Fiverr, the Online Services Marketplace, Is Going Public: What You Need to Know (Part 1)

Spend Matters recently reported that Fiverr, the Tel Aviv-based online marketplace for digital creative services launched in 2010, had filed its Form F-1 paperwork to go public with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fiverr is the third online work/services platform to IPO, preceded by Upwork in October 2018 (NASDAQ: UPWK) and Freelancer.com in October 2013 (ASX: FLN). Among other things, the Fiverr IPO represents a new opportunity for analysts to get significant insight into another online freelancer marketplace’s financials and other business characteristics, including business strategy, business model and go-to-market approach.

Years ago, when Fiverr entered the market, some may have dismissed it as a low-end “5-dollar store” of online freelancers. But there was more than met the eye. In fact, Fiverr had begun executing its differentiated strategy of creating a unique marketplace based on its service-as-a-product model. According to Fiverr, it had “set out to design a digital marketplace that is built with a comprehensive SKU-like services catalog and an efficient search, find and order process that mirrors a typical e-commerce transaction.”

In this two-part PRO series, we will further discuss Fiverr and its SaaP model, including why it may align to procurement practitioner mindsets and e-procurement solution models. In Part 1, relying partly on Fiverr’s F-1, we will focus on Fiverr as a company and as a unique online freelancer marketplace platform. In Part 2, we will consider the broader context of evolving population of other online freelancer marketplaces, with special emphasis on the public companies, Upwork and Freelancer.