This year’s CommBank Young Hero Awards shines the spotlight on 10 outstanding business leaders from across Australia. These young leaders, aged 35 and under, are making a positive impact on Australia’s business market while pushing the boundaries of their respective industries. Let’s take a closer look at these trailblazing businesses and the remarkable leaders that run them. Claudia Kolbe, Chief of Staff at Fundabl shares insights into their business’s success and why they were awarded CommBank Young Hero Awards 2023: Tech Solutions Award.
What solution does your business solve?
Our co-founders, David and Ethan, started out in a windowless office at Edgecliff train station in September 2021 with the simple goal of offering a business-owner-friendly funding solution for growth. They witnessed firsthand how founders and key decision-makers were wasting valuable time raising funds; which often resulted in giving away large chunks of their business or onerous bank loans. Their aim was to develop a seamless process to make access to flexible funding simple and fast, giving birth to Fundabl.
How was your target market identified?
We identified small-to-medium businesses as our target market early on. Our team felt they were being underserved by the current funding options avialable. While this market may be underserved, it’s not small: 98 per cent of businesses in Australia are SMEs.
Fundabl offers certainty and speed to a range of clients through our proprietary credit decisioning. Our funding supports businesses of all stages, from young companies needing growth capital to established SMEs needing working capital.
What do you believe sets your technology solutions apart from other companies in the marketplace?
Fundabl delivers the benefits of certainty and speed by offering a very quick funding solution with funds in the bank in as little as 24 hours. Information requirements for our onboarding process are streamlined and user-friendly; businesses can onboard in under 3 minutes.
Importantly, applying for funding does not affect the client’s actual credit score, given it is completely internally generated. Therefore, there are absolutely no commitments, fees or any potential negative impacts imposed on clients to apply. Using the Fundabl Score, we are able to quickly make a credit decision and provide a response to the client. We are absolutely thrilled to be the winner of the 2023 CommBank Young Hero Tech Solutions Award, as it’s a real honour and validation of all the hard work we’ve put in to date.
How has your business grown since launching?
In the short fifteen months that we have been funding, we have already financed tens of millions of dollars to our clients. Since March 2022, we have increased the loan book by twelve times, representing an average monthly book growth rate of 21 per cent. Our revenue has similarly grown, increasing substantially since March 2022.
Our growth internally has been just as important. Fundabl is now a seven-person dream team with a strong culture and focus on client service. Our presence online and in the market more generally is also continuing to build momentum, including recognitions in the Australian Financial Review and being nominated as a finalist in two categories of the 2023 Finnie Awards; “Emerging FinTech Organisation of the Year” and “Excellence in Business Lending”. This has boosted the number of incoming clients and even our LinkedIn followers, which are now over four thousand strong.
How has your company enabled businesses to achieve success?
Fundraising is an all-consuming distraction for businesses. Not to mention, rockier capital markets, rising inflation, challenging labour markets and supply chain disruptions which have made the current environment very challenging to navigate. Obtaining capital is particularly time-consuming for business owners and decision-makers, who should be focused on running their businesses.
Fundabl gives decision-makers their time back by providing them with speed, certainty and a nimble and agile funding solution for short-term capital requirements. The vast majority of our clients draw funds from us multiple times, only drawing and paying for the funds when they need it rather than being forced to take it all upfront.
By: Alyssa Herr, Editor
