David Yu's digital trading app, VeVe, has sold more than 8 million collectibles since its launch in 2018. Photo: Supplied
The creator of an app designed for trading digital collectables, like comic books and art works, has captured a large share of a fast growing multi-billion-dollar global business.
David Yu's win as EY NZ's Entrepreneur of the Year will take him to Monaco next year to compete with winners from 50 other countries for the world title.
Yu's business started out in Auckland's Karangahape Road as a comic book store before becoming a global platform for digital collectable trading.
His app VeVe has sold more than eight million collectables since its launch in 2018 and broke ground as new business category.
Yu said the business was still at the beginning of its growth cycle with estimated global gross merchandise value of $2.4 billion.
"We will like to think we have a good 15 percent to 20 percent of the market share. So the industry is very big, and we are just in the very forefront of this whole evolution," Yu said.
However, Yu had been working for about 25 years to become an overnight success.
In 2017, he said, he could see there would be a demand for digital assets.
"So it was just natural evolution that this was going to happen.
"So from small beginnings ... the future just excites me - what's going to happen next."
Entrepreneur category winners
- Jamie Beaton (Crimson Education), Young
- Carmen Vicelich (Data Insight), Tech & Emerging Industries
- Angus Brown (Ārepa Holdings Ltd), Product
- Chris Warren (NZS Group), Services
- David Yu (VeVe), Master