Greek Aussie run tech start-up E-Mersion Media was allegedly losing money from the start, long before its collapse earlier this year.
According to news.com.au, the Melbourne based company with offices in the UK had debts of more than $12 million when it went into liquidation in April this year.
E-Mersion’s sole director is John Iliopoulos.
The liquidator’s report states that E-Mersion’s idea of digitising traditional print magazines had captured plenty of interest from investors but only managed to make four sales in the four years it was in operation, coming in at a measly $84,274.
The report submitted to ASIC also said the company received $200,000 from the government’s JobKeeper grant to pay staff during the COVID pandemic.
The return would have left investors furious, with $12 million invested from 50 mum and dad investors, mostly from Australia.
In that same period of 2020 to earlier this year, the company had losses of $12.6 million.
Previous reports found that had company had copped criticism from investors for spending more than $1 million over the course of three years, including business class airfares, luxury accommodation, fine dining, alcohol, spas and massages.
This included a year long trip to Doha, Qatar costing $100,000.
Staff are also owed $255,000 from unpaid employee entitlements, about $149,000 of that being unpaid superannuation.
In June 2023, workers had quit en masse as their wages never arrived and some have still not received their final wages after resigning.
Sole director Iliopoulos told news.com.au last year that the company was solvent and that all wages had been paid up to date while acknowledging revenue problems.
“There are a lot of mistakes of why we’re not making revenue,” he said.
“Some things don’t work out to plan.”
