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Freelancer reports record AU$51.9m in cash receipts in 2016

2016 was a positive year for Freelancer, with the company delivering AU$51.9 million in cash receipts, its highest since inception.
Written by Tas Bindi, Contributor

Freelancing marketplace Freelancer has announced it generated AU$51.9 million in cash receipts in 2016, the highest ever for the company.

The company's year-on-year growth is up 35 percent, its highest in USD constant currency since it began trading on the Australian Securities Exchange.

In the first half of 2016, Freelancer reported positive financial results after two consecutive first half losses, with an operating cashflow of AU$4.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2016. The company attributed the positive result to its acquisition of California-based third-party payments vendor Escrow.com.

The company's operating cashflow remains at AU$4.5 million for the 12 months ended December 31, 2016.

In mid-December, however, Freelancer acquired Nubelo and Prolancer, its top competitors in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets. The acquisitions added 750,000 new users to the 1.8 million Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese users already on Freelancer.

The company also reported that it has been profitable at an unaudited operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation line for every month of Q4 2016, attributing its positive cashflow to "increasing marketing efficiency".

In Q4 2016, the company was able to reduce its marketing costs as a percentage of cash receipts to 16 percent from 20 to 22 percent in previous quarters. This represents a little less than AU$2.1 million of the AU$13 million in cash receipts generated in Q4 2016.

Freelancer expects to report an annual revenue "slightly" higher than the full-year cash receipts of AU$51.9 million due to accrual accounting.

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