Historic day for hipages: Today we rang the ASX bell

When we founded hipages 16 years ago, we had a simple vision: to create happier homes through effortless home improvement. The idea was born from the personal experience of renovating our first apartment with my wife. Things were so complicated. I vividly remember the frustration and the lack of information when it came to understanding the regulations in home improvement. We quickly discovered that it was not easy for tradies either: they had challenges in managing and running their businesses, adopting technology, and finding new ways to market and promote their businesses.

Fast forward to 2020 and hipages is the online platform that connects Australia with trusted tradies to simplify home improvement. We have 36,000 trade businesses subscribed to hipages and over 3 million consumers have posted work on our platform to-date. Last year alone was a record year for the business with 1.4 million jobs going through our platform, that’s a job posted every 23 seconds on average.

It took many years of effort to evolve the business from an online content and directory hub to a product and service-led organisation, with tradies now at the centre of our model, while continuing to provide a positive experience for consumers. 

Today is a historic day for our business – we rang the bell at the ASX. Funds raised will enable continued investment in our people, technology, brand and growth opportunities, helping us further support and drive the on-demand tradie economy in Australia.

Listing today is a culmination of the hard work and dedication of so many people who believe in our mission: to transform how things are traditionally done in the residential trade industry.

We’ve always been a hard-working bunch at hipages; as a matter of fact our DNA is “make it happen”. The “secret sauce” of our business is not just made up of our technology built from data and customer experience or our strong online and offline marketing capabilities. It also comes from our values as an organisation. We have always been a genuine and collaborative business. 

A huge shout out and thank you to the entire team – your dedication and passion has got us here today and why I’m so excited about our future. And of course to my wife for bravely jumping into a renovation with me all those years ago! As well as importantly David Vitek for kickstarting this adventure with me!