Fintech Chatter: Conversations with Fintech Leaders

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Michael Batko is the founder of Hourglass AI, which helps Australian companies find, build and run the AI their whole team uses, after investing in 250 companies over eight years at Startmate. He breaks down how Australian VC funds deploy their money, why AI-native startups may not need funding, and what that does to valuations.

About Michael Batko

Michael Batko is the founder of Hourglass AI, which helps Australian companies find, build and run the AI their whole team uses, so every hour goes on the work that actually matters. Before Hourglass he led the Startmate accelerator as CEO until December 2025. He moved to Australia from Europe 12 years ago and worked at two Australian startups, one of which listed on the ASX.

What we discuss

• Why Australian venture capital is only about 13 years old.
• How a $1 billion fund splits into $200 million for first cheques and $800 million for follow-ons.
• Why Australian companies still raise Series B and beyond from US investors.
• How the tech stock crash froze Startmate's $15 million continuity fund overnight.
• Why AI-native startups may never need a funding round.
• What $50 million to $100 million seed valuations do to a fund's returns.
• How startups give people more responsibility and a steeper learning curve than a 20,000-person bank.
• Why each startup stage, from ten to a hundred to a thousand people, needs a different kind of leader.
• How CEO and board backing speeds up AI adoption across a company.

Timestamps

[00:00] Introduction
[00:38] Meet Michael Batko
[01:57] The Startmate model
[04:50] Why VC missed fintech
[07:34] Three stages of Australian VC
[10:59] Rate rises and the funding freeze
[13:40] AI and the VC model
[16:33] Bootstrapping and valuations
[18:49] What VC optimises for
[26:00] Why talent joins startups
[27:20] Startup stage and fit
[31:06] Hourglass AI
[33:34] Giving Australia its agency back
[39:02] Don't wait for government
[40:00] Where to find Michael

Links and resources

Michael Batko on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/batkomichael/
Hourglass AI: https://thehourglass.ai
Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com

Outro

This show is brought to you by Tier One People, where we work with scaleups to find the 1% who redefine what's possible. If you're scaling your leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com.

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After 7 years of asking we finally have Zip on the show! And it is definitely worth the wait. Zip Co is one of the jewels in the Australian fintech crown. But this show could so easily have not happened. In 2022 Zip's share price crashed, the cost of funding rose exponentially and their foundational BNPL model looked to be doomed. What has happened since then is nothing short of miraculous. But if you look under the hood you'll see a lot of the work that saved Zip was already well under way from day one.

Soraya Alali leads Zip Co in Australia and New Zealand, the Australian fintech that serves 10% of the Australian population and 65,000 merchants. Soraya chats to me about the Zip turnaround, why profits rose when customer numbers fell, and how Zip moved from AI experiments to live agents in 12 months.

About Soraya Alali

Soraya Alali is CEO of Zip Co ANZ and has just presented her first full year of results in the role. She joined Zip from Commonwealth Bank.

What we discuss

• How Zip grew from flexible credit into payments and Zip Mobile
• Why cost-of-living pressure has Australians seeking value and flexibility
• What drove a doubled cash earnings contribution and a 750 basis point margin lift
• Why fewer customers and higher profit can both be good news
• How data from 65,000 merchants shapes Zip's next bets
• What changes when you move from a major bank to a fintech
• How Zip went from AI experiments to live agents, with a human in the loop
• Why so many big bank hires leave scale-ups in their first six months
• What Zip looks for in the people it hires

Timestamps

[00:00] Introduction
[01:10] Welcome Soraya Alali
[01:48] The Zip story
[02:36] Beyond a single product
[04:05] Cost of living
[05:33] First year results
[07:16] Fewer customers more profit
[08:35] Customers not users
[11:50] Zip's refreshed strategy
[12:47] Choosing the next bet
[13:52] Bank to fintech culture
[16:40] AI at Zip
[21:31] Keeping AI disciplined
[23:41] Fronting the ASX results
[24:38] The year ahead
[25:10] Why bank hires leave
[27:28] Resilience and discipline
[28:50] Why join Zip
[30:32] Close

Links and resources

• Soraya Alali on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/soraya-alali-8a236687
• Zip: zip.co/au
• Careers at Zip: zip.co/careers
• Tier One People: tieronepeople.com

This show is brought to you by Tier One People, where we work with leaders like Soraya to find the 1% who redefine what's possible. If you're scaling your leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com.

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Matt Barr is CEO of Send Payments, the Australian company that embeds cross-border FX into enterprise platforms including PEXA, BoardRoom and pay.com.au. He explains why those partners choose Send on compliance ahead of price, why the bigger FX markets sit offshore, and how 140 AI agents help a team of about 70 run the business.

About Matt Barr

Matt Barr became CEO of Send Payments in August 2025 after more than 25 years at Australian Payments Plus, eftpos, Mastercard, Telstra and Bank of New Zealand. He spent eight years at Mastercard and was chief product officer at eftpos in 2020.

Key talking points

1. Compliance wins the deal. Send built AML/CTF monitoring and a direct AUSTRAC integration into its platform, and Matt says partners choose it on those credentials ahead of price.

2. The bigger FX markets are offshore. Foreign currency makes up about ten percent of an Australian small business's invoices and about seventy-five percent in Canada, and Send plans to follow its partners into the US, Canada, the UK and New Zealand.

3. Agents are staff. Each of Send's 140 AI agents has a name, a resume and a line manager, and Matt says output per two-week sprint rose by 40% or more.

Chapters

[00:00] Introduction

[05:26] Compliance by design

[09:40] Enterprise partners and use cases

[18:09] 70 people and 140 agents

[27:42] Hiring for a remote-first team

Links

Send Payments: https://sendpayments.com

Careers at Send: https://sendpayments.com/careers/

Matt Barr on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-barr-087322/

Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com

This show is brought to you by Tier One People, where we work with CEOs and founders like Matt to find the 1% who redefine what's possible. If you're scaling your leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com

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Xavier Shay is the CEO of Up, the Australian digital bank that reached a million customers on word of mouth and has been standalone profitable for the last twelve months. He joined as employee 27, was CTO before taking the top job, and explains why Up refused buy now pay later and why it does not try to win on features.

About Xavier Shay

Xavier Shay is CEO of Up and chief digital officer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, having joined Up as a software engineer in 2019 and moved through CTO before taking over as CEO in 2021. Before returning to Melbourne he spent close to seven years at Square in San Francisco, joining at around 150 staff and leaving a listed company of three and a half thousand people.

Key talking points

1. Word of mouth does the marketing. About 70% of Up's new customers arrive because a friend told them to, which Xavier traces to features people want to talk about, Save Up $1000, 2Up, and a support team that answers like a mate.

2. The brand decides the roadmap. At the peak of buy now pay later Up said no and shipped Maybuy instead, a savings plan that asks whether you still want the thing. Half the customers walk away with the money.

3. Brand is the moat, not features. Australia has free instant payments and good incumbent apps, so Xavier says Up does not win a feature by feature comparison and never has. It reached standalone profitability on how it makes people feel about money.

Chapters

[00:00] Introduction

[02:50] Why word of mouth works

[07:06] Saying no to buy now pay later

[18:18] Employee 27 at Ferocia

[23:21] Competing in a functional market

Links

Up: https://up.com.au

Careers at Up: https://up.com.au/careers

Xavier Shay on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/xaviershay

Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com

This show is brought to you by Tier One People, where we work with CEO's and founders like Xavier to find the 1% who redefine what's possible. If you're scaling your leadership team, start at tieronepeople.com

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Welcome to our series recorded live from Interesekt/26. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne.


Hello Clever CEO Caroline Tran gives Dexter Cousins and update of their remarkable growth across Asia, now processing over $2bn through their payments and loyalty platform.

Subscribe for weekly insights from the people building the next generation of Fintech solutions and let us know in the comments what you want to hear next.

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Welcome to our series recorded live from Interesekt/26. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne.

Piers Cracknell CEO for Banking Circle Australia joins Dexter COusins to talk through their remarkable growth and success down under. Piers also shares his main takeaways from the event and his optimism for the future of Fintech.

Connect with Piers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierscracknell/

https://bankingcircle.com.au/ 

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Welcome to our series recorded live from Intersekt. Dexter Cousins catches up with friends of the show at Australia's premiere Fintech event in Melbourne.

This chat features Ben Ford aka The Body of Fintech! Ben runs Mogoplus - AI powered credit decision making and has been at the forefront of CDR since inception. 

You can connect with Ben - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-ford-142a027/

Insta- https://www.instagram.com/super_fit_dad/

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Can Australian startups thrive under current policy? Shadow Minister Aaron Violi discusses the future of our tech sector.

In this episode of FinTech Chatter, Dexter Cousins sits down with Aaron Violi, Federal Member for Casey and Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy, Science, Technology and Innovation. They examine how upcoming 2026 budget changes to capital gains and employee equity impact the broader startup ecosystem. Aaron draws on his fifteen years of private sector experience, including his time at Ritual, to explain how government policy can better support innovation and job creation.

The conversation covers the practical hurdles facing founders today, from tax policy to attracting global talent. By comparing our approach to international models like Singapore, Aaron provides a clear perspective on the role of government in fostering a robust digital economy. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a policy enthusiast, this breakdown offers insights into the regulatory shifts shaping the future of fintech regulation in Australia.

Subscribe to FinTech Chatter for weekly insights on the leaders shaping the Fintech industry. What is the biggest challenge facing your startup right now? Let us know in the comments.

0:00 Introduction
1:02 Aaron Violi background and portfolio
2:19 What the digital economy means
4:39 Lessons from Singapore
9:19 Budget impact on startups
14:33 Challenges facing startups
24:34 The role of government
28:46 Taxation and innovation
30:43 Attracting talent back
36:48 Vision for an innovative Australia
43:49 Connecting with Aaron

LINKS
Aaron Violi on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/aaronviolimp
Aaron Violi MP website: https://www.aaronvioli.com.au
Aaron Violi electorate email: [email protected]
Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com
Fintech Chatter: https://fintechchatter.com
Dexter Cousins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/

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Karl Durrance is Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand at Stripe, the payments infrastructure company. Australia NZ is Stripes 3rd largest region globally, serving over one million customers and onboards 37,000 new local businesses every month. 

In this episode, recorded live at Stripe Tour Sydney, Karl explains how Australia became Stripe's third biggest market in the world, why 23 percent of Stripe's Australian businesses sell cross-border against a national average of 2 percent, and what the AI economy is doing to business formation. He also talks candidly about the country manager role, why he coaches his team to answer for the customer rather than the forecast, and where Stripe is hiring in Australia.
 
 
0:00 Introduction
1:24 Stripe Tour Sydney
2:36 One million ANZ customers
3:49 Cracking the Australian market
5:30 Cross-border and global reach
6:24 Solopreneurs and small business
8:08 AI and job creation
9:29 Day 231 of the singularity
11:11 Building the highways
13:05 Growing the GDP of the internet
14:37 Why Karl joined Stripe
18:12 The country manager role
21:36 How founders reach Stripe
22:26 Careers at Stripe
 
Karl Durrance on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/karldurrance
Stripe: https://stripe.com
Stripe Tour Sydney: https://stripetour.com/sydney
Stripe Tour Sydney 2026 announcements: https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/tour-sydney-2026
Careers at Stripe: https://stripe.com/jobs
Tier One People: https://tieronepeople.com
Dexter Cousins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/

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Move Bank has become the first bank in the world to move its entire operation, technology, product, operations and compliance, onto Constantinople's platform. 

In this episode Dexter Cousins is joined by Move Bank CEO Mike Currie and Constantinople co-CEOs Macgregor Duncan and Di Challenor. 

They unpack an 18 month migration of around 25,000 members that cut cost to income by roughly 30 percent. It is a story about culture and courage as much as technology, and what it means for every customer owned bank in Australia.

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:36 Inside Move Bank and how the partnership began
2:48 A banking operating system
4:55 Busting the CEO killer myth
8:26 Fintechs reputation problem
10:26 Why a domestic team mattered
13:12 Challenger culture - Building a true partnership
17:00 Go live - A world first transformation 
21:03 Synthetic scale and the problem with mergers
24:35 Going global
31:02 The next decade of AI
31:49 Advice for bank CEOs
39:39 Where to find Move Bank

Find out more.

Move Bank: https://www.movebank.com.au

Constantinople: https://www.cxnpl.com

** Connect With Dexter **
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dextercousins/

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LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/fintech-chatter-podcast

Contact us - https://tieronepeople.com/contact/

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