Berlin/New York, March 8, 2016 – The online auction platform Auctionata has completed 2015 with a GMV of €81 million ($90 million). The company, which started in Berlin in 2012, recorded an increase of 165 percent compared to the year before. Around 76 percent of the GMV was generated from the livestream auctions, while fixed-price sales contributed 24 percent. Nearly 80 percent was through the Berlin office, while 20 percent came from the offices in New York City and in London. The categories with the strongest turnover were Watches (25 percent), Classic Cars (23 percent), and Fine Art (22 percent), next to Asian Art (14 percent), Applied Art (12 percent) and Vintage Luxury Goods such as wine, jewellery and fashion (4 percent). Overall, around 16,000 items were sold. The net commission revenue amounted to €21 million ($23 million), compared to €6 million ($8 million) in 2014.
Berlin/New York, March 8, 2016 – The online auction platform Auctionata has completed 2015 with a GMV of €81 million ($90 million). The company, which started in Berlin in 2012, recorded an increase of 165 percent compared to the year before. Around 76 percent of the GMV was generated from the livestream auctions, while fixed-price sales contributed 24 percent. Nearly 80 percent was through the Berlin office, while 20 percent came from the offices in New York City and in London. The categories with the strongest turnover were Watches (25 percent), Classic Cars (23 percent), and Fine Art (22 percent), next to Asian Art (14 percent), Applied Art (12 percent) and Vintage Luxury Goods such as wine, jewellery and fashion (4 percent). Overall, around 16,000 items were sold. The net commission revenue amounted to €21 million ($23 million), compared to €6 million ($8 million) in 2014.
In total, 249 auctions were held in 2015, of which 44 were broadcasted live from the auction studios in New York. In these auctions, more than 100,000 bids with a total value of €483 million ($536 million) were placed. Due to innovations in the livestream technology, new auction and event formats were launched, which now enable Auctionata to hold and broadcast auctions simultaneously from two or three separate locations. Moreover, a series of record sales were achieved in the livestream auctions. The highest result of the year came from the sale of a Chinese automaton clock, which sold for €3.37 million ($3.83 million), including buyer’s premium, in June. The buyer was the Chinese billionaire and former taxi driver Liu Yiqian, who bought the object with his smartphone. Thereby, Auctionata set a new world record for the most expensive work of art sold in an online auction, and achieved not only the highest annual GMV, but also the highest auction result of any German auction house in the year 2015. The biggest increase was recorded for a porcelain vase from the 17th century, which was called with a starting price of €5,000 ($5,435) and sold for €875,000 ($951,000), incl. buyer’s premium, after a 17-minute-long bidding contest. With these results, Auctionata strengthened its leadership position in the online auction market, only three years after the start of its livestream auctions in May 2013.
Alexander Zacke, founder and CEO of Auctionata, comments: “With around 200,000 customers from 199 countries and several distinct yet complimentary livestream formats, Auctionata has gained a significant reach. At the same time, our permanently accessible auction experience and diverse offering appeal to a steadily increasing, international and particularly young customer base. On our path to becoming the world’s first “24/7 auction channel”, we will further increase our livestream auction frequency and air time while expanding our service offering for sellers.”
Additionally, Auctionata has strengthened its position in the US market, as Joseph Stasko, Managing Director US, explains: “As a result of Auctionata’s growing business in the US, we were able to ramp up the frequency of our livestream auctions from New York from 8 in 2014 to 44 in 2015. Auctionata’s US branch has gained a strong foothold in the market across a range of categories led by Contemporary Art and Luxury Collectibles. We are excited to expand into new auction categories and formats in 2016.”
Dr. Christian Nagel, partner at venture capital firm Earlybird, comments: “In the past year, Auctionata has again shown a good growth rate of 165 percent while further improving its operating performance. As a result of the company’s advances into new fields of business and acquisitions, we are once again expecting a strong development for 2016.”
Auctionata closed a Series C financing round of €42 million ($45 million) in May, in which all existing investors participated. The round also included new investors MCI Management, Hearst Ventures, Yuan Capital, and Groupe Arnault. Additionally, Auctionata acquired the London-based valuation service provider ValueMyStuff in September to enlarge its international network of experts and expand its presence in the British market.
High resolution images can be downloaded here: http://we.tl/i4DpiElMUs
8 March 2016
