Online consultancy marketplace Expert360 will be acquired in a cut-price deal that will wipe out early investors, and co-founder Bridget Loudon-Harris.
AI-driven jobs marketplace Swipejobs is to acquire Expert360 as it moves towards a planned listing on the ASX. It is believed Swipejobs will acquire Expert360 for $16 million.
Loudon-Harris and Emily Yue, both former Bain & Co management consultants, founded Expert360 in 2013. Since then, the company has raised close to $30 million from venture capital firms and individual investors.
Providing a platform for businesses to recruit expert talent on demand, Expert360 grew strongly in its early years but faltered during the COVID-19 pandemic and has struggled since then.
Investors who stepped in to keep the company operating did so through the issue of preference shares which meant they would receive any returns ahead of earlier shareholders.
The sale agreement with Swipejobs was finalised on 1 September and included issuing a “drag notice” which required early investors, as agreed in the preference share rounds, to forfeit their shares at no return.
Series C and C1 preference shares were taken up by Airtree Ventures, Melbourne-based Rampersand, Hyper Capital Start-Ups, UniSuper and Perennnial’s Private to Public Opportunities Fund and others. Airtree and Rampersand, however, also hold earlier rounds shares which will be wiped out. Airtree led Expert360’s $13 million Series B round in 2017. Overall, Airtree is expected to record a significant loss on Expert360, possibly as much as 90%.
Loudon-Harris, who will remain involved with the business, confirmed Expert360 is to be sold but denied the accuracy of the $16 million figure.
Swipejobs was founded in Sydney by Katrina Leslie in 2016 but has focused on the US and UK jobs markets until now. The company’s platform uses AI to help jobseekers find matches with employers listed on the platform. Once they receive matches, jobseekers can provide additional information, such as salary expectations, which the AI uses to refine the matches. According to Leslie, the company generated $1.3 billion in revenue in 2025 and has been profitable for six years.
Leslie started her career in human resources and recruitment and worked for Westpac, Microsoft and BHP before founding jobs assessment and career development company IPS in 1997. IPS was sold in 1999 for an undisclosed sum.
Following that, Leslie launched job applicant screening and ranking business ePredix in the US. That business was sold in 2005. Returning to Australia, Leslie founded applicant tracking and sourcing platform HRX. HRX was acquired by outsourcing and recruitment company SeatonCorp in 2013.
After founding Swipejobs in 2016, Leslie bootstrapped the business until late 2020 when the company raised $80 million. Investors in the company include Robert Whyte of Audant Investments and Will Vicars, Caledonia Capital joint chief investment officer. Leslie retains around 70% of the business.
Image: Expert 360 co-founder Bridget Loudon-Harris.