Airtasker acquires TaskBox to bolster online community marketplace

Sydney, Australia – 6^th February 2013 – Australian services marketplace start-up Airtasker today announced that it has acquired collaborative consumption business TaskBox, a company that also connects individuals and businesses seeking to outsource everyday tasks to reliable and trusted people who can complete those tasks. TaskBox Co-Founders James Mather and Nick Roberts will join Airtasker as Team Advisors and be responsible for business development and growth as the company continues to expand its peer-based outsourcing smartphone app and website.

Airtasker Co-Founder Tim Fung said the acquisition will not only grow the size of Airtasker’s marketplace but will also expand the team’s breadth of experience, which will be particularly useful as the company extends its peer-based services offering into the business services market.

“Nick and James have proven experience in building a service network in the local market, vast international commercial experience, as well as a solid understanding of global collaborative consumption markets. As we aggressively focus on growing our new Business Service offering over the next months, it’s a real coup to add industry veterans like Nick and James to our team,” said Fung.

TaskBox was co-founded by Nick Roberts and James Mather in December 2011, and with a lean startup mentality, grew a loyal community of active users before deciding to partner with Airtasker.

James Mather, CEO and Co-Founder of TaskBox added, “While the TaskBox community was gaining traction in Sydney’s northern and eastern suburbs, we knew we had to grow the market quickly in order to make TaskBox a useful tool.  Airtasker had a great team of founders, engineers and advisors, and it became apparent to us that the best way to see our vision come to life was to join forces with the Airtasker team.”

The new partnership between the two “task-based” service communities is being seen as a positive step for collaborative consumption, a term used to describe the reinvention of age-old market behaviours, such as bartering, lending and swapping, through technology.

Lisa Fox, Australia Curator for CollaborativeConsumption.com, added, “This type of collaboration points to a growing maturity in the Australian collaboration consumption industry. Such a consolidation in the task marketplace space can only benefit customers, as two great business teams combine.”

"Marketplaces such as Airtasker and TaskBox provide a new opportunity for Australians to make better use of their spare time, whether that is making extra cash by completing tasks for others or outsourcing tasks to give yourself some free time."

The new partnership bolsters Airtasker’s workforce of “runners”, which includes university students, retirees, stay at home parents and part-time workers, to well over 40,000 users, which Fung suggests is a nice add-on as the figures for completed tasks continue to experience double-digit monthly growth.

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About Airtasker

Airtasker is an Australian online start-up that connects people seeking to outsource everyday tasks and errands with trusted, reliable people who can complete those tasks.  Founded in February 2012, Airtasker has helped to create over 7,000 Australian jobs worth more than $600,000.

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