Australian FinTech company profile #133 - Zii

1. Company Name: Zii

2. Website: www.ziicloud.com

3. Key Staff & Titles: David Phung, Nolan Taing & Jess Zhang – Founders

4. Location(s): Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore

5. In one sentence, what does your fintech do?:
Zii provides digital tools for hospitality operators to improve the way they interact with customers.

6. How / why did you start your fintech company?:
To say that F&B tech was a crowded space, would be an understatement. There are many waves of change in F&B tech, our objective is to create a tide that lifts all boats. We’re doing this by building a B2B2C ecosystem where merchants and customers can all benefit.

7. What is the best thing your company has achieved or learnt along the way (this can include awards, capital raising etc)?:
The proudest achievement for me was when we helped one customer increase his highest daily taking by 33%. This is huge and he attributed the uplift to the efficiency gains our platform delivered.

8. What’s some advice you’d give to an aspiring start-up?:
Just start. Whatever you think your plans are now, just get them down, charge forward and don’t look back. I can guarantee that will change beyond recognition. So the sooner you start, the faster you’ll reach your rightful place in the market.

9. What’s next for your company? And are you looking to expand overseas or stay focussed on Australia?:

We are starting to actively looking at partnerships to take the brand global and we’re in talks with some really exciting Europe and Asia-based groups to drive our expansion. It’s a city-based go-to-market, not so much than a country one. Whilst the addressable market is large, we need to be smart about how we execute these city by city plays.

10. What other fintechs or companies do you admire?:
Square. They’ve dominated the category in North America and their approach to services expansion is nothing short of brilliant.

11. What’s the most interesting or funniest moment that’s happened in your company’s lifetime?:
We actually considered opening a fully-functioning cafe to be a software prototyping centre. The more time has passed, the funnier that idea gets. In hindsight, it’s plain ridiculous. Thankfully, the fit-out costs were astronomically high that led us to pull the pin on it. We definitely dodged a bullet.