Australian FinTech company profile #184 - Zool Capital

1. Company Name: Zool Capital

2. Website: www.zoolcapital.com.au

3. Key Staff & Titles: Victor Ferreira (CEO) Matthew Cooper (CTO), Sunil Aranha, (Advisor), Frank Willenberg (Advisor – Risk)

4. Location(s): Sydney and Adelaide, Australia

5. In one sentence, what does your fintech do?: We are utilising a proprietary AI Credit Decision Engine to provide borrowers with quick approvals and the ability to understand their business health and their borrowing capacity with Zool Capital. We are simplifying access to funds.

6. How / why did you start your fintech company?: We took over the ThinCats Australia business. A fintech company launched in 2016 as the first P2P lender in the country. We are now bringing new ideas and innovation to scale the business further.

7. What is the best thing your company has achieved or learnt along the way (this can include awards, capital raising etc)?: Becoming the first P2P lender in Australia. Outside of that, the fact that in the last 4 years the business performed amazingly from a risk perspective. Zero losses. That proves the expertise we have in the business to build risk models.

8. What’s some advice you’d give to an aspiring start-up?: Clarity on what you want to build and what problems are you solving. Then, validation. Make sure the problem you’re solving has enough demand to become market relevant. As soon as that piece is solved, people. Building a team that has integrity, honesty and shares the same passion for the mission, it’s the baseline to achieve any goal with success.

9. What’s next for your company? And are you looking to expand overseas or stay focussed on Australia?: We need to build the model and fine tune it in Australia. As soon as this piece is finalized, we will rollout a second product under a different brand for a new market segment, by utilizing the backbone of what we’ve built. That will keep us busy in Australia for a couple of years.

10. What other fintechs or companies do you admire?: Every business has a purpose in the market. And as long as they are solving problems for customers, they all have their space. We see Square or Brex in USA as great examples on how you can be successful by segmentation. We are a fan of segmentation and market niches. In Australia, we have so many great examples. Bridgit is a great business model.

11. What’s the most interesting or funniest moment that’s happened in your company’s lifetime?: As it’s an acquisition, we haven’t had time for a lot of funny moments. But, we can say that was very challenging coming into a new lending segment/product. And understanding the process was crucial to be able to improve the product.