Brad Banducci joins consortium of investors backing WhatsApp and Slack disrupter

He’s back. Former Woolworths boss Brad Banducci has turned his hand to investing, backing a Sydney-based start-up aimed at disrupting Meta-owned WhatsApp and Salesforce’s slack.

The 8seats team helmed by Iain McDonald, bottom row far right, is aiming to disrupt Meta's WhatsApp and Salesforces' Slack.

After leaving Woolworths with a package worth up to $24m, former chief executive Brad Banducci has turned his hand to investing, backing a Sydney-based start-up aimed at disrupting Meta-owned WhatsApp and Salesforce’s Slack.

8seats, a messaging platform for businesses, has raised $2m from a consortium of investors, including Mr Banducci, Black Nova and tech entrepreneurs Mike Priddis and Greg Miller.

Former Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci is one of 8seats’s investors.

Iain McDonald co-founded the company in 2021 after establishing a raft of ventures, including PetCulture – a joint venture between Woolworths and PetSure, which was launched during the height of the pandemic.

He also built Razorfish Australia, which was part of Microsoft’s $6bn acquisition of aQuantive in 2007.

Mr McDonald said since founding 8seats, it has processed more than 300,000 messages – a fraction of Meta and Salesforce’s apps. But he said the $2m raise would accelerate its go-to-market strategy ahead of a public launch next year.

Mr McDonald’s main pitch is around productivity, which has flatlined in Australia, and bridging the gap between office-based and desk-less employees. This includes workplaces like hospitals or logistics companies like Australia Post, where the bulk of the workforce does not use a desktop computer each day.

8seats boss and co-founder Iain McDonald.

“Based on forecasts modelled on a business of 10-plus employees, 8seats can save businesses up to 12 weeks of productivity each year by streamlining communications,” Mr McDonald said, adding the platform removed the need to have personal chats in the workplace – as well as the hosts of risk including data and security breaches.

“8seats is on a mission to disrupt the norm. In a world dominated by legacy platforms, we’re here to give businesses a smarter, simpler way to connect and collaborate across every employee, from the shop floor to the boardroom”

8seats has 41 patent pending claims. Mr McDonald said early investors recognised there was an untapped market of almost 12 million deskless workers in Australia, while globally there are more than 1 billion workers that are “underserved”.

“This mission is ambitious, and we’re thrilled to have such experienced investors backing us,” Mr McDonald said. “Their support will help us challenge the status quo and deliver a product that better meets the needs of businesses and their employees.”

Matt Browne, Black Nova managing partner, said: “8seats has reimagined group messaging with an extremely credible solution that makes it easier for businesses to communicate”.

“We’re excited to be early partners on this journey and see enormous global potential for the company,” Mr Browne said.

Additional angel investors include TBWA’s president Paul Bradbury, Prezzee’s Tony Karp and Innovation Bay’s Ian Gardiner. Its advisory board includes Jodie Fox, founder and chief executive of Shoes of Prey, John Moore, former Head of Innovation at Bupa, and Michael Buckley, former managing director of Accenture Digital.

Mr Banducci announced in February he would retire early from Woolworths, days after a trainwreck interview with ABC Four Corners, leaving with an estimated package worth up to $24.4m at the time.

He said in August that his successor Amanda Bardwell – who has since battled a 17-day strike at its distribution centre, which cost $140m in lost sales – had the tools she needed to play the long game over the coming years and get Woolworths back to its mantle as a trusted home of low prices.