Hi TechMates Community,
🎙️ Mark Pavlyukovskyy and Hendrik Remigereau here—bringing you another frontier-building conversation, powered by NZVC, the venture firm backing the next generation of iconic companies from New Zealand and beyond.
In this episode, we sit down with three founders who decided the financial status quo wasn't good enough. Dominic Pym of Up, Dermot Butterfield of Wych, and Leighton Roberts of Sharesies discuss how frustration with legacy banks birthed a movement to democratize finance, build hyper-engaging digital products, and unlock the power of open banking.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
🌱 The Engagement Metric – Why Up Bank decided they didn’t want to compete with other banks, but rather benchmark their engagement against Instagram and TikTok.
💡 Open Banking Explained – Dermot breaks down how open banking replaces sketchy “screen scraping” with secure, consumer-controlled data consent.
🔥 Beyond $5 Investing – How Sharesies evolved its vision from democratizing access to the stock market to offering a holistic wealth platform, including B2B registry services.
🌍 The Aussie Fintech Exodus – How seeing Australian founders leave to start global digital banks like Monzo and Simple inspired Dom to build one back home.
🚀 From Software to Banking – Why building tech for the fifth-largest bank in Australia ultimately drove Dom to create his own banking product.
Don’t miss out on these exclusive insights!
00:00 Intro: The AU/NZ Fintech Advantage
01:13 The Origin of Up: Built out of pure frustration
02:30 Why legacy banking software is broken
04:45 Hiring a "Chief Imaginer" to build the future
06:15 Banking vs. TikTok: The battle for engagement
06:53 What is Open Banking? (Explained for beginners)
08:20 The "Login with Google" moment for your bank account
11:27 How financial "pipes" and infrastructure work
12:42 Why traditional banks have a "Vault Mentality"
13:50 Sharesies: Investing is no longer just for the rich
15:31 Beyond stocks: KiwiSaver and insurance
17:43 Education vs. Gambling: The Sharesies philosophy
18:39 Comparing the AU/NZ model to Robinhood
The financial sector has historically operated with a “vault mentality,” focused on keeping data and money locked inside rather than empowering the consumer. This conservative approach to technology became the catalyst for a new wave of fintech innovation. For Dominic Pym, the founder of Up, building software for a major Australian bank highlighted the stark limitations of legacy systems. He noted that his drive to create Up was
“worse than frustrated... it was like an innate desire to build something better for ourselves, firstly, and then everyone else”
When Dom and his team started building Up, they realized traditional banking engagement metrics—like logging in once a month—were archaic. Instead, they looked to the most engaging apps on people’s phones. As his head of design pointed out,
“We don’t wanna be better than Monzo. We wanna be better than TikTok”
Dermot Butterfield of Wych is tackling the infrastructure side of this revolution through open banking. For years, consumers were locked into their banks because moving finances was incredibly difficult. Open banking changes that by ensuring
“your financial data is yours,”
allowing customers to easily and securely share their information with new services without handing over their passwords.
Leighton Roberts of Sharesies built his platform on the belief that
“someone with $5 and $5 million could have the same money opportunities”
Now approaching 800,000 users, Sharesies is expanding beyond simple stock trading to become a comprehensive wealth app, moving toward scalable, AI-driven financial advice.
The future of finance isn’t just about moving money; it’s about engagement, data sovereignty, and true financial empowerment.
Thanks for your support—we’re excited to have you with us!
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Happy listening,
The TechMates Team
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