London-based API provider Codat is throwing itself into the Australian SME market via an alliance with Judo Bank and plans for local hires.
The partnership will enable Judo’s SME customers to digitally share access to their financial statements with the bank.
Matthew Tyrrell, APAC Commercial Director at Codat, explains: “We know the average Aussie small business now uses more than 40 different applications. Codat is well-positioned to unlock value and utility from these applications. At Codat we’ve dubbed this phenomenon open finance; a natural progression from open banking, that allows SMBs to harness the data from the most important systems they use, like accounting, PoS and e-commerce platforms. It’s these systems that are the central source of truth for business data, not bank accounts.”
Lisa Frazier, COO at Judo Bank, adds: “Through our alliance with Codat, we will enhance the quality of the conversations we have with our customers through the access of rich, real-time data. This will further strengthen our customer relationships and the proactive advice we give.”
Codat says its universal API provides standardised access to over 30 systems used by small businesses, including banking, commerce platforms and the accounting software used by 97% of Australian SMBs.
The fintech platform senses good times in the Australian SMB market and cites recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that show from FY 20-21 there was a 3.8% increase in the number of businesses, with a total of 365,480 new ones cropping up. It reckons “most of whom will rely on some form of accounting software”.
Codat has appointed Tyrrell to lead the company’s local operations. The firm is now investing in its physical presence in Sydney with a number of local hires.
The Codat and Judo Bank integration will be available for SMB customers to use from early 2022.
Codat’s technology is used by over 130 clients for a variety of use cases across different sectors. For instance, Comma uses the technology for its end-to-end payments process. Other customers include Zettle by Paypal, Finstro and Cloudfloat.
Last month Codat was awarded £5 million by BCR (Banking Competition Remedies).
The company said it will use the funding to open up small business sales data to lenders and payment providers, and offer automated payment reconciliation into small businesses’ accounting platforms.
