Australia

Sydney
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Late-Globalization Phase

MEMBERS:

NSW Treasury

Despite the pandemic, fintechs are growing as the pace of digital transformation picks up. The Australian fintech ecosystem is well placed after Open Banking went live on 1 July 2020, and Sydney remains the capital of fintech in Australia with over 50% of fintechs domiciled in New South Wales

Alex Scandurra

CEO, Stone & Chalk

Sub-sector Strengths

Fintech

New South Wales (NSW) Fintech sector quintupled between 2014 and 2017. This growth is a testament to both to the success of Sydney as the financial capital of Australia - home to over 80% of local and foreign banks, APAC’s largest Fintech hub Stone & Chalk, and around 60% of Australia’s Fintech startups - as well as an enabling regulatory regime at the federal level, including an enhanced regulatory sandbox. Recent activity in the ecosystem includes the IPO of Tyro Payments, a payments solutions provider, at a post valuation of $973 million in 2019. Xinja, a digital neobank, raised $122 million in September 2020.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity startups in Sydney are supported by a range of government programs and initiatives including a $240 million investment into the sector announced by the NSW Government in June 2020, the NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node to drive cyber sector growth, a Women in Cybersecurity initiative by TechSydney aimed at increasing participation of women in the field, and a Cyber Voucher program launched in 2019 by the NSW government providing R&D grants up to AUD $15,000. Cloud Conformity, a cloud security platform, was acquired for $70 million and Secure Code Warrior, a secure coding platform, raised $47.6 million in a Series B round in 2019.

Why you should invest in Sydney

TOTAL EARLY STAGE FUNDING

$768 m

GLOBAL AVG.

$431 m

ECOSYSTEM VALUE

$11 bn

GLOBAL AVG.

$10.5 bn

Top 10 APAC Ecosystem

Performance

Top 30 Global Ecosystem

Talent

Exit Growth
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Investor Activity
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Funding Growth
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Reasons to move your startup to Sydney

MEDIAN SEED ROUND

$404 k

GLOBAL AVG.

$494 k

MEDIAN SERIES A ROUND

$2.8 m

GLOBAL AVG.

$2.7 m

SOFTWARE ENGINEER SALARY

$64.5 k

GLOBAL AVG.

$42.1 k

Growing Innovation Districts & Incentives for Co-location

Sydney Startup Hub - the first of its kind in the country housing over 1800 residents -, and Tech Central, which will soon be Australia’s biggest technology hub with a commitment of $48.2 million in funding by NSW Government, have positioned Sydney as an epicenter of innovation and collaboration.

Access to Talent

Sydney’s startup ecosystem fares strongly on Startup Genome’s Global Talent Ranking 2020, coming in at #24, while the State is home to two Top 50 universities and more than 160,000 STEM graduates, the highest number of any Australian State.

COVID-19 Policy

By taking a balanced approach to the health risk of COVID19 and its impact on business, the NSW Government has built on Australian Government initiatives to counter the economic impact of COVID19. To support NSW's economy, the Government will provide $1.6 billion in tax cuts and job creation measures.