Sinorbis
How it started
Sinorbis chief executive and co-founder, Nicolas Chu, is a former global president for international brands at Orbitz World. In that role he was tasked with investigating how to expand into China, quickly realising how difficult it was for multinational companies to enter and succeed in China’s digital space.
Not having access to the growing Chinese middle-class and its high demand for international products, he thought many businesses were missing out on the opportunity of the century. So he built Sinorbis to help businesses of any size reach the market with its integrated marketing platform that allows them to create and manage their digital presence in China.
Growth
After first trying to work with a broad range of businesses, the team quickly worked out that the platform couldn’t meet all the different needs in equal measures. So Chu focused on the higher education sector in Australia, perfecting that before shifting the attention to consumer goods and expanding the solution to the rest of the world at the start of the pandemic. A $2.3 million funding round in 2017 likely helped too.
The founders told SmartCompany they managed the transition successfully in the end, “but it was a difficult process that required a lot of effort from the whole team, from sales and marketing all the way to product development”.
After steady revenue between the 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years, Sinorbis doubled its revenue in the 2020-21 financial year to reach $2.49 million.
Where to next?
Sinorbis’ next big goal is to expand the platform for the higher education sector to the rest of Asia. After growing well in Australia and acquiring a few companies abroad, the founders believe they need to focus more of their efforts in those markets to reach the next level of growth.
