Melbourne’s tech stars: Culture Amp, Linktree and Airwallex among the ones to watch
Start-ups like Culture Amp, Linktree and Airwallex are taking Melbourne’s fast-growing tech scene from strength to strength. Here are the five to watch.
Melbourne may be known for its coffee, hidden bars and laneways but it’s fast gaining a reputation for its globally-competitive fintech scene, along with hi-tech start-ups focused around marketplaces, HR, health, sportstech, and design. Local entrepreneurs have been buoyed by support from the state government’s start-up agency LaunchVic, and now populate the city’s burgeoning physical hubs Melbourne Connect at Melbourne University, and Cremorne.
Melbourne has long held the title as Australia’s most liveable city but according to a report by UK real estate company Savills, it’s the nation’s most tech-career friendly city, too.
Culture Amp
Culture Amp chief executive Didier Elzinga has traded in the flashy world of Hollywood visual effects for start-up life, building a small scrappy team of four into a culture analytics company now employing hundreds of ‘people geeks’ globally.
Founded in 2009, Culture Amp produces software for companies to collect and understand employee feedback, and Mr Elzinga said 2021 was so far proving a pivotal year for his fast-growing tech outfit.
The pandemic has forced companies everywhere to focus on retaining and attracting staff, who are now more picky than ever.
“The workplace is changing and things aren’t going backwards,” Mr Elzinga said. “There’s been a big change, with remotely-distributed workforces, to a whole range of issues and conversations that we weren’t having before in the workplace.
“It’s not going to be easy, but we see a huge opportunity for us to be at the heart of helping companies navigate those questions and those challenges, as we pull the handbrake after last year. We’re looking at a year now where we can’t hire fast enough.”
The Melbourne-based company, which was founded in 2009, was most recently valued at $US700 million in 2019, after raising a $US82 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital China.
Mr Elzinga is the former chief executive of Rising Sun Pictures, a leading Hollywood visual effects company, and is close friends with Atlassian co-CEOs Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes.
The last decade has been centred around technology and embracing digital, he said, while the next one will be about embracing people. He is confident Culture Amp is well-positioned to be the one start-up that underpins that shift.
“If you don’t you’ll struggle and get left behind,” he said. “The last year has, I think, brought that to the forefront and really demonstrated our mission of creating a better world of work.
“Its time is now. And at the same time I think the last year made everyone realise just how complicated this problem is, and it’s not like there’s a playbook for it.
“There’s a lot of stuff we’re working out together. And the challenge for everyone in the world of work at the moment is, how do we keep looking after people in the workplace?
“Because it’s not over yet, and people are struggling and are burnt out. The next 12 months will be very interesting on that front.”
Which other Australian start-up/tech company impresses you and why?
“Phoebe and Beyond AG are what I love about start-ups – a crazy hard problem (food waste) with science fiction solutions (essentially bio software via insects).”
Airwallex
Airwallex was started in Melbourne by five university student friends in 2015, and was the fastest Australian start-up to ever reach a billion-dollar valuation. The fintech’s platform allows other businesses to operate internationally, by enabling quick cross-border transactions.
Airwallex CEO Jack Zhang said that his company has grown rapidly and is looking to appoint more staff over the next 12 months.
“We would have had an ever higher valuation without the COVID-19 issue, but it’s hard to say - I’m just guessing,” he said.
According to Mr Zhang Airwallex has grown its revenue 10-times in the last 12 months, with its first quarter 2021 revenue for Australia nearly reaching the entire figure it achieved in 2020.
He said he’s confident his company will have triple digit growth in the next three years, and has set a milestone target of reaching $US1bn of revenue in 2025.
Airwallex is at over 700 global staff now - with more than 160 in Australia - up from 500 at the end of last year.
The company is aiming to hit 1100 by the end of the year.
“We started the business by solving one issue, cross-border payments for businesses, but we want to become a one-stop-shop with bank accounts, cards, and potentially in the future cash management and lending,” Mr Zhang said.
“We’ve really evolved to becoming a modern financial services cloud for businesses who want to grow both domestically and internationally.
“We have more than $US400m on our balance sheet, and the demand is increasing us for us to expand even more aggressively. We haven’t really filled out our headcount yet, especially in the UK and Europe, and in the US.
“My number one priority is still hiring. The key success of Airwallex is having a group of very talented people, and we want to be the largest player in this space
Which other Australian start-up/tech company impresses you and why?
“I’ve long admired Atlassian, an Australian tech company that has truly made its mark on the world stage. It’s fantastic to have both founders recently invest in Airwallex through their private investment firms (Skip Capital and Grok Ventures). This has opened up opportunities for our team to draw on their expertise in product innovation, global growth and social impact.”
Linktree
Linktree was founded as a mere side hustle three years ago by the Zaccaria brothers, Alex and Anthony – along with their friend Nick Humphreys – and is quickly drawing comparisons to the likes of Canva and Atlassian in terms of growth.
High profile social media users Elizabeth Warren, Chrissey Teigen and Jamie Oliver are all using the Linktree platform, which now has 12 million global users and more than 30,000 new sign-ups per day.
In March the Melbourne-based start-up landed a $US45 million Series B funding round co-led by Index Ventures, a heavyweight investor in Patreon and Discord.
Linktree’s platform connects a celebrity’s online feeds, giving them one link to share to all their followers and allowing them to house all their content in one place.
By allowing high-profile users to direct their followers to multiple websites and YouTube posts from a single link, the start-up is looking to capitalise on the changing tastes of social media users.
“There’s been a sea change when it comes to how we interact with the brands and creators we love,” co-founder Alex Zaccaria said.
“We want to understand them holistically and connect with them directly; we learn about their values, philanthropic causes, passion projects and promotions through social media where we’re spending our time. There’s no longer a need for brand-immersive websites or big campaigns to make a memorable impression or drive engagement.
“We have a huge vision for this company; there are major changes and shifts in the way people use the internet. It’s a more and more fragmented place these days, there are more social networks popping up and we want to be the one unifying place people can post all their content.”
Which other Australian start-up/tech company impresses you and why?
“Simplicity and empowering others are core values at Linktree and we love how Australian B Corp, Who Gives A Crap, is tackling critical issues like access to basic sanitation in the developing world in a simple yet impressive, inspirational way. Through clever and lighthearted branding, and a clear goal, they’ve continued to grow while staying true to their roots - making the world a better place for people in need.”
Tribe
Radio and television personality Jules Lund started Tribe in 2014 in a bid to help brands hire and connect with influencers, and has since scaled it up to be something much more significant.
The entertainer-turned-start-up executive, who has hosted TV shows like Getaway and hosted drivetime radio alongside Fifi Box and Sophie Monk, tapped now-CEO Anthony Svirskis to help build out his idea, which is now a fully-fledged subscription marketing platform for businesses.
Tribe has evolved from its influencer marketing roots to become a place where brands can source content, often produced by their everyday customers, to be used as sponsored content, social media ads, digital ads, out-of-home ads, website collateral and in e-commerce.
The company is busy planning an IPO to raise capital to scale its subscription product, expand product integrations into more social media networks, and continue growth in the US, following a $5.5 million pre-IPO funding round this year to support its plans.
CEO Anthony Svirskis says Tribe creators have earned $24m producing over one million branded pictures and clips, and that brands were just scratching the surface when it comes to the broader influencer marketplaces.
“The marketing landscape is evolving before our eyes. Digital advertising is now bigger than traditional channels, eyeballs have moved to mobile and e-commerce has become a habit,” he said.
“These new ecosystems need content, and more of it than ever before. Our platform has produced over one million pictures and clips for brands to use in their social media, ads and e-commerce, produced by our creator network who’ve made $24 million on our platform. It’s an exciting time to be a scalable creative solution for brands as they continue to embrace digital.”
Which other Australian start-up/tech company impresses you and why?
“Octopus Deploy was an impressive raise. It feels like it caught everyone off guard, but it’s amazing to see a top-tier US fund like Insight Partners start to make serious moves in Australia.”
Phoria
Virtual reality and augmented reality are sometimes perceived as fad technologies, but Phoria is the real deal.
The company runs a Melbourne-based immersive tech studio, producing futuristic VR and AR content in partnership with the likes of Netflix, Google and OnePlus.
Phoria recently produced a major installation, Rewild Our Planet, featuring narration from David Attenborough. The project toured the world, including stops in Singapore, Bristol and New York, and is now available to billions of smartphone users worldwide via a smartphone app.
The studio has also made a free virtual reality nature documentary series with Facebook-owned Oculus, Ecosphere, and more than 200,000 people have downloaded and experienced it. Ecosphere has won numerous awards including Best VR Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards and Best 360 Storytelling at the Jackson Wild Media Awards and Best Immersed Audience Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Phoria co-founder and CEO Trent Clews-de Castella said technologies like augmented reality have many implications for collaborating in the real world using 3D tools, and Phoria is working on bringing this technology to the mainstream in Australia.
“It all started with the Melbourne Accelerator Program, where I pitched an idea around 3D data,” he said.
“We’ve working on raising a small round of funding, and partnering with amazing companies like Google to keep moving forward.
“We want to keep driving forward, these tools really can be used in transformative ways.”
Which other Australian start-up/tech company impresses you and why?
From Samuel Tate, XR Director at Phoria.
“Melbourne-based Variant founded by Ben Ferns is super impressive. Variant is a system that manages variations in a 3D file, so online stores can deploy 3D previews that adapt to customer selections. This means that users can make 3D models with thousands of variations built in, and modify the model in real time, for example customising a car.”
“PHORIA creates digital twin experiences (DTX), so we are exploring using Variant as a way to scale our asset pipeline. In the future customers will access an infinite variety of products, or manage their own, displayed in their PHORIA DTX, with content managed by Variant.
“Ben is such a memorable founder as he is incredibly skilled, super smart and on top of that, just has the best attitude. We‘ve collaborated with him on a number of occasions – including on the network system for the award-winning AR storytelling REWILD content – and he’s a real powerhouse. Ben consistently leads his small team to create globally leading, high leverage products.”
Honourable mentions: Cortical AI, Moonshot, Zilio, Brosa.
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