‘Incredible’: Airtasker takes flight on ASX debut

Delighted bosses of the task marketplace say the soaring share price after its IPO is a good sign for Australian tech businesses.

Airtasker CEO Tim Fung and chairman James Spenceley were delighted with the ASX debut. Picture: Ryan Osland

Airtasker chairman James Spenceley says his company is ecstatic with its first day of trading, with its share price soaring by 78 per cent on debut, a result he says is a good sign for tech businesses in Australia.

Undaunted by a one-day delay caused by an ASX technical glitch, online task marketplace provider Airtasker shot up 78 per cent to $1.16 soon after Mr Spenceley rang the bell with CEO Tim Fung and Mr Fung‘s mother at 11am (AEDT), before easing to 90 cents at 1pm.

Airtasker was five times oversubscribed and is one of the biggest ASX tech IPOs of the year, valued at around $255m. It’s hoping to join tech darlings Appen, Afterpay and Xero in finding longlasting ASX success.

Mr Spenceley says he shared a quiet moment with Mr Fung in the taxi back to the office from the ASX headquarters, as the pair reflected on their journey to date.

“We’re feeling incredible. It’s such a stressful process right up to the last minute, and obviously there was a bit of a delay there too,” he said. “It’s a really great result. I haven’t really focused too much on the share price, I think it’s up in the 90s, but it’s a good sign for tech businesses in Australia.

“The market can really look through a bit of noise on short term bond movements and all that stuff, and it shows the Australian market really likes quality tech growth stories.”

Mr Spenceley says he put pressure on the ASX to try to push through with Airtasker‘s listing on Monday, despite the technical hiccups, but it quickly became clear that the team would have to push back its public debut to Tuesday.

“Once we heard from them that they weren‘t really willing to do anything that put the process at risk, and that it was a human error, we were accepting of it,” he said. “Things happen. Everyone makes mistakes, and we’re all human. I don’t think in a year’s time we’re gonna look back and worry about whether it was the Monday or the Tuesday.

“We just decided we’d move all our lunch celebrations across and get on with it.”

The executive, who founded telco giant Vocus and is a former young rich lister, said he was looking forward to capping Airtasker’s success with a quiet drink, after a long lunch with the company’s various advisers and brokers.

“Our position in the gig economy is that we‘re very pro-worker, and we only get paid when the person doing the work gets paid, so our incentive is to have them make more money. We want to just continue on that trip and educate people of that,” he said.

“My priority is just the government relations, investor relations, and making sure that we live by what we say. I really love this business, I get our of bed every day and I’m honoured to be a part of it.

“We’ve got an incredible foundation and I’m looking forward to the next 20 years.”

CEO Tim Fung said he was keeping his hands in front of his employees’ smartphones, to make sure they don’t look at the share price.

“I just want to make sure the focus is on the next five to seven year,” he said. “Although it seems like things are going really well today, I’m not looking at it too closely.

“I‘ve accepted that tomorrow morning when we walk back into the office I’m sure I’m going to see a few screens with the black, red and green charts, but the overarching thing is that our chairman, myself and many of our major investors and supporters, and our employees, aren’t selling anything today and we’re committed to the long term.”