In the spring we unveiled a cohort of promising Australian fintech market-ready startups that are scaling their businesses in the US with the help of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), the governmental trade promotion and investment attraction agency. “The first cohort of the Austrade Fintech Activation in-Market Program, which ran for two weeks in June, was a huge success,” remarked Steve Rank, Trade and Investment Commissioner New York. “The 10 Australian participants not only gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and built US-market specific skills, but also developed a strong business network in the US that will be critical to their US market success.”
The fintech ecosystem in Australia is undergoing a period of continued and rapid growth with A$900M ($648M USD) of new investment secured by Australian fintech companies during the first half of 2021. Cover Genius, a leading Australian insurtech startup with global operations, just secured A$100M (~$73M) in new funding last month. The momentum hasn’t been limited to funding as there also have been several notable recent exits for Australian fintechs including Square’s $29B USD acquisition of AfterPay in August and National Australia Bank’s A$270M (~$200M USD) acquisition of neo-bank 86 400.
With a growing track record of success helping companies scale within the fintech ecosystem, Austrade has partnered with WEVE Acceleration (formerly NUMA) to bring another ten startups to the US that are looking to expand operations, develop business partnerships, connect with investors, and expand their footprint in the American market. “This exclusive program, in partnership with WEVE Acceleration, was developed in response to the increased commitment of the Australian government to the growth of the Australian fintech sector,” said Rank.
Here are the ten disruptive fintech, regtech, and insurtech companies that Austrade in partnership with WEVE are unveiling today:
Zemble
Founded by Alfonso Marquez Vidal, Aurora Voss, and Gilberto Spencer in 2017, Zemble is a configurable SaaS platform that allows all stakeholders to plan, execute, and collaborate in a centralized location. Designed to be used as a standalone solution or on top of an organization’s existing technology stack with API integrations available, the platform’s framework uses modular workflows for cases that allows organizations to map out scenarios using decision logic; handling materials and information exchange through instant case creation and support. Popular uses include claims, complaints, disputes, onboarding, governmental compliance, and complex project management. Built with security in mind (ISO 27001 certification), Zemble is well-suited for small businesses and large enterprises alike that are operating in highly regulated industries such as insurance and financial services.
Founded in the suburbs of Sydney, the company also maintains an office in San Francisco. Since its founding, the company has raised a total of $862.8K in total funding and is backed by H2 Ventures.
Cake Equity
Founded by Jason Atkins and Kim Hansen in 2018, Cake Equity is an all-in-one cap table management platform that streamlines startups’ fundraising, equity management, compliance, and record-keeping, allowing companies to focus on building their businesses instead of managing the administrative part of taking on external investment. The platform not only handles everything needed for fundraising events but it also enables startups to offer employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) through option issuance, covering vesting, legal, reporting, exercise, and updates. Using a freemium model, Cake for startups with less than five investors (anyone with present or future equity) is free with plans that support unlimited investors priced at $239/mo. The company has 2000+ customers globally.
Cake Equity has raised A$1.08M ($787K USD) in total funding from investors include StartMate, Brisbane Angels, and AfterWork Ventures.
Evari
Founded by Brack Norris, Daniel Fogarty, and Robert Jeffery in 2016, Evari is an infrastructure insurtech SaaS platform that allows insurers to launch, manage, and support digital insurance products. The platform’s code-free product builder handles all facets of insurance sales and administration, supporting quotes, agency management, distribution, pricing, underwriting, claims, and reporting. Evari is designed to be integrated with existing systems and data sources, providing unparalleled flexibility and convenience for insurers that leads to a superior experience for customers. The company also operates Evari Insurance, an award-winning business insurance platform, and the infrastructure SaaS offering is an offshoot of Evari Insurance based on the success of the insurance line.
Paytron
Founded by finance veterans Francois Henrion and Jaco Veldsman in 2020, Paytron is a B2B international multi-currency payment management platform that allows small businesses to make and receive payments across 180+ countries. Invoices that are uploaded, forwarded, or linked from Xero, are automatically captured and processed with a few clicks, saving businesses countless hours of manual entry and reconciliation. Businesses on the platform can transact and maintain balances in 37 currencies and conversion is a fraction of the cost incurred at traditional banks. is priced at $49.99/mo for unlimited users.
Paytron has raised a total of A$4.4M (~$3.26M USD) in equity funding and is backed by investors that include Picus Capital and Carthona Capital.
Protecht
Founded by David Tattam and David Bergmark in 1999, Protecht’s signature product is an enterprise risk management (ERM) platform that lets organizations dynamically manage their risks in a single centralized solution. Covering risks, compliance, health and safety, internal audit, incidents, and KRIs, the platform provides a comprehensive real-time view in several dashboards that are easy-to-understand and informative for various stakeholders including risk managers, auditors, compliance managers, and health, safety, or quality managers. Protecht is widely used within financial services, property management, non-profit, gaming, education, retail, transport, and governmental applications by customers like AXA Insurance, Sydney Opera House, Toyota Financial Services Australia, and Prudential.
Simply Wall Street
Founded by Al Bentley and Nick van den Berg in 2014, Simply Wall Street is an investment research platform that offers in-depth analysis on any publicly traded stock. The platform synthesizes financial data from a number of sources including premium data providers and provides easy-to-understand visual representations and snippets that allows investors to evaluate the merit and investment worthiness of individual equities. The site’s 4M+ users have access to automated risk evaluation tools, sophisticated screeners, portfolio management tools, and watchlists to manage their investments and generate new investment ideas. Simply Wall Street is offered as freemium service with paid plans starting at $15/month.
Simply Wall Street has raised a total of A$3.4M (~$2.48M USD) in equity funding and is backed by investors that include AWI Ventures, Artesian Ventures, Perle Ventures, and H2 Ventures.
Skyjed
Founded by Leica Ison in 2017, Skyjed is an AI-powered end-to-end product lifecycle management platform that brings data and insights, customizable workflows, and automation to product teams. Designed for product managers by product managers, the platform focuses on 360° holistic management of product portfolios allowing companies to invest and scale the right opportunities, retire underperforming products, and maintain compliance with regulatory needs. Each product is continuously assessed, using data, across five key areas – revenue, value, experience, innovation, and regulatory concerns to monitor product health and performance. Today’s environment with increasing regulatory and reporting requirements is driving Skyjed’s use among small to large enterprises in financial services, energy, and telecommunications.
Zetaris
Founded by Vinay Samuel in 2013, Zetaris is a networked data platform that makes it possible to analyze data irrespective of where it is located in the cloud – whether it be in a data lake or warehouse, stream, or a database. The business intelligence and analytics solution allows for organizations to perform instant analysis on all the data across these locations in real-time without the cost or time necessary to move the data into a central location while preserving data integrity. Built on ApacheSPARK, Zetaris allows queries to be performed using SQL without requiring significant engineering or coding resources. Organizations can access Zetaris in the cloud or on-premise and leverage any existing business intelligence, data, or analytics applications for use with the networked data. The company counts organizations like Melbourne Water and Bupa as customers.
Founded in Melbourne, Zetaris has raised ~$15M in total equity funding from investors that include Exto Partners and Revinventure.
Novatti
Founded by Peter Cook in 2015, Novatti is a digital banking and payments startup that makes payments for any type of business faster, more secure, and simpler through its global network of partners and integrations. The company offers merchants – large and small – payment solutions such as card issuance, merchant acquiring, recurring and subscription services, payment processing, and settlements. Novatti partners with the major digtital payment systems including Apple Pay, Union Pay, B Pay, WeChat Pay, AliPay, and Google Pay and processes $2.3B in transactions annually.
Publicly traded on the ASX (NOV:ASX), Novaratti raised A$7M ($5.11M) at the time of its IPO. The stock currently trades at a $141M market cap.
Open Sparkz
Founded by Debra Taylor and Terry McMullen in 2016, Open Sparkz is a loyalty and offers enablement and infrastructure platform. While most traditional loyalty programs are reliant on cards, codes, and coupons integrated into a backend system, Open Sparkz uses API-driven card linking technology to provide seamless loyalty platfortm technology without any technological or hardware burdens. Organizations like card issuers, loyalty program operators, publishers and advertisers, and merchants and brands can drive revenue growth and minimize attrition without costly implementations or additional data capturing with the use of Open Sparkz.
Founded in Sydney, the company also maintains offices in Singapore and Hong Kong. Open Sparkz has raised a total of A$2.5M (~$1.97M USD) in total funding from investors that include Louise Daley and Andrew Lo.