Kombucha on tap, meditation room: Inside booming crypto exchange Swyftx
Meet the two Brisbane tech young guns who went from science camp mates to running one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.
A chance meeting at a science camp a decade ago was serendipity for Alex Harper and Angus Goldman.
The two men now run Swyftx, Australia’s second-biggest cryptocurrency exchange, hiring a new worker each day as they roll out ambitions to dominate the quickly expanding market.
Cryptocurrency is increasingly being embraced by investors in the big end of town with monthly trades on the Swyftx platform averaging $3bn last year.
The company recently moved into trendy new headquarters in Milton where its mostly millennial-aged staff enjoy free kombucha on tap, snacks, a games area and soundproof meditation room.
Harper and Goldman, both 27, have come a long since their teenage encounter and have big expansions plan underpinned by a proposed $100m fund raising this year.
Harper recalls selling fruit juice at the local market to earn money before starting a computer repair business as a teenager. He later developed a credit payment platform before teaming up with Goldman to trade bitcoin.
Goldman was a computer coding whiz before he could ride a bike, a skill that stood him in good stead as crypto trading took off.
“We saw a lot of opportunities but also a lot of ways where it could be improved,” says Harper. ”We got to the point where we could either buy a house with what we made or build an entire new business.”
Harper says that unlike other start-ups, Swyftx is profitable with growing revenue. “We have bootstrapped the business from the start,” says Harper. Over the last year, the business has gone from a mere 50,000 customers to half a million clients. Staff numbers have increased from 20 to more than 200, including offices in the UK, Sweden and Portugal.
The increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency by funds, big banks and investors was driving growth of the business. Harper says that one of the challenges facing the business is finding talent – Swyftx will have 300 people by June with plans to increase that to up to 500. “We currently have 110 vacancies we are trying to fill and are hiring a person a day,” he says.
Cryptocurrency is not for the faint hearted with big dips in values over the past few weeks in global markets. Still the global crypto market is now worth around $1.95 trillion, having peaked at close to $3 trillion in mid-November, according to CoinMarketCap.
“Over the past year, there has been a change in the demographics of crypto investors,” says Goldman. “It has gone from people in their 20s and 30s to those in their 50s and 60s who are looking at an alternative to stocks.”
Goldman and Harper have picked up a swag of gongs this year, including two awards at the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards, raising the profile of Swyftx in the general community.
The company also sponsored the Adelaide Strikers this year, with the Swyftx logo emblazoned on the back of players’ jerseys. “We want to be a household name up there with Canva or Atlassian,” says Goldman.
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