Zeller bags $50 million in raise backed by major US venture capital firm

Zeller bags $50 million in raise backed by major US venture capital firm

Zeller co-founder and CEO Ben Pfisterer.

Fintech Zeller has today announced a $50 million fundraise led by high-profile US venture capital firm Spark Capital, hot on the heels of its $25 million Series A back in March.

The raise means the business banking company has now bagged $81 million in under 12 months.

As this latest round was closed in the days leading up to its May 2021 launch, the Melbourne-based company managed to raise the all of funds before it had a single customer.

Founded by two former Square executives Dominic Yap and Ben Pfisterer, the company aims to shake up the traditional business banking sector by selling a simple solution that comes with an EFTPOS terminal, a free business transaction account and a business Mastercard all in one box.

The fundraise was led by Spark Capital, with additional funding secured from existing investors including Square Peg, Apex Capital Partners and Addition.

Spark Capital has previously invested in some of the world's largest technology companies including Twitter, Plaid, Oculus, Slack and Coinbase.


READ MORE: Fintech Zeller partners with Officeworks to launch business banking alternative


Within the first month of operations, Zeller says it attracted 1,500 Australian business customers, and saw weekly payment volumes growing 200 per cent.

Of the fintech's early adopters, 80 per cent were switching to Zeller from the incumbents according to Pfisterer.

"Our team hears how frustrated these business owners are by the lack of service and support they receive, and that they're paying incredibly high fees for outdated EFTPOS hardware and underdeveloped banking technology," CEO and co-founder Pfisterer said.

"The fact we're seeing so many established businesses switching to Zeller from the banks motivates us to double-down on our efforts to build more business banking products that serve the needs of growing businesses."

The funding will be used to accelerate the development of Zeller's integrated business banking platform, and to expand its product and engineering footprint across Australia with new hires.

"We built Zeller to connect the disparate financial services, payments and banking tools that Australian businesses use every day," Pfisterer said.

"Our vision is to support the everyday business banking requirements of merchants, and our partnership with Spark Capital helps us accelerate development of these new products for a rapidly growing customer base who are switching to Zeller from the incumbents."

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