# Liam Millward

> Liam Millward is the co-founder and CEO of Instant, a Sydney-based ecommerce retention-marketing platform he started at 17 with CTO William Gao. Instant helps online brands recover abandoned carts, re-engage shoppers and lift revenue through AI-driven email, SMS and audience tools. By his early twenties the company worked with hundreds of brands, drove tens of millions in incremental revenue, and raised an $18 million Series A led by Hummingbird Ventures at a roughly $100 million valuation, backed by Blackbird, TEN13 and Reinventure. Millward is known for a relentless focus on profit and execution speed.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Instant
- **Organizations:** Instant, Navigate Australia
- **From:** Australia
- **Nationality:** Australian
- **Known for:** Co-founded Instant at 17 and scaled it to a ~$100M valuation, Raised what was reported as Australia's largest pre-seed round ($2.2M) at 17, led by Blackbird, Closed an $18M Series A led by Hummingbird Ventures, reportedly in about 10 days

## Career timeline

- **2018** — Founded Navigate Australia, a free digital travel magazine that grew to 50,000+ readers within a year
- **2020** — Started an ecommerce store at 16, growing it to around $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue
- **2021** — Co-founded Instant at 17 with William Gao to fix ecommerce retention marketing
- **2022** — Raised a $2.2M pre-seed round led by Blackbird, reported as Australia's largest pre-seed to date
- **2025** — Announced an $18M Series A led by Hummingbird Ventures at a ~$100M valuation

## Achievements

- Co-founded Instant at 17 and scaled it to a ~$100M valuation
- Raised what was reported as Australia's largest pre-seed round ($2.2M) at 17, led by Blackbird
- Closed an $18M Series A led by Hummingbird Ventures, reportedly in about 10 days
- Grew Instant to serve 500+ ecommerce brands driving over $56M in incremental revenue
- Built a company with ARR growing more than $1M every month
- Founded Navigate Australia at a young age, reaching 50,000+ monthly readers

## Latest updates

- **2025-03** — Instant announced an $18M Series A led by Hummingbird Ventures, valuing the company at around $100M and funding US expansion.
- **2025-04** — Featured on The Sachin and Adam Show discussing profit obsession and reaching a $100M valuation at 21.

## Links

- Website: https://instant.one
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liammillward/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/hinstant
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/Hinstant

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/liam-millward
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-15