital raises or anything like that. So Airtasker is independent and self-funding. Our Australian marketplaces produce the cash; our US and UK marketplaces are where the growth trajectory is coming from. And as you mentioned, we've got $26 million on balance sheet and that allows us to choose and be flexible about how we settle our media partnerships. Predominantly with ARN and oOh!media, those partnerships are settled in July of this coming year. And with a strong balance sheet, we're in prime position to be able to settle them in the most favourable way to Airtasker shareholders.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, Tim, finally, what are some of the key messages you want to leave with shareholders as you look throughout the rest of the year?

Tim Fung

Cash generative business, Australian business which is incredibly resilient and growing and generating cash with huge optionality to replicate that model in the US and the UK with very low fixed costs, but huge growth potential to the upside.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, Tim. Well, it's been great to catch up again, so thanks for your time, and we look forward to further updates from Airtasker in the upcoming months.

Tim Fung

Thanks for having me, Andrew.

Andrew Musgrave

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.