Freetrailer built great momentum before the company’s IPO at the Spotlight Stock Market June 14th. The shares offered to the investors were subscribed almost five times ending at a subscription for 36 million Danish kroner.
In Jutland, the joke is that you can’t live without one. Now it seems that most of Denmark and the Nordics agree. Freetrailer’s trailers are on the roads from Skagen to Malmö, and now the company can also be found in many investors portfolios.
The former Accelerace alumni has chosen to IPO on the Spotlight Stock Market. Before the first day of trading, the public offering has been covered five times. Freetrailer made available stocks for 5,6 million Danish kroner for the public offering, and an additional 8,4 million Danish kroner was already covered. This amounts to 14 million Danish kroner but at the deadline of the official subscription, period investors had wanted to subscribe to 36 million Danish kroner.
“The interest in Freetrailer has been overwhelming. We are, of course, both proud and honored that so many investorers has chosen to invest in our stocks. I have always been convinced that our sharing economy platform has a broad popular appeal. The support our IPO has meet on the stock market confirms this in every way” says CEO and founder Allan Sønderskov Darré.
Adopted the mindset from Accelerace
Freetrailer has been in Denmark since 2004. In 2009, the company expanded to Sweden and went to Norway in 2015. They have achieved a total of seven Gazelle prices for their rapid growth in revenue. The seventh came in 2014 after Freetrailer had been an alumnus of Accelerace.
“Accelerace ignited in me the desire to know my numbers and constantly tweak and adjust our business. On a daily basis we have to dig in our data and check if our performance is satisfactory. To know your numbers and to know your customers better than they know themselves – is a mindset we have adopted from Accelerace” says Allan Sønderskov Darré adding:
“You have to adjust to your customer’s reality and not your own. The ones who can do that will be winning in the future of retail.”
Freetrailer is an early adopter of the sharing economy trend and has built a business out of making it easier to share trailers between companies and private users. As a private user, you can return it any time you like without regards to opening hours. That’s convenient for the users – and the business too because they can rent out the same trailer faster and up the number of rents without buying more machinery.
Scaling with the best platform to date
In 2014, Freetrailer made a pitstop after some years with full throttle. They wanted to expand into Germany but to make sure they wouldn’t burn out they had to slow down and make a strategy for how to ration the gas for the next ten years growth like they had done the ten years prior. They ended up deciding to follow the growth curve they were already riding on and postpone the German adventure.
“Ten million kroner and 35.000 hours of development later we have the best platform to this date. It has been tested with IKEA for more than a year, and now we are now expanding it to all our Nordic partners,” says Allan Sønderskov Darré.
Today, Freetrailer has more than 30 partners, and with the IPO more than 1100 investors. The goal is to expand the concept in the existing and new markets. Before the IPO the company was valued at 27,4 million Danish kroner.
“With the IPO we have achieved the economic backing needed to scale our business. We chose the Swedish growth stock market because it is like having a gas card. When you’re listed here once and find yourself needing more money for growth you can refuel your card. Also, every day stocks for more than 100 million Swedish kroner are traded here every day, so if you buy stocks in Freetrailer you know you can sell again,” says Allan Sønderskov Darré.
Accelerace is not just about the first steps
Allan Sønderskov Darré is still in contact with his mentors from 2013. He explains it as having two uncles. Uncles, that are well-read, world travelers that offer you all the advice you can’t get from your parents.
“They are the ones I call when I meet new challenges, and that’s the strength in Accelerace. It doesn’t end after you finish the accelerator – it begins”, says Allan Sønderskov Darré.
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