Finance & Business Strategist

What do the T-Rex jaw, old Pokémon cards, and the smallest gun in the world have in common? All of them have been auctioned via Catawiki! This online auction platform is the fastest growing tech company in Europe. For growth to continue and to accelerate even further, there is a new vacancy at Catawiki for a Finance & Business Strategist. Mastery over Business Strategy and over Financial Planning & Analysis is the objective.

Catawiki is growing fast

Catawiki was founded in a small attic room in Assen in 2008 by René Schoenmakers and Marco Jansen. Since then, it has grown to a company with more than 450 employees. Catawiki has two locations in the Netherlands, Assen and WeWork Metropool in Amsterdam. In addition, there are offices in Germany, France, England, Italy and Spain. Catawiki was originally created so that collectors could track their collections online and be able to add items to the catalog itself. Since 2011, Catawiki has held weekly auctions in different categories such as art, classic cars, antiques, watches, jewelry, fashion, stamps, and books. In 2011, the auction model was added to the website. Catawiki auctions are compiled by specialized auctioneers who guarantee a varied and high-quality offering. Buyers pay for their purchases through the platform. Catawiki charges for the purchase two weeks after delivery, provided that the customer is satisfied. This gives an additional layer of security and supports the quality guarantee. Both the buyer and seller pay a commission.

“We want to make special items available to the public at large, not things you can find on the street corner. We want to deliver auctions at the level of Van Gogh.” – René Schoenmakers, Founder & CEO Catawiki

After introducing the auction model, growth happened incredibly quickly. Because the auction model turned out to be a successful business model, Catawiki grew by 45,080% from 2011 to 2015. Catawiki was the global winner of the Deloitte Fast500 rankings. This success did not go unnoticed; in September 2014 Catawiki reached €10 million in investment led by Accel (who also invested in Facebook and Dropbox). In July 2015, Accel led another round of investment to the tune of €75 million. This is an exceptionally high amount for a Dutch start-up. The funds will be used for expansion abroad, marketing, and the recruitment of experienced talent which will allow the organization to be taken to the next level. By the end of 2015, CFO Willem van Wijmen joined the team. His team now has a new vacancy for a Finance & Business Strategist.

About the vacancy

The Finance & Business Strategist will work closely with the CFO and the rest of the management team to implement actions for the business to operate smarter and to be more profitable. To achieve this, financial planning, analysis and business strategy are key.

“As a company, we are sailing close to the wind. This makes it all the more important to keep on track.” – Willem van Wijmen, CFO Catawiki

The Finance & Business Strategist will take the lead in developing new analytical models, design of cohort analyses, optimization of forecasts and use them to monitor progress, pick up early warning signals, unlock new insights, detect trends and thus keep the strategy up to date. The insights that the Finance Business Strategist offers forms direct input for the review of the strategy. This professional is involved in debates about strategic issues at the highest level, The board relies on the insights supplied by the Finance & Business Strategist and is inspired by his/her pitches. Therefore, strong communication and stakeholder management skills are crucial.