Zeller

About

Zeller is an Australian SMB-focused neobank offering integrated payments and business banking, EFTPOS terminals, merchant acquiring, transaction accounts, business Mastercards, POS and accounting integrations, expense management and analytics.

Mission

Zeller is an Australian neobank for SMBs that provides an integrated suite of merchant payments and business banking products. Its current offerings include an EFTPOS terminal, business transaction accounts and Zeller Mastercards, built around a point-of-sale/merchant-acquiring product. Over its early months the company signed up more than 10,000 Australian businesses and more than 80% of customers in the first 10 months switched from traditional banks. The majority of those customers now use Zeller as their primary financial services solution, and average customer call wait times are under 45 seconds. Zeller’s roadmap includes omni-channel commerce (online payments and Xero invoicing), new accounts with broader transfer capabilities, tools to track spending across profiles and locations, and Zeller Financial Services with cards, expense management and enhanced analytics. The company aims to replace fragmented banking and payments stacks for merchants by offering a centralized, capital-efficient alternative. Zeller was founded by former Square executives Ben Pfisterer and Dominic Yap and launched its first products on May 4, including EFTPOS terminals, business accounts and cards. The company targets small- to mid-sized businesses and says more than 1,500 Australian businesses signed up in the month after launch. Weekly payment volume has been growing 200%, and roughly 80% of customers switched from Australia’s four biggest banks citing lower fees and better support. Zeller has raised capital to expand its research and engineering hub and will recruit 18 engineers to support its plan to become a fully regulated business bank. Its total funding to date in less than a year is A$81 million and its latest round values the company at A$400 million. Zeller builds a fully integrated payments and financial-services platform that combines software, a payment terminal, a transaction account and a business Mastercard to help small- and medium-sized businesses accept and send payments and manage finances. The product targets merchants that process up to A$10 million annually, has no lock-in contracts and charges one low fee for card payments; the company estimates a domestic market of just under 1.5 million merchants. Zeller plans integrations with point-of-sale and accounting software and intends to introduce additional payment and financial services products to scale with growing businesses. The startup has grown its team to about 50 people after 38 hires in six months as it prepares for an imminent launch. Financially, Zeller completed an A$25 million Series A following an A$6.3 million seed round in June 2020, and will use the funding to expand product development, engineering, marketing, sales and customer support. The company positions itself to serve merchants that still rely heavily on in-person payments and to simplify the mix of terminals, accounts and e-commerce services used by SMEs. Zeller is building payments and financial-services products aimed at business customers, with a focus on payments and cash flow rather than business lending. The company will not pursue the business banking ground covered by neobank Judo and does not plan to offer business loans. Founders Ben Pfisterer (former head of Square APAC) and Dominic Yap aim to offer an all-in-one solution that makes account setup simple and aligns essential business products and services. Zeller argues current solutions are clunky and that limited competition has kept a lid on innovation. The company highlights that in-person payments account for 67% of sales while ecommerce is 33%, and plans to launch its first product in Q1 2021. Zeller positions itself to help businesses transition further toward cashless payments as they rebound from COVID-19.

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