Tyro rolls out new SME-focused banking innovations

Sydney, Australia, 30 November 2017 – Australia’s business bank and EFTPOS provider, Tyro, has introduced a number of market-leading banking innovations for SMEs, building upon its in-house, cloud-based mobile core banking platform. Solutions include flexible, fast business loans, a fee-free interest-earning deposit account, and reliable, secure EFTPOS. These solutions remove the frictions in banking and cash flow management, to help Australian SMEs focus on achieving their version of business success.
 
The dynamic fintech is also the first technology company in Australia to be granted a full bank licence and is on the list of “Australian-owned Banks” with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). The banking innovations come as Tyro continues to achieve significant new milestones, growing its SME customer base to more than 20,000, and processing a record $10 billion plus in payments in the 2016-17 financial year. The company’s revenue also grew by 26 per cent to $120.6 million last financial year, with staff numbers swelling by 25 per cent to 371 Tyro employees.
 
Tyro Executive Director and acting CEO, Rob Ferguson, said the challenges to a fast-growing business like Tyro are well-suited to using Agile methodologies. “Our highly developed engineering capability is central to our successful disruption of the financial services sector. We build every aspect of our solution infrastructure in-house and own the entire technology stack. Because we create our own bespoke solutions, benefits can be realised early as Agile enables us to bring new features to market fast.”
 
“Frequent feedback from users prevents waste and software engineers can modify before it is too late. Essentially, collaboration leads to products that remove the friction in banking and empower Australia’s SMEs to prosper,” said Mr Ferguson.
 
“As a fintech, we value engineering excellence and push the boundaries of innovation to fundamentally improve the banking experience for Australian businesses,” he added.
 
Research undertaken by Tyro found that banking red tape is robbing almost one million Australian businesses of four weeks’ productive work time a year, costing the national economy almost $7 billion annually. This equates to an extra 20 working days a year for each business – or the entire annual holidays of the average employee. The report also found that 44 per cent of Australian SMEs, or 880,000 businesses, spend more than three hours every week checking, entering, paying and reconciling data, costing each business an average of $7,800 a year.[1]
 
Tyro’s new banking products were developed from an understanding of the real-world environment SME owners operate in. Mr Ferguson said the innovative products are designed to reduce some of the frictions facing small business owners, and to challenge the convention that all banks are the same. Tyro’s resolute goal is to help Australia’s SME’s reach their version of success.
 
“Our customers frequently refer to the ease, convenience and economic benefits Tyro offers. We recognise that everyday banking is a chore – all our products and services work in the SME business environment and with existing systems, removing common SME pain points such as double entry. Tyro’s banking products are just now scratching the surface of the broader SME banking category and we are looking forward to evolving in this space,” said Mr Ferguson.
 
Tyro offers SMEs a linked experience for deposits, lending and EFTPOS – a seamless integration of their accounting, banking and payments through a single mobile application. Backed by Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, Tyro continues to excel in its mission to put customers at the heart of everything they do, providing Australian SMEs with leading-edge products and services, to help improve and grow their businesses.

Consistent investment into product development and delivery has allowed Tyro to further enhance its innovation, having significantly increased investment spend to approximately $16.3 million in 2017, up from $12.5 million in 2016

Tyro Initiatives

Business loans

Tyro offers SMEs simple, flexible and fast loans with a unique lending proposition compared to traditional banks. Key differentiators include a single flat fee, as well as access to funds in 60 seconds for eligible merchants. Initial loans go up to an eligible maximum of $50,000 and subsequent loans up to an eligible amount of $120,000. Customers have the flexibility to customise and select the percentage of their daily EFTPOS takings to be put towards loan repayments, so if it is a slower sales day, then the repayment is smaller, which supports cash flow.

Transaction account – Deposits

The Tyro Smart Account brings transactions and savings into one single account, saving SMEs time and money. It gives customers the flexibility to pay accounts their preferred way and includes Xero integration, to schedule batch payments, payroll and BPAY functionality. The unique, fee-free account earns daily interest and bonus interest (up to 1.75 per cent per annum) if funds are retained over 30, 60 and 90 days.

Busy SMEs can also instruct payments via Apple’s Siri voice command. Tyro customers with a transaction account can access their daily settlements from their Tyro EFTPOS terminals, which can be used to pay bills and business costs immediately using Apple’s smartphone assistant. This technological breakthrough eliminates time-consuming PC-based payments for its on-the-go business owners.

EFTPOS

Leading EFTPOS technology is at the core of Tyro’s business. Tyro EFTPOS integrates with over 200 point of sale (POS) and practice management software (PMS) providers, more than any other bank in Australia, and processes over one billion dollars of transaction value each month. Countertop and mobile terminals process lightning-fast transactions, sub-1.6 seconds, to keep queues short.

About Tyro

Tyro is the only Australian bank completely dedicated to business banking and has the interests of small and medium enterprises at its core. Tyro is the first Australian technology company to be granted a full banking licence by APRA. Tyro provides EFTPOS, deposits, unsecured lending, Medicare and private health fund claiming and rebating services, and integrates with Xero via the Tyro App.

In November 2015, Tyro announced the company’s $100 million capital raise in core Tier 1 equity which was completed in March 2016 and was granted an unrestricted Authorised Deposit taking Institution (ADI) licence. In April 2017, Tyro obtained from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) the right to use the word “Bank” in its name and in describing its activities, and has been added to the list of “Australian-owned Banks” on APRA’s website.

Currently serving more than 20,000 small and medium enterprise merchant customers, Tyro processed $10 billion in payments in FY17 and generated more than $120 million in revenue, reflecting 26% growth, year on year. Over the past five years, Tyro’s Compound Annual Growth Rate is 34%.

¹ The Tyro SME Banking Report Exploring banking inefficiencies for Small to Medium Enterprises (2016)

Need to know more?

For more about this news story please contact:
Monica Appleby, Head of Corporate Communications on 0466 598 946 or mappleby@tyro.com
Sophie Cotterill, Corporate Communications Manager on 0414 960 292 or scotterill@tyro.com