New Zealand daily deals site GrabOne has been sold to the company behind Click Frenzy for NZ$17.5 million

One of New Zealand’s largest ecommerce and daily deals websites, GrabOne, is being sold to Global Marketplace, the Australian company behind Click Frenzy, for NZ$17.5 million (A$16.8m).

Melbourne-based Global Marketplace (GMP) also owns Click Central and e-commerce analytics firm Power Retail and is reportedly gearing up for an IPO in 2022. The company is majority owned by founder Grant Arnott, with John Wylie’s Tanarra Capital taking a 40% stake in 2016.

GMP CEO Nathan Brown

CEO Nathan Brown said the business had been looking for an opportunity to expand globally.

“GMP is excited to acquire GrabOne and work with the team to grow and expand the business. Combining the ecommerce, data and digital experience of both companies will allow us to deliver great outcomes for all of our key stakeholders including our merchants and consumers,” he said.

“We will be able to deliver more products and experiences to our combined audience. For GMP, this acquisition will continue the growth and diversification of our growing ecommerce platforms as well as adding significant talent to the team.”

The acquisition is an all-cash transaction, with GrabOne staff being offered roles with Global Marketplace. The sale is not subject to any regulatory conditions. The deal is expected to be completed by October 31.

The GrabOne marketplace has more than 2,400 active merchants, and 300,000-plus consumer members.

It runs 3 key verticals: experiences such as dining, activity and events, which delivers a majority of revenue; a marketplace store that delivers around 30% of revenue via retail, wholesale and drop ship merchants supplying directly to consumers; and holiday/accomodation deals.

Nathan Brown said GMP had a strong pre-covid business in travel that aligns with the GrabOne model.

“GMP has built a strong portfolio of quality brands and sees an opportunity to leverage these into NZ via GrabOne marketplace and the GrabOne consumer database,” he said.

“Many of our current partners were already asking if we were going into NZ.”

GMP recently launched Click Central, which will have revenue opportunities with the Store element of GrabOne, offering sellers on either platform access to the Australian or NZ markets.