Zeller’s unicorn status is maintained with confident VCs as backers

Cofounders of Zeller  Ben Pfisterer and  Dominic Yap are one of the fastest companies to achieve unicorn status. 

They raised $180m  from Hostplus and  Square Peg , Apex Capital Partners, Spark Capital and Addition (founded by former Tiger Global Management partner Lee Fixel)

“We are up against extremely well capitalised, entrenched incumbent banks,” Mr Pfisterer said. “We have to make sure that we come with sufficient capital… to actually make sure that we get to our audience and businesses know that we’re here.”

Yolanda Redrup of the AFR points out that it joins Cyara, Scalapay and Employment Hero in having raised more than $100 million this year, while Dovetail, HappyCo, Karbon, Milkrun and Eucalyptus have each raised upwards of $50 million.

There has been over $10b invested in Aussie startups in 2021!

“The Australian VC market has never been healthier, but the global market is vastly bigger and the opportunities are incredible for any technology company. We’ve been the beneficiary of that, but we’re not raising for the sake of raising. We have audacious plans that do require material financial support.” Say Ben 

What Zeller does 

Zeller’s aim is to be a one-stop shop for businesses’ banking needs,  providing  a best-in-class, consumerised experience, using modern data availability , AI and best in class technology .

It started off supplying  debit cards, business banking accounts and payment terminals, but it plans to also offer online payment acceptance, credit cards and expense management services.

At it’s heart is  the  “Zeller Contact Directory” making  it as simple as using an address book to maintain up-to-date information about all your business contacts and transactions made with them. With enhanced contact data, merchants can strengthen relationships, identify opportunities and get better oversight of where their business funds are being spent and earned.

Zeller enables businesses to understand their transactions on a deeper level, assess information about their business faster, enable personalised transfers, access enriched data, link financial history, attach transactions notes and better manage personalised information. 

In time, Zeller will expand into lending and become a fully licensed bank under the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

“From the very start when we looked at financial services for business, we didn’t believe you could bite off one part of it, be it corporate card, debit card or lending. They’re all big niches, but they’re not everything businesses need.

“We have a very singular focus on being a single provider for business ... so they don’t need to work with various parties.”

Since launching a year ago Zeller has more than 17,000 businesses signing up and over 170 incredibly talented people joining the Zeller team.