Finder expanding to the ‘next Silicon Valley’

This fast-growing fintech is hiring dozens of staff in Denver, but its CEO wants the government to allow him to travel there.

Finder co-founders Fred Schebesta, Frank Restuccia and Jeremy Cabral. Source: Supplied.

Australian fintech Finder thinks it has found the next major US tech hub, tapping Denver for a major US expansion alongside plans to hire 200 new staff.

Finder CEO Fred Schebesta said that tax incentives worth over $US2.5m from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and a new agreement between the New South Wales government and the City of Denver made the city an obvious choice for a land grab.

Denver is being dubbed ‘the next Silicon Valley’ for innovation and tech talent with major tech businesses Google, Facebook and Slack recently opening offices in the city.

“This city is becoming a massive tech hub,” Mr Schebesta said in an interview. “We’re trying to continue helping Americans invest and grow their wealth, that’s a big thing for us and we have a plan to roll out to 350 million Americans in the near future.

“America has some big challenges, their banking is nowhere near as smooth and easy as it is in Australia, so we think our app can help a lot.”

Finder already has 70 staff on the ground in its New York City office, and has plans to hire 200 people in the country over the next few years. This second US office will take Finder’s total offices globally to seven, including New York, London, Toronto, Manila, Sydney and Wroclaw.

“Denver is actually growing, whereas San Francisco and New York are down,” Mr Schebesta said. ”The cost of living there is actually about three times less than San Francisco too.”

Supplied Editorial Finder co-founder Fred Schebesta. Source: Supplied.

The US will eventually be the biggest and most lucrative minder for Finder, the executive said, given the size of the opportunity there, while the company’s UK unit is also performing strongly.

He is calling on the Australian government to allow executives to travel overseas, including to the US,

“We’ve handled this Covid thing relatively well, we’ve got a lot of businesses working together in person, which is a really strong thing,” he said. “I think we can leverage even further that by allowing us to travel, in a safe way, and think creatively about this problem.

“There is a huge opportunity for Australian companies right now, if we could travel.”

Don Ross, CEO of Finder USA, who joined the business in February following senior leadership roles at Trustpilot and Bankrate.com, said Denver was an ideal fit for Finder’s next stages of growth.

He said last month Finder became the first comparison platform in Australia to achieve Consumer Data Right (CDR) accreditation from the ACCC, following its acquisition of South East Asian comparison giant GoBear in April 2021 and the launch of its Australian-first money management app in 2020 which has led to more than 300,000 downloads.

“It’s a really exciting time in Finder’s history as we scale to become the most useful and valuable personal finance platform for consumers,“ he said.

“Now more than ever, there’s a hunger from our customers to develop a deeper understanding of their finances and find valuable ways to both save money and create wealth.”