Freelancer Limited

Group GMV increased almost 31% to AUD 574.6 million, or USD 403.8 million. Gross revenue declined 12.1% to AUD 23.9 million, or 2.1% in U.S. dollar terms, and gross profit declined 10.4% to AUD 20.9 million while gross margin improved to 87.4%. EBITDA was AUD 1.1 million, operating loss was about AUD 0.3 million, and net loss after tax was AUD 2.1 million. Within the businesses, Freelancer GMV declined 20.3% to AUD 42.4 million and revenue fell 23.2% to AUD 14.9 million; Loadshift GMV rose 9.6% to AUD 14.6 million and revenue rose 12.2% to AUD 1.8 million; Escrow GMV rose 39% to AUD 517.6 million, revenue rose 15.1% to AUD 7 million, gross profit rose 21.8% to AUD 6.5 million, and blended take rate fell from 1.63% to 1.35%. The company ended the half with AUD 17.9 million of cash and cash equivalents, remained debt-free, and generated about AUD 0.7 million of positive operating cash flow before working capital. Management did not provide formal next-quarter or full-year financial guidance, but said H2 focus is on fixing Freelancer conversion friction, restoring SEO and payment acceptance, and continuing Escrow and Loadshift growth.

Matt Barrie said the group is building the 'Amazon of services' and believes the three businesses address large horizontal markets. His tone was confident on the long-term model but candid that Freelancer had a difficult half because of scraper traffic, over-tight fraud controls, and a failed gateway migration that hurt acceptance and revenue. He emphasized that AI is being used to improve support and engineering productivity, and that new verticals, better product matching, and stronger payments infrastructure should improve the business over time.

Dylan Carter framed the quarter as a mixed result: strong Escrow and Loadshift growth was offset by lower Freelancer activity. He highlighted that gross margin improved to 87.4%, employee expenses were 4.4% lower, hosting costs fell 5%, and operating expenses rose only 1.8% despite added AI-tooling and compliance costs. He also pointed to AUD 17.9 million of cash, no debt, a AUD 2.4 million non-cash impairment of non-core digital assets, and said the group’s capital framework is to maintain liquidity for user obligations, restore positive free cash flow, and allocate capital selectively.

The main analyst question focused on the estimated drag from payment gateway issues, and management said one gateway alone represented up to USD 400,000 per month of lost volume. Barrie argued the broader issue is older and structural, saying some gateways have been running at roughly 30% acceptance when they should be closer to 80%-plus, and that the fix is to split traffic by country, currency, and payment method rather than route cards broadly. On Escrow, the analyst asked about lower take rates and limited operating leverage; management said take rates vary by vertical and transaction type, and that group-level cost allocation and more fixed costs in Escrow’s cost of sales explain part of the optics.