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Speaker 1: This is what the flax. I'm Brett and I'm justin.

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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, eleventh of February.

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Speaker 2: Does a boy. According to new figures from the ABS,

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Speaker 2: the value of Australia's residential dwellings increased by three point

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Speaker 2: two percent to a whopper at twelve point three trill,

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Speaker 2: which raises the obvious question, are we a country with

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Speaker 2: a housing market or a housing market? When a country attached,

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Speaker 2: I reckon, We're definitely.

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Speaker 1: Just a housing market. Here been man. Last time, the

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Speaker 1: Melbourne Grand Prix ran over the weekend with some big

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Speaker 1: results and a huge churn out. But who are the

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Speaker 1: biggest and best earners in the Formula one across the

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Speaker 1: whole season. We'd unpack every single team, every single driver

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Speaker 1: to see who performs the best and which team is

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Speaker 1: value the highest. So if you want to learn more

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Speaker 1: about the Grand Prix after the big weekend, it may

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Speaker 1: sure to download the Flux app and check it out.

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Speaker 2: Three monstrous stories today, Juzzy boy, let's do it for

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Speaker 2: our first. The Iconic has finally turned a profit after

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Speaker 2: fifteen years as it shifts away from growth at any

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Speaker 2: cost and focuses on margins.

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Speaker 1: Even fashion retailers are eventually learned that black is the

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Speaker 1: most flattering color on the balance sheet too, So tell

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Speaker 1: me what'll me man?

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Speaker 2: All right? So The Iconic was founded in twenty eleven

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Speaker 2: and has grown into one of Australia's biggest online fashion retailers.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thousands of brands on its website across clothing and sport.

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Speaker 2: Beauty and Hoe and jogeboit. One in five Australian household

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Speaker 2: shops on the Iconic these days, and.

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Speaker 1: Its app has been downloaded more than eight million times.

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Speaker 2: But boyd, despite the growth in customers, the Iconic hasn't

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Speaker 2: really been growing its bottom line until now. Yeh.

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Speaker 1: After fourteen consecutive years of losses, the Iconic posted its

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Speaker 1: first net profit of one point nine million dollars in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: Which is quite the wardrobe change because the recent numbers

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Speaker 2: were rough.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we're talking more than a twenty million dollar loss

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four and nearly forty eight million dollar

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Speaker 1: loss in twenty twenty three. So, man, how do they

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Speaker 1: manage to switch together this turnaround?

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Speaker 2: Two words, my little friend, marketplace model and right now.

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Speaker 2: Marketplace sales account for thirty six percent of the Iconic's

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Speaker 2: total merchandise value.

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Speaker 1: So after fifteen years of trying different retail outfits, the

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Speaker 1: Iconic may have finally found the one that actually.

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Speaker 2: Fits interesting all juzzy boys. So what is the key

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Speaker 2: learning here?

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Speaker 1: A marketplace business model is when a company connects buyers

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Speaker 1: and sellers on a platform, rather than owning and selling

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Speaker 1: all the products itself.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, traditional retailers by inventory, they hold it in warehouses

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Speaker 2: and then sell it to their customers.

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Speaker 1: That means they take on the risk if the products

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Speaker 1: do own.

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Speaker 2: Sell next minute, you now own a warehouse full of

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Speaker 2: unpopular ugly jackets.

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Speaker 1: Whereas a marketplace model flips that dynamic.

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Speaker 2: Instead of buying the inventory, the platform lets third party

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Speaker 2: brands list their products and pays the platform a commission

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Speaker 2: on every sale and be man. This hybrid approach is

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Speaker 2: actually quite common among large platforms. For example, Amazon sells

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Speaker 2: products it owns directly to customers, but it also runs

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Speaker 2: Amazon Marketplace, where millions of third party sellers list products,

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Speaker 2: and today more than sixty two percent of items sold

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Speaker 2: on Amazon come from their marketplace sellers. And just boy.

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Speaker 2: This strategy is powerful because the Iconic already has strong

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Speaker 2: distribution through its existing customer base.

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Speaker 1: So by layering a marketplace on top, it can significantly

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Speaker 1: expand its product range and earn commission revenue.

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Speaker 2: Without taking on the risk of holding all that inventory itself.

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Speaker 1: For our second story, Koala, the box mattress maker, is

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Speaker 1: heading to the ASX in a three hundred and five

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Speaker 1: million dollar IPO, But it's a far cry from the

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Speaker 1: valuation that once streams of.

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Speaker 2: Koala is finally getting out of bed and heading to

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Speaker 2: the stock market. Tell me more.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So, Koala is the Ozzie furniture brand that's launching

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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen selling mattresses in a box.

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Speaker 2: Not exactly the most glamorous business idea in history.

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Speaker 1: No, no, no, But it turns out OSSI's are very

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Speaker 1: passionate about two things, good sleep and not carrying a

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Speaker 1: heavy mattress up three flights of stairs.

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Speaker 2: Yep. Koala quickly built a cult following things. So it's

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Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty day return policy.

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Speaker 1: And the man don't forget it's rogue ads that made

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Speaker 1: fun of its competitors.

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Speaker 2: Since then, it's expanded from just mattresses to a full

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Speaker 2: blown homewors company.

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Speaker 1: Thinks sofa beds, coffee tables, armchairs, bed sheets, outdoor furniture Now.

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Speaker 2: Does it boit? Koala has reportedly locked in plans to

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Speaker 2: list on the ASEX on April.

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Speaker 1: First, April full stay.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And as part of this listing, it would value

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Speaker 2: the company at about three hundred and five million bucks

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Speaker 2: and that's a pretty big step down from earlier ambitions.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Last year Koala was hoping to list the company

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Speaker 1: at a value of more than five hundred million dollars.

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Speaker 2: But the float is happening in a pretty tricky market.

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Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?

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Speaker 1: Timing the market can make or break an IPO.

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Speaker 2: For years, Koala was seen as a private equity darling,

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Speaker 2: but the IPO market has been pretty rough lately.

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Speaker 1: Especially for consumer companies that depend on people's splashing cash

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Speaker 1: on furniture and homeworks.

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Speaker 2: And does it with the number show just how much

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Speaker 2: sentiment has changed.

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Speaker 1: Back in twenty twenty, when Kerala had one hundred million

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Speaker 1: revenue and was just profitable, it was pitching a private

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Speaker 1: capital raise at five hundred million dollar valuation.

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Speaker 2: In March last year, with one hundred ninety four million

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Speaker 2: bucks in revenue and also being just profitable, it was

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Speaker 2: seeking a five hundred million dollar IPO.

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Speaker 1: And now with two hundred and seventy seven million revenue

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Speaker 1: and a twelve million dollar e bit dark it's just

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Speaker 1: seeking a three hundred and five million dollar valuation.

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Speaker 2: So interestingly, the business itself is in better financial shape,

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Speaker 2: but the market has become a lot less comfortable with

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Speaker 2: consumer IPOs. For our third and final store, Robinhood, the

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Speaker 2: US trading platform, has launched a fund to give retail

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Speaker 2: investors access to private companies. But the market is not

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Speaker 2: exactly rushing in.

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Speaker 1: Everyone just wants to slice of the next open aib man,

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Speaker 1: So tell me more, yep.

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Speaker 2: Robinhood is the US based trading platform famous for pioneering

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Speaker 2: commission free stock trading.

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Speaker 1: And bringing millions of retail investors into the stock market.

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Speaker 2: In fact, jazy boy. Robinhood now has more than twenty

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Speaker 2: million funded accounts.

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Speaker 1: Largely driven by younger investors who started trading meme stocks

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Speaker 1: during the pandemic.

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Speaker 2: Now last month, robin Hood launched a new investment vehicle

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Speaker 2: called robin Hood Ventures Fund Number one.

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Speaker 1: The goal is to give everyday investors exposure to private startups.

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Speaker 2: In other words, the part of the market that usually

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Speaker 2: sits behind that velvet rope reserved for venture capitalists and

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Speaker 2: institutional money and man.

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Speaker 1: The first fund includes stakes in eight private companies.

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Speaker 2: We're talking Stripe, Data, Bricks, Air, Wallax, Revolute, Aura and

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Speaker 2: a few others.

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Speaker 1: And the Man. The fund had a pretty ambitious billion

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Speaker 1: USL target, but their demand came in lower and expect

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Speaker 1: raising just over six hundred and fifty million dollars instead.

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Speaker 2: And on the first day of training there was a

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Speaker 2: sixteen percent drop in its share price.

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Speaker 1: Ouch. So what is the key learning here?

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Speaker 2: Some of the biggest capital gains in companies today happened

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Speaker 2: before the IPO bell ever ring.

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Speaker 1: We know that private markets have exploded over the past decade.

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Speaker 2: And with more money flowing into private companies, the medium

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Speaker 2: age of companies staying private has increased from under seven

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Speaker 2: years in twenty fourteen to eleven years today.

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Speaker 1: Wow. That means many of the juiciest growth years happen

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Speaker 1: while the company is still private.

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Speaker 2: And because retail investors usually can't access those early rounds,

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Speaker 2: products like Rumborhood Adventures are trying to bridge that gap.

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Speaker 1: SA. We know that the Formula one race happens both

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Speaker 1: on and off the trap, and our latest article we

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Speaker 1: revealed the top five fe teams based on their valuation.

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Speaker 1: So you want to learn more about the biggest teams

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Speaker 1: in one of the biggest sports around the world, make

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Speaker 1: sure to download the Flux app and check out our

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Speaker 1: latest article.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and we'll see you on for Wriday