AI job-matching platform Swipejobs agreed to acquire Expert360, the Sydney marketplace for consultants and fractional executives, according to reports published on September 3, 2026. The deal was first reported by Capital Brief, and the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported that it values Expert360 at A$16 million (about US$11 million).
Neither company has announced the deal or commented publicly on its terms. SmartCompany, whose report was republished by Startup Daily, said it had contacted both companies for comment.
Documents behind the sale, seen by Capital Brief and the AFR, suggest the proceeds will flow to holders of Expert360's Series C and Series C1 preference shares. Investors from earlier rounds and founder Bridget Loudon-Harris are expected to receive little or nothing for their shares.
What Expert360 built
Loudon-Harris and Emily Yue, both former management consultants at Bain & Company, founded Expert360 in Sydney in 2013. The platform connects companies and startups with independent consultants, board advisers and fractional executives, giving businesses access to specialist contractors on demand.
Where Airtasker, another Australian marketplace, began with household jobs such as cleaning and gardening, Expert360 focused on professional and white-collar work. Two years after launch it said more than 1,000 companies had posted A$10 million worth of work on the platform.
When the AFR reported in July 2026 that Expert360 was up for sale, the sale materials described it as an early adopter of AI for screening talent and matching businesses with experts. The offer also described the company as profitable, with A$140 million in annual revenue.
“Founders are paid last. That’s the deal you sign, and I’d sign it again.”
Who gets paid
Expert360 raised about A$30 million (about US$21 million) after its 2013 launch. It took A$1 million from investors in Australia, New York and Hong Kong in 2014, then a A$4.1 million Series A in 2015 led by Frontier Ventures and Rampersand. In 2017 Airtree invested A$13 million in a Series B, and one of Airtree's co-founders joined the board. In 2020 the company raised another A$12 million from existing investors.
Most of the Series C shares that rank first in the sale are held by Airtree and Rampersand. Hyper Capital Startups, Perennial and UniSuper are also among the investors in line for a payout, according to the reports. Airtree and Rampersand are thought to hold other tranches of shares that are not eligible for any consideration.
Loudon-Harris is also thought to be ineligible. She told the AFR that founders often leave the companies they build with little money, and that she accepted those terms when she raised capital. Under the reported structure, investors who backed the company in its earlier rounds, including those of 2014 and 2015, may also receive nothing.
The founder's next step
Loudon-Harris became a non-executive director of Telstra in 2020. At 32, she was the youngest person ever appointed to the board of an ASX200 company.
On August 31, 2026, Telstra told the market that she would step down from its board, without connecting the decision to the Expert360 sale. In a statement to investors, Telstra chair Craig Dunn said the board had benefited from her input on strategy, disruption, AI, transformation and performance culture.
The buyer
Swipejobs was also founded in 2013, by human resources and recruitment executive Katrina Leslie. Employers describe the role they need to fill and the platform uses AI to suggest matching candidates from its pool of jobseekers.
Startup Daily described this as a somewhat different approach to job-matching from Expert360's marketplace, which lets companies find specialists for professional projects and executive roles.
The company has passed A$1 billion in annual revenue and is reportedly considering an initial public offering, according to SmartCompany. Its success has made Leslie one of Australia's wealthiest technology founders.
Buying Expert360 would add a marketplace for senior professional talent to a business built on matching workers to roles. Neither company has said how Expert360 will be run after the deal or what will happen to its staff, and no closing date has been reported.
