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Luggage startup July rolls to top spot in 2022 Smart50 list

Smart50 winner July

Powered by a spike in domestic and international travel post-lockdowns, luggage startup July has taken first place in the 2022 Smart50 Awards.

Founded in 2018 to create beautiful, accessible, high-quality luggage, the company grew 640% last financial year to reach $21.6 million in revenue in 2021-22, earning it the top spot in SmartCompany’s 2022 ranking of the 50 fastest growing Australian companies.

July now joins luminaries of Australian business, including Cover Genius, Choice Energy, Hunter Mason and Prospa, as an overall winner of the annual Smart50 Awards.

Named after the world’s most popular travel month, July co-founders Athan Didaskalou and Richard Li spent half their initial capital raise perfecting their bag’s wheel design, a decision that has paid off handsomely.

Relentlessly customer-focused, the founders still regularly spend time on the shop floor at their Collingwood store-office HQ in Melbourne, and also devote time to answering query tickets submitted by prospective purchasers via their website, aiming to learn as much as they can about their customers.

This year the Victoria-based brand became the official luggage partner for Australia’s Winter Olympic team, and opened its first retail store in Sydney.

The founders’ stated aim is to see at least 10 July products every time they’re in an airport.  

If they don’t, then they “haven’t sold enough”, joked chief strategy officer Didaskalou when SmartCompany visited their office earlier this year.

Serial entrepreneurs, Didaskalou had previously started a coffee subscription business and a co-working venue, while CEO Li had co-founded a data-safe furniture business.

Following rapid growth in 2019, like every travel-related brand July was thrown off track in early 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic. The founders focused on developing products for a post-COVID world, with a roadmap to recovery prioritising the US as a core market to focus on as restrictions eased.

Now, July has 25 products and 168 variants, with 16 new products set to launch before the end of the year.

A UK launch is planned for July 2023, while the founders increase the company’s retail presence in the US and Australia.