Tyro Payments set to challenge lenders
(30 November 2015 – Australia) Following a A$100 million raising round, Tyro Payments has been granted a full banking license according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR).
Investors in the payments provider include technology firm Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes and Tiger Global.
Tyro chief executive Jost Stollman said to the AFR: "Our goal is to build the Tyro Bank that is cloud based, totally integrated and totally mobile and that provides awesome frictionless banking solutions. Tyro spent 12 years to establish itself as a tech player, and payment provider. Now we're changing the game and we're going to a very different level," he said.
The company will use half of the raised capital as equity in its application to name itself a bank. It will also use a portion of the investment to triple its team of software engineers to 150.
Cannon-Brookes, who has been on the board for six years, and providing A$10 million, added: “It is huge for Australia, it is only the fourth [private raising] north of $100 million and it is the first tech deal in Australia for Tiger.”
"It is a bank, the cost of capital is completely different. We have fully government guaranteed deposits, we already have a huge acquiring business and we will be a full service bank. There's not just cash flow, there's lots of other sorts of loans we can offer,” he said.
Tiger Global is a major tech investor based in the United States. Included in its early-stage investments are social media giants Facebook and LinkedIn.
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