WiseTech founder Richard White issues funding challenge to fellow tech entrepreneurs

WiseTech founder Richard White has pledged a slice of his profits to one particular cause and says other successfuly tech companies should follow suit.

Richard White has challenged his tech peers to “repay their debt” to the industry by supporting more grassroots learning, as his listed WiseTech Global moves to pledge 1 per cent of its annual pre-tax profit to education initiatives developing technology skills.

WiseTech, the logistics software company the billionaire entrepreneur started in 1994, has secured a five-year partnership with the Grok Academy, a charity focused on computer education.

Starting in 2022, WiseTech will make a maiden contribution from its profits of more than $2.5m, with the funds being initially used to make the Grok Academy online platform and classroom resources available free of charge to all kindergarten to Year 12 students, teachers and parents.

Mr White, who came up with the business plan for WiseTech while studying at the University of Technology Sydney, said Australia needed to build a strong pipeline of talented people to shape its technology future, or risk losing the opportunity.

The technology sector is forecast to employ 1.2 million Australians within five years but faces a predicted shortfall of 280,000 workers, according to Deloitte Access Economics.

“My peers in the industry made their money doing what they did. They need to think about what the long-term benefit for the employment area of their business is. This is a solution to that employment benefit, as well as a long-term benefit to the society in which we work,” Mr White said.

Richard White is the founder and major shareholder of Wisetech Global. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“Good, profitable technology companies really owe it to themselves to improve their future. They can do that by stepping into the education system.

“In a lot of ways, it is a benefit for them, because they start learning what that whole process looks like and how they can better utilise that process.”

He said WiseTech’s annual donation had a “strong social charitable value but also a strong commercial value as well”.

WiseTech provides cloud-based software for the logistics industry, giving freight forwarders a platform to manage the movement of goods from start to finish.

Mr White’s wealth has increased by about $700m to nearly $8bn in the past six months, thanks to a series of share sales and WiseTech’s rising share price.

“My wealth is a side-effect of my interest. I have loved the industry and solving complex problems. The money side of it came because I was surrounded by very talented people,” Mr White said.

“I look to other technology people; they have all done well out of tech. We all owe a debt for the success that we have had and we need to pay that debt back.”

The Grok-WiseTech road map will include developing new digital technologies and digital literacy teaching resources. These initiatives will be in addition to WiseTech continuing its existing support of outreach programs that encourage students to build deeper skills.

“The idea was that James (Curran, chief executive of the Grok Academy) can use WiseTech as an exemplar and you can find other companies that want to contribute a portion of their net profits to Grok, you can find other charitable contributions, and you can also create value in a number of other ways,” Mr White said.

“James sees this as a fundamental life goal and I see it that way as well. I run a company that knows how to scale. James runs a business that knows how to educate. So putting those two things together creates a fusion of a very interesting type.”

Richard White and James Curran of Grok Academy with Auburn Girls High principal Anna Tsoutsa and students who are set to benefit from WiseTech’s investment in education. Picture: Justin Lloyd

A recent study revealed only 26 to 50 per cent of Australian primary school teachers and 52 to 69 per cent of high school teachers considered themselves proficient at teaching computer education.

“Teachers are being asked to teach skills that many of them did not learn themselves in school. Our aim is to help teachers by providing a range of classroom-ready online courses, competitions and activities that are all aligned to the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies,” Mr Curran said.

The initiative also has the support of the federal government. Industry Minister Ed Husic described the Grok Academy as “a real Australian success story”.

While Grok Academy is a separate entity from tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes’ investment vehicle, Grok Ventures, Mr White said he knew Mr Cannon-Brookes and his Atlassian co-founder, Scott Farquhar, well.

“In a famous function in 2007, Mike Cannon-Brookes was talking about his commercial model. And I went, ‘That’s a great idea. But I think I can even do better.’ So I went back and completely changed my commercial model in 2008 … That was just a 10 minute conversation with Mike,” he said. “Scott and I have actually worked together on … a number of issues. He’s a super brain that guy. In the Venn diagram of life, we have crossovers, but only on a few things. But certainly on education, Atlassian does lean in quite hard.”