Childhood friends at the helm of mattress seller Koala are set to be worth tens of millions of dollars as their company looks to list on the Australian sharemarket.<\/p>\n
Co-founded by mates Dany Milham and Mitch Taylor from Byron Bay in 2015, Koala is eyeing a March 31 initial public offering on the ASX.<\/p>\n
The operation began with vacuum sealed and rolled mattresses and now sells armchairs and couches as well in Japan, the US and the UK.<\/p>\n
Founded a decade ago with barely $2000, Mr Milham\u2019s stake is set to be worth about $63.3m, and Mr Taylor is set to hold $54m of stock, investment documents released this month show.<\/p>\n
Griffith University\u2019s Graeme Hughes said most retailers similar to Koala had been treading water since the post-pandemic buying boom.<\/p>\n
\u201cKoala is bucking the trend, and it has earned the right to do so,\u201d the university business school adjunct associate professor told NewsWire.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost retailers in this space are either sitting on the sidelines or struggling with the hangover from post-pandemic demand softening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Co-founder Mr Milham holding all his shares when the company goes public was a key vote of confidence for Koala, Mr Hughes said, as was the company\u2019s expected $305m valuation with $330m in forecast revenue.<\/p>\n
Comparisons to competitor Temple and Webster were not quite apt, Mr Hughes said, because Koala designed its products, controlled its own supply chain and shipped direct to the customer.<\/p>\n
Temple and Webster\u2019s share price has plummeted 60 per cent over the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cTemple and Webster had a brutal year on the market,\u201d Mr Hughes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKoala would have watched that closely and structured its pitch accordingly, with a tighter product range and better margin visibility. Whether investors agree will be clear within days of listing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of listing on the ASX, Koala raised $20m at $3.40 a share. The chief executive, Mr Milham, will hold about 20 per cent of the shares, valued at $63.6m. Mr Taylor will hold about 16.3 per cent, to be worth $54m.<\/p>\n
Sydney fund manager Perennial Partners will hold the largest stake with 22.7 per cent. Australian cricketer Steve Smith made a $100,000 foundation investment in 2015 and will remain an investor.<\/p>\n
The prospectus documents show Mr Milham will not sell any shares, but Mr Taylor and Perennial will sell about four million shares for $13.6m.<\/p>\n
Koala shelved plans to go public in mid-2025 as trade tensions between the US and China disrupted expansion efforts in North America. <\/p>\n
Eighty-seven per cent of Koala products are made in China.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe founder matters here too,\u201d Mr Hughes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDany Milham built MilkRun and sold it to Woolworths before putting his full energy into Koala. He knows how to build, scale, and navigate the hard parts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe business has handled adversity, particularly pulling its first IPO attempt last year when Trump\u2019s tariffs threatened its US operations, spending six months rebuilding its supply chain through Southeast Asia, and coming back with a stronger story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelaide University senior marketing scientist Arry Tanusondjaja said Koala\u2019s growth could be attributed to staying focused on mattresses before expanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Koala has done well is staying focused on a specific category before expanding to the whole house furniture, which has supported its growth,\u201d Dr Tanusondjaja said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arrival of competitors such as Ecosa and Sleeping Duck suggests that this model is not only viable but also increasingly competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s online-only store and brand were also central, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many ways, Ikea reshaped how Australians shop for furniture and homewares.<\/p>\n
\u201cKoala builds on that shift by offering a fully online, simple way to buy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrands grow by being easy to think of when the need arises and being easy to buy. Koala has done both.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Koala co-founders were unavailable to speak with NewsWire. Steve Smith\u2019s management was approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Childhood friends at the helm of mattress seller Koala are set to be worth tens of millions of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,115817,128,338],"class_list":["post-556214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-newswire-business","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}