Earlier this week, Tradeslot was named the “Hottest Company” at the 2009 ANZA Gateway to the US Summit at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, CA.
 
Pitching alongside 9 other Australian-founded companies Tradeslot, from Melbourne, captured the Guy Manson Award for its real-time combinatorial auction platform that dramatically improves the efficiency and profitability of B2B transactions for both buyers and sellers.

If, like me, you went “huh?” when you first heard “combinatorial auction” then let me explain (courtesy of Tradeslot’s definition)

“You have to give it to the guys who came up with combinatorial auctions, the idea is quite revolutionary. Combine the competitive pressure of an online auction with the flexibility of a negotiation. In other words, create good revenue and happy customers. Great idea. And it stayed just that, until the technology caught up and that’s where we come in.

Still lost? Try this five step recipe (proven in our kitchens):

1. Gather pre-qualified buyers in a web portal
2. Let them express exactly what they are after (in terms of price, volume, quality, payment terms, shipping modes, bundling of goods… no limit really)
3. Let the system determine (in real time!) how you would allocate whatever you’re selling (the good, license, permit …)
4. Play the result back to buyers.
5. Let them improve their offer until they get exactly what they are after.

Then go back to (3.) and (4.), until every one has fine-tuned their offer and the deal is locked in.”

The site currently has a strong focus on carbon emission trading, but that’s not the only area they play in. In fact, the technology is built to help with B2B auctions of any kind. One other example is a Timber Sales Platform Tradeslot created for the Victorian Government.

A quick look through the team sees a wealth of business experience including Chairman Andrew Barlow, founder of super successful Aussie startup Hitwise which recently sold for around $300M.

The site is a little clunky, but the technology and business opportunity is anything but that. There’s not the same scope for scale as other auction systems, simply because you need a set of pre-qualified buyers, but if Tradeslot can deliver the 40% revenue uplift for businesses auctioning goods or services that they say they’re already showing, then this will be one serious player in the very near future.