Melbourne start-up SuperAPI raises $1m as it seeks to revolutionise the sector

Founded by the original software developers of Xero, this start-up has completed its first seeding round and plans to work with major industry players.

A Melbourne-based start-up founded by the original software developers of Xero has completed its first seeding round as part of plans to revolutionise the nation’s superannuation sector and improve member outcomes.

The first round for SuperAPI, which was launched in 2017, raised $1m and resulted in a number of industry leaders such as Rory Wainer and James McKenzie signing on to bankroll expansion plans.

Founded by Riley James, Ben Styles and Sam Richardson, the trio plans to use the funds to accelerate the integration of its software with major industry players and to expand the reach of its SuperChoiceForm and Xonboard products.

Speaking to The Australian, the founders say that they are not “here to tear things down” in the superannuation sector, but to instead allow Australians to make active and informed decisions when choosing their superannuation fund and managing their nest egg.

Mr Styles, SuperAPI’s chief commercial officer, said that the company deliberately opted to keep the funds it raised to a minimum in order to ensure that the business did not fall into the hands of venture capitalists or others driven by growth and not improved outcomes for Australians.

“We wanted to raise capital at a time when it suited us and we only wanted a small sum because we didn’t want to give up a lot of the company,” he said.

“This was important to us because we’re dealing with one of the most important assets that anyone in Australia has. And we didn’t want to get into a situation where it is significantly owned by a VC or money focused investor that wants to push super-hard growth at no costs.

“We’re here to do the right thing. We know that if we do the right thing by consumers, employees, employers, and super funds, that the problem we’re solving will be able to be solved at scale.”

Founders Ben Styles, Riley James and Sam Richardson held a modest raising to ensure they maintained control. Picture: Elke Meitzel

SuperAPI is a superannuation member engagement platform that helps the super industry engage, retain and acquire members by giving them choice. As an API-driven embedded finance solution it streamlines employee super fund onboarding within payroll and HR platforms by removing paper trails.

Mr James, who is chief executive, said super should be straightforward to create brighter futures for Australians. However, complicated outdated procedures such as paper-based forms from the Australian Taxation Office were still common in many small to medium businesses.

“Believe it or not, the majority by number of employers are still doing that with paper forms and manually typing the details into payroll. And we think that that’s something that shouldn’t exist today,” he said.

“We take that process away for (employers). They don’t have to do any downloading. They don’t have to scan any documents. They don’t have to chase their employee up. They just wait for SuperAPI to send the information directly into their payroll software.”

Simplification was critical for SuperAPI as it said a sizeable portion of the country had very little understanding of how superannuation worked or which fund they belonged to. Its platform tries to fix that by locating a person’s super fund details.

“It is surprising just how few people genuinely understand the purpose of superannuation,” Mr Styles said, adding that the lack of knowledge meant that many were ending up with multiple default funds instead of keeping one account throughout the lifespan of their working life.

“Without a layer of technology funds are disconnected, making it difficult to retain their existing members and engage new members,” he said.

SuperAPI currently works closely with several super funds to improve engagement and conversations were under way to help more retain members, engage with them and improve support.

“Because we’re an engagement platform, super funds are working with us in an integration way,” Mr Styles said.

“They are all quite aggressively looking at how do we then grow our relationship, and increase funds under management with the member by retaining them.”