Catch co-founders snap up Click Frenzy weeks after its collapse
What's the deal? Gabby and Hezi Leibovich, the co-founders of Australian e-commerce giant Catch, have acquired Click Frenzy — the online shopping event brand that collapsed earlier this year. The husband-and-wife duo plan to relaunch the platform, betting they can revive a name that once drove massive traffic for Australian retailers.
Click Frenzy, often dubbed Australia's answer to Black Friday, had been a fixture of the local e-commerce calendar before it went under. The Leiboviches are now looking to bring it back to life within weeks of the acquisition.
Why now? The Leiboviches know distressed e-commerce assets. They built Catch into one of Australia's biggest online retailers before selling it to WesfarmersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in 2019. Picking up Click Frenzy at a discount after its collapse gives them a recognised brand with built-in consumer awareness — without the cost of building from scratch.
The timing also aligns with a broader reset in Australian e-commerce, where post-pandemic growth has cooled and weaker players have been shaken out. That creates room for experienced operators to consolidate.
What could go wrong? Click Frenzy collapsed for a reason. The brand had struggled to stay relevant as major retailers built their own sales events and global competitors like Amazon ramped up in Australia. Reviving it means convincing both consumers and retail partners that the platform is worth their attention again.
There's also the question of whether event-based e-commerce still resonates in a market saturated with year-round discounting.
The signal: Seasoned e-commerce founders are bargain-hunting among the wreckage of Australia's pandemic-era retail boom. The Leiboviches sold Catch to Wesfarmers — one of Australia's largest listed companies, now a mature conglomerate — in 2019, and their return to the space with a distressed acquisition suggests they see value in recognisable digital brands as building blocks for whatever comes next in Australian online retail.
Read more: smartcompany.com.au
