With the support of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) in New York, we have introduced more than 25 Australian fintech startups over the past two years. Austrade brings seven market-ready fintech innovators to scale their businesses in the US. “Seven of the best and brightest Australian Fintech scaleups will be showcased in New York in October,” said Rachel Howard, Trade and Investment Commissioner New York. These companies will participate in a rigorous program that will connect them to the thriving New York fintech scene and help them expand their businesses in the US.
Australia’s GDP is predicted to be 3.25% in 2022 despite global economic headwinds. The financial services sector has grown 9% per year since the turn of the century. The tech sector has facilitated a rapid shift to a service-based economy, and the country now has over 700 fintech companies. A regulatory environment that encourages innovation with market-leading advancements in digital payments, integrated wallets, open banking, and embedded finance has propelled the sector. Block’s (formerly Square) $29B acquisition of Afterpay, the “buy now pay later” solution, is just the start of the success stories in this thriving fintech ecosystem, the sixth largest in the world and second in the Asia-Pacific region.
Austrade is collaborating with some of the leading Australian fintech firms to showcase the innovation emerging from this growing market on the global stage. The agency, in partnership with WEVE Acceleration, has hosted seven disruptive fintechs that are addressing challenges to streamline automation, identity verification, payments, risk management, and digital transformation with tested, market-ready solutions. Here is an exclusive preview of these leading companies:
Apxium Technologies
Apxium Technologies, established by Jeremy Coombe in Adelaide in 2013, provides a software platform for accounting firms, automating account receivables management. The company’s main offering, Apxium Connect, revamps the debtor management process by managing client communications, payments, reconciliation, and reporting. Besides, Apxium also provides integrated debt management solutions that allow accounting firms to receive upfront payments for their invoices while offering flexible installment options to their clients. The SaaS platform is accessible for a modest monthly fee plus low transaction charges, with no setup costs or upfront charges.
Birchal
Matthew Vitale established Birchal in 2018, headquartered in Sydney. Birchal is a unique equity crowdfunding platform that focuses solely on consumer brands. With the revision of the legislative framework for crowd-sourced funding by Australia’s Securities and Investments Commission, Birchal provides early-stage businesses with wider access to capital inflows. At the same time, it enables investors to explore new opportunities in emerging brands and diversify their investments. Using the Birchal platform, companies seeking funding can create fully compliant crowdsourcing campaigns at a fraction of the cost of other options. Since its inception, the platform has facilitated over A$95M in funding for more than 125 companies, representing around 70% of all successful crowdsourced funding campaigns in Australia.
Decisively
Decisively, established in 2020 by Courtenay Hollis in Canberra, offers a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that enables organizations to conduct millions of automated decisions and comply with industry-specific regulations and policies in real-time every day. By utilizing a no-code decision-automation platform, Decisively streamlines the human experience in a constantly evolving regulatory environment by implementing digital rules derived from regulation and knowledge. In contrast to low-code platforms, Decisively automates advice and decision-making through natural language regulations and knowledge artifacts. Decisively provides a feasible solution for organizations to achieve a greater level of advice and decision automation in a rules-based landscape by establishing regulatory digital twins.
Equity funding totaling A$3M has been raised by the company.
Ezypay
Ezypay, established in Sydney in 1996 by George Holman and currently headed by CEO James Foster, is a payment infrastructure platform that drives subscription and recurring payments. With over A$3B in payments processed, the subscription management platform operates in nine countries across the Asia Pacific region. Ezypay allows for sophisticated revenue collection optimization and manages intricate settlement and payout situations. The platform is designed to be integrated into other technology platforms (ISVs/SaaS) and has partnered with various industries, including health & fitness, education, childcare, and real estate.
Quant Property Solutions
Quant Property Solutions, established in Victoria in 2020 by Jim Nicol, is a platform that aids banks and their clients in reducing losses on distressed property sales during the default process. The platform employs a data-driven strategy that incorporates a property’s geospecific, hedonic, and chronological characteristics to enable financial institutions and borrowers to advertise properties at an optimal price and within a shortened timeline during the liquidation process, reducing the likelihood of unanticipated impacts on capital reserve requirements.
The company has secured A$1M in funding.
Succession Plus
Capitaliz by Succession Plus, established in Sydney in 2020 by Dr. Craig West, is an optimization platform that assists private businesses and their advisors in maximizing the business’s value and preparing it for a market exit. Developed based on the top exit planning advisory practices in the Asia Pacific region, Capitaliz employs millions of exit and industry data points globally. With a 12-step process, exit advisors can leverage proprietary assessment and valuation algorithms to generate a comprehensive report for any business, including key value drivers, risks, value gap analysis, and an actionable implementation plan to maximize and unlock value.
truuth
Truuth, established in Sydney in 2019 by Mike Simpson and Nick Gatland, is a digital identity verification solution for both enterprises and consumers. The company provides a range of end-to-end solutions for authentication throughout the entire customer lifecycle, from onboarding to ongoing interactions in real-time, to meet KYC, AML, and compliance requirements. Truuth’s assurance capabilities utilize a combination of machine learning-powered technologies and facial, voice, and fingerprint recognition to prevent identity theft and protect transactions from a comprehensive and continuous framework.
