Street Talk

Project Hawke: Bridget Loudon’s Expert360 hunts capital partner

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Apr 30, 2025 – 2.52pm

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Already a subscriber?

A recruitment marketplace co-founded by Telstra director Bridget Loudon and backed by AirTree Ventures is gearing up to make a major acquisition, tapping Highbury Partnership to hunt a capital partner.

Expert360, a platform that matches skilled contract workers with employers like Atlassian, Qantas, AirTrunk and Westpac, is seeking $25 million to fund the cash component of the acquisition, which it projects will turbocharge earnings to $26 million.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.