Former Microsoft regional director of APAC , Michael Momsen , has just raised $10m for his startup , Ziplne.
Zipline started measuring customer experience for retailers - instantly with emojis - has pivoted into compliance in healthcare.
The technology , founded in 2016 , was adopted by retailers such as 7eleven, Coles and adidas - but seemed to be a vitamin - not a painkiller
In 2020 the company redesigned its platform to serve the aged care sector to help businesses remain compliant with regulations stemming from the royal commission.
They worked with St Vincent’s, who they not only helped measure customer experience but also managing compliance burdens and keeping residents and staff safe during Covid outbreaks.
Mr Momsen gave Yolanda Redrup an example of the compliance pain it solves
“if a plumber goes into an aged care home [for example], they need a police and working with children’s check, and a flu vaccination. Usually, that process would be done manually... then there were COVID-specific ones like checking temperatures and vaccination certificates.
“[Now] we still measure customer experience, but our primary focus is compliance challenges.”
So - what is Zipline?
Zipline is a software and kiosk platform that automates in-person compliance. It offers providers a quick way to manage visitor, staff, volunteer and contractor compliance.
For aged care, Zipline ensures that the visitor has a valid flu vaccination and that they’re fever-free. For hospitals, it ensures staff, contractors and visitors have a valid COVID vaccination and police clearances.
Digitising this streamlines their operations to avoid queues and add extra staff.
It also improves customer experience, ensuring consumers can easily book a maternity ward or aged care facility tour online with the compliance elements built in.
Some of its Customers
Since its inception, Zipline has seen rapid Australian uptake with St Vincent’s, Regis, Estia, Brightwater, Respect and Calvary as clients.
After adapting its platform for St Vincent’s, the company started helping other aged care facilities solve their compliance issues …. And then hospitals
What a great niche
Investors
EVP partner Justin Lipman ego led the $10m raise told Yolanda from AFR “We’ve been blown away by the quality of the team, and attracted to the way they are building a platform that has a suite of products to solve the most pressing frontline compliance challenges across their global healthcare customer base,”
Their investment round was supported by co investees
- Zebediah Rice of King River Capital,
- Adrian Di Marco co founder of TechnologyOne
- Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot cofounders of Aconex
- secondary fund SecondQuarter Ventures and
- the Sypkes family office.
The money will be used to build on its rapid growth in a niche
After having grown by more than 300% over the past year, with more than $5 million annual recurring revenue (ARR), and increase its headcount from 40 to 80 with a plan to expand its focussed niche market throughout the US -
Zip lines Guarantee
To win customers, Zipline pledges that if a customer is fined for a relevant compliance breach, it will pay the cost.
Some of Michael Momsens “insights”
“Recurring revenue is only good if you get recurring impact from your customers”
“Be fast, be secure, be easy and be awesome to work with”
What does EVP look or in an investment ? Extracts from Justin’s investment notes
1. It’s all about the team
When we invested in 2018 - we were unsure about the product buy we were totally sure about Michael’s capability, thirst for knowledge, inbuilt curiosity, exceptional communication and leadership skills. He had built an exceptional team!
When the pandemic hit , and retail was about to die…. Michael and his team pivoted on solving a core problem for institutions such as aged care and hospitals
2. It’s about the leader
Having watched Michael assemble the current team over the last four years, the investment case became self-evident as the business attracted some of our best minds to solve challenging software problems. In many respects the team is the core asset Zipline possesses and we are fortunate to be supporting them as the capital partner on their journey.
3. It’s about growth and market validation
The Zipline product is growing at over 800% annually and has achieved clear product market fit in short order. The level of customer advocacy and the clear product advantage in market gives us great confidence around our investment and the future of the business. It is rare to find an early stage enterprise software business with such momentum. We don’t see this trajectory abating in the short term, with the existing customer base underpinning continued revenue growth on the back of a very significant expansion revenue opportunity.
4. It’s about providing a painkiller and not just a vitamin
The tangible benefits that ensue from replacing the pen and paper sign in book at reception with a hardware/software solution were immediately apparent. No queuing, no manual double-entry, real-time tracking of persons on site and compliant proof of vaccination statuses. Necessities that are no longer optional post the pandemic. Indeed facilities now face > $100k on-the-spot fines for failing to appropriately check visitor’s proof of vaccine.
5.It’s about customer experience
We watched as the receptionist proceeded with higher value work, or left the front desk to care for residents, while visitors seamlessly interacted with the Zipline solution independently. The underlying complexity of Zipline’s “slot management” rules engine remaining inconspicuous below the surface of the user’s interaction. There was something beautiful about the simplicity of how people use Zipline or the feedback from Margaret at Ashfield Baptist Homes: “yup, it does the trick”.
6.It’s about the right Investors
I am particularly excited to be working with a new group of co-investors in King River Capital, Tin Men Capital and Wavemaker. In my mind, the Zipline business has the right capital partners to support the business over the long term: a strong mix of B2B software specialists with specific access to overseas networks, relevant portfolio companies and talent pools to introduce to Zipline. Most importantly, everyone passes the “no dickheads” acid test.
7. It’s about due diligence on the ground
During our recent diligence process we met with many additional team members beyond simply Michael. Britt, Mark and myself spent time with Ivan, Tanmay, Kendall, James, Peter, Murli, Sam, JP, AJ, Emily, Jack and Ajay amongst others. During one such meeting, the leadership team walked us through their operating playbook. I remember sending Britt a slack message that simply read: 👀. Based on Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up and Jaco van der Kooij’s Blueprints for a SaaS Organisation the team has adopted an astonishing way to run a scaling startup. The organisation’s focus is centred around a select group of evergreen key indicators, with accountability and objective measurement of progress shared weekly and with radical transparency.
8. Investor support - Call for talent and an amazing pitch deck for talent
Simply put, this would be one of the best teams I’ve observed in the Australian startup market. If you are interested in 1) leaving a boring corporate job to experience a more dynamic environment, 2) looking to move from being a cog in a big tech company’s machine where having a real impact is not possible or 3) finishing a uni degree and thinking about entering the workforce, please reach out about filling one of Zipline’s 40+ new roles to fill in 2022.
If you don’t trust me, why not check this out!
