Catawiki saw modest overall growth in 2022, with acceleration in the second half of the year, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment
Company remains confident of its outlook and continued investments in workforce to drive product improvements and geographic expansion
These investments resulted in higher adjusted EBITDA loss compared to 2021, in line with plans, post the 2020 funding round
Fastest growth seen in luxury goods, pop culture collectables, and artists selling directly on Catawiki
Strong results in first quarter of 2023 confirm continuation of current strategy
Amsterdam, 9 June 2023 - Catawiki, the leading online marketplace for special objects, today announced its full-year results for 2022. In an unpredictable year, marked by a war in Europe and the associated cost-of-living crisis, Catawiki held strong, continued to invest and kept track of sustainable growth for the future.
2022 results
Catawiki was able to grow in the second half of 2022, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. As a result, the company's revenue increased to €87.9M (2021: €86.8M). 2022 was also marked by heavy investments, including adding more than hundred employees to the workforce, which explains the adjusted EBITDA of €-8.9M (2021: €1.9M). The pick up in growth in the second half of 2022 continued into the first quarter of 2023 providing confidence that investments are paying off.
Throughout 2022, luxury goods reported steady growth, proving to be a good alternative investment for consumers during economic uncertainty and high inflation. Among the categories, fashion led the way with more than twice as many items sold as in 2021, followed by watches, whisky and spirits, which grew in strong double digits. A surge in demand for pop culture collectables also boosted sports, music, movies and animation, as well as Pokémon and Lego, to strong year-on-year growth. Lastly, artists and creators increasingly turned to Catawiki in 2022, with an unprecedented 35% increase in artworks sold directly on the platform compared to 2021.
‘’2022 was a largely unpredictable year, which saw the industry slow down and many players reporting a decline in topline. We at Catawiki held strong and managed to grow the business, with a strong performance in the second half of the year.'' commented Ravi Vora, CEO at Catawiki. ''The 2022 results also reflect continued investments in the business to prepare for acceleration into more geographies and enable the category of special objects to transition from offline to online. The strong results of the first quarter of this year show that the chosen strategy is doing its job. However, we closely monitor developments in the macroeconomic environment that have depressed consumer spending and are ready to adapt our strategy should this be necessary.’’ he concluded.
Investment strategy paying off in first quarter of 2023
In 2022, Catawiki invested in two main areas. On one side, increasing internationalisation of the business resulted in stronger growth rates in growth markets such as Italy, Germany and Spain. On the other side, user experience improvement led to improved searchability for buyers (with conversion rate increasing by 40%), easier submission flows for sellers and better shipping options (reduced shipping costs and easier shipping for buyers and sellers). These improvements helped the company to grow faster in the first quarter of 2023 and March turned out to be the best month ever in the company's history.
“The potential is huge - in Europe alone, 80% of special objects are still sold offline and the market size is tens of billions of euros - and we are proud to be at the forefront of bringing this world online. We’ll continue to invest carefully and sustainably to make special objects accessible to everyone and to help people realise what they holds most dear: their passions.’’ added Vora.
