FinTech startups are changing the competitive landscape and have led us to reconsider the role of finance, more as an enabler than just a provider of financial products and services. The growing influence of FinTech on the market is redrawing the lines of the financial services industry. FinTech startups are driving market changes by focusing on emergent technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, biometrics and identity management, chatbots and natural language searches. The use of these emergent technologies enables FinTech companies to adjust to the fast-changing environment and regulations swiftly, ultimately providing a better consumer experience. FinTech companies’ advantages include, ease of use, intuitive product design, faster service, 24/7 accessibility, superior customer service, and cost.
According to Statista, the alternative finance market in Australia was valued at over 1.1 billion USD. FinTech adoption rate in Australia 2019 is 58%. Australia ranks 6th in the Global FinTech Ranking 2021. With over 800 FinTech startups, Australia is the nerve centre of Oceania’s startup ecosystem. The Global FinTech market is projected to reach USD 324 billion industry by 2026.
Here we have carefully curated a list of the top 10 FinTech startups in Australia. The startups in this list are ranked according to the total funding they have raised to date. All these startups have distinguished themselves by the product or service they provide. Crunchbase and Pitchbook are the primary sources of data used in this article.
- Airwallex
- Founders: Jack Zhang, Xijing Dai, Lucy Yueting Liu, Max Li
- Founding Year: Dec 2015
- Headquarters: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Total Funding Received: USD 802 million
- Investors: Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Tencent, Salesforce Ventures, Hillhouse Capital Group, Horizons Ventures, DST Global, Gobi Partners, Square Peg Capital, Mastercard, G Squared, Greenoaks and others.
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Series E, USD 100 million
Airwallex is a payments platform transforming the way businesses move and manage money globally. It is a cross-border payment and foreign exchange platform designed to make and receive international payments. The startup’s platform effortlessly integrates into an ecosystem of the application programming interfaces, products, automation, global networks and local payment systems to create a scalable tool. It enables clients, suppliers and institutions to issue and pay invoices in their preferred currency at the mid-market foreign exchange rate.
- Timelio
- Founders: Andrew Petris, Charlotte Petris
- Founding Year: 2014
- Headquarters: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Total Funding Received: USD 279,494,809
- Investors: Goldman Sachs, Thorney Investment
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Debt Financing, USD 270 million
Timelio is an online marketplace that facilitates businesses to raise working capital. The company’s peer-to-peer invoice finance software platform allows entrepreneurs to increase funding for their enterprises by selling their customer invoices to a network of investors. The startup has been bestowed with many prestigious awards, including FinTech of the Year Australia 2019 by YBF Ventures; New Business Award Finalist 2017 by Australian Business awards; Game Changer Of The Year 2015, Overall Award For Outstanding Excellence 2015 by Optus mybusiness Awards 2015.
- Brighte
- Founder: Katherine McConnell
- Founding Year: Nov 11, 2015
- Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Total Funding Received: A$306,500,000
- Investors: AirTree Ventures, Qualgro VC, Skip Capital, Grok Ventures, National Australia Bank (NAB), Mike Cannon-Brookes, Bank of Queensland
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Series C, A$100,000,000
Brighte is an end-to-end automated digital platform that facilitates interest-free payments on home energy and improvements. The startup’s platform focuses on funding renewable consumer energy and home improvements, enabling homeowners to access the latest innovations in energy sources like solar and battery storage.
- Athena
- Founders: Michael Starkey, Nathan Walsh
- Founding Year: Jun 2017
- Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Total Funding Received: USD 161,477,850
- Investors: Salesforce Ventures, Square Peg Capital, AirTree Ventures, Hostplus, NAB Ventures, National Australia Bank (NAB), Apex Capital Partners, Macquarie Bank, AustralianSuper, Rice Warner, Sunsuper
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Series D, A$90,000,000
Athena is a digital home lending platform that connects wholesale funds to prime Australian mortgage borrowers in a highly efficient manner. The startup’s platform provides borrowers with a simple online application/origination/servicing experience and funders with transparent timely portfolio data, enabling clients to get affordable mortgage rates and investors to get better returns.
- Zeller
- Founders: Ben Pfisterer, Dominic Yap
- Founding Year: 2020
- Headquarters: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Total Funding Received: A$81,300,000
- Investors: Spark Capital, Square Peg Capital, Addition, Apex Capital Partners
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Series A, A$50,000,000
Zeller enables business owners to accept payments, manage their finances, and pay recipients fast. The company’s platform helps manage cash flow and has direct connectivity with the bank account for easy transfer of funds, enabling businesses to do simple bookkeeping and fund transfers.
- Moula
- Founders: Andrew Watt, Aris Allegos, Piers Moller
- Founding Year: Jul 1, 2013
- Headquarters: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Total Funding Received: USD 50,879,833
- Investors: Acorn Capital, Liberty Financial Companies, Inc, Escala Partners, NCN Investments, Liberty Financial
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Series D, USD 20,000,000
Moula is a business lending platform that provides a smarter way to borrow. The startup’s platform offers three-month interest-free buy-now-pay-later credit. Credit is processed quicker; the terms are kept simple and transparent as well as low rates of interest are charged on longer-term loans. It enables small and medium organizations in Australia to get easy and online loans to increase their production and quality.
- Uno
- Founder: Vincent Turner
- Founding Year: 2015
- Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Total Funding Received: USD 46,099,127
- Investors: Westpac
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Corporate Round, USD 25,000,000
Uno is an online marketplace that offers customized home loans and mortgage plans. The startup’s marketplace guides through the loan-application process via a team of financial experts. It enables consumers to search, compare and choose the home-loan product that suits their individual needs.
- InDebted
- Founder: Josh Foreman
- Founding Year: 2016
- Headquarters: North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Total Funding Received: USD 41,036,191
- Investors: Carthona Capital, MassMutual Ventures, Reinventure, OneVentures, Greg Waldorf, MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia (MMV SEA), Perennial Value Management, Mike Zimmerman, Jason Lenga, Lachlan Heussler
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Series B, A$25,000,000
InDebted provides debt collection services designed to offer tailored debt management tools. Its platform leverages machine learning to understand consumer preferences for servicing overdue accounts and provides application programming interfaces (APIs) to link to customer account systems, enabling small and medium businesses to get flexible payment options.
- Lumi Finance
- Founder: Yanir Yakutiel
- Founding Year: 2018
- Headquarters: Bondi, New South Wales, Australia
- Total Funding Received: USD 39,500,000
- Investors: Follow[the]Seed, Josh Liberman Investment Group, Israel’s Arbel Fund
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: NA, USD 8,000,000
Lumi is an online financial platform that offers small business loans for enterprises. Its platform uses augmenting traditional credit data to combine API accessibility with rich data sources, empowering applicants to service a loan with approval in less than an hour. Lumi is shaking up small business lending to provide enterprises with fast access to finance that’s accurate, fair, and honest.
- Alex Bank
- Founders: Craig Fenwick, Simon Beitz
- Founding Year: July 2018
- Headquarters: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Total Funding Received: USD 39,252,366
- Investors: Alium Capital, Regal Funds Management, SG Hiscock, Washington H. Soul Pattinson, Wunala Capital
- Last Funding Round Type and Deal Amount: Series C, A$20,000,000
Alex Bank, is an online neo banking platform that facilitates money management. The startup’s platform provides personal loans with no ongoing fees, paperwork and no early repayment services to its customers. It enables customers to access a relaxed way to borrow money and manage them.
For more extensive analysis and Market Intelligence reports feel free to approach us or visit our website: Venture Capital Market Intelligence Reports | VCBay.
We try our best to fact-check and bring the best, well-researched, and non-plagiarized content to you. Please let us know
-if there are any discrepancies in any of our published stories,
-how we can improve,
-what stories you would like us to cover and what information you are looking for, in the comments section below or through our contact form! We look forward to your feedback and thank you for stopping by!
Next Article
[…] 10 Series Top 10 Dating Startups in the World FinTech Top 10 FinTech Startups in Australia Top 10 Series Top 10 E-Commerce Startups in UAE FinTech Top 10 Fintech Startups in […]