Two Australian fintech deals close as acquisition season kicks off

Mr Haupt said one of Mortgage Mart’s founders, Wayne Armstrong, would stay in an operational role as its general manager, while his co-founder Doug Daniel would take a board seat. The exact terms of the acquisition were kept private, but it was worth more than $10 million, with a mixture of cash and equity.

“This is our first successful acquisition, following one previous unsuccessful deal – which, in hindsight, was a positive outcome. Based on those learnings, we were better able to make the right decisions that enabled us to close this deal,” Mr Haupt said.

“From the outset, our measure of value was that Mortgage Mart had built a solid loan book, loyal customer base and trustworthy brand.

“While market conditions did influence our negotiations to a degree, the intrinsic value of the company remained stable, and that was reflected in the final deal value.”

Mr Haupt said WLTH would be able to add new products and application processes to Mortgage Mart’s platform, meaning loan applications could be dealt with in less than 15 minutes.

He said WLTH had no immediate plans for further acquisitions, but was open to opportunities.

Tax app for the self-employed

TaxLeopard chief executive Selda Kaplan, meanwhile, said its acquisition of Airtax from PwC spin-off Vialto Partners was its first buyout, and that it would be actively looking for more strategic acquisitions next year.

TaxLeopard is a software and tax app for the self-employed and contractors, which has strategic partnerships to sell its services to gig economy workers on platforms like Didi, DoorDash and Fiverr. Airtax, meanwhile, has a rival product that has over 40,000 users, with a particularly strong presence among Australian Uber drivers.

Airtax was originally developed within PwC in 2016, but became part of global worker mobility solutions company Vialto Partners when PwC divested it in 2022.

“Our belief is that Airtax is a sleeping giant which will thrive under new ownership that can provide the focus and attention it deserves,” said Nigel Stivala, Airtax product owner at Vialto.

Ms Kaplan, who co-founded TaxLeopard with fellow accountant Michael Kambouridis in 2022, said the acquisition will also coincide with a major research and development push where it is looking to incorporate generative AI into its platform.

Mr Stivala and fellow Vialto director Mark O’Neill will assist with the transition of Airtax’s technology onto TaxLeopard’s platform, but no staff will move across to TaxLeopard.

“Merging Airtax’s tech into our products isn’t a simple plug-and-play; it’s quite a careful dance of systems and data. But it’s exciting because those 40,000 users from Airtax are key to supercharging our R&D,” Ms Kaplan said.

“We’re not keeping Airtax as a stand-alone – it’s all about creating a smarter, unified platform for our customers.

“Airtax’s platform was the first to market in 2016 to solve a real need for Uber drivers when their tax obligations were clarified by the courts. Airtax is a well-known brand for Uber drivers, which aligns well with our overall go-to-market strategy and target market.”

Ms Kaplan said TaxLeopard will kick off an external funding round in February 2024.