When Zepto and Employment Hero were recognised with the FinTech Australia Finnies Award for Excellence in Industry Collaboration & Partnerships last week, we were incredibly proud.
While the award recognised Zepto and Employment Hero, the story behind HeroClear is very much one of three organisations — Zepto, Employment Hero and OZEDI — coming together to solve a shared challenge.
More importantly, it reinforced something we've believed for a long time: the best outcomes happen when organisations move beyond supplier relationships and become genuinely invested in solving a shared problem.
In our industry, the word "partnership" gets used constantly. Technology providers talk about partners. Customers talk about strategic partners. Entire ecosystems are built around partnership programs.
Yet many of these relationships are ultimately transactional. One organisation provides a service. Another consumes it. There's nothing wrong with that model — but it isn't really a partnership.
What made this partnership particularly effective wasn't the challenge.
It was the people.
There was a recognition early on that bringing together three organisations with deep expertise across payroll, superannuation and payments created a unique opportunity. Just as importantly, there was a shared belief that Payday Super wasn't simply a compliance challenge to be managed, but an opportunity to create a fundamentally better experience for employers and employees.
From the outset, there was a strong alignment between Employment Hero, OZEDI and Zepto. Not because we approached every problem the same way, but because we shared a similar mindset. All three organisations are built by people who are naturally curious, ambitious and willing to challenge conventional thinking. We are energised by solving difficult problems, comfortable operating in ambiguity and motivated by creating better outcomes for customers.
Perhaps most importantly, we share an optimism about what's possible.
That mindset was evident from some of the very first conversations.
Long before HeroClear existed, discussions between the three organisations centred on a simple idea: Payday Super shouldn't be viewed as a compliance burden to be managed, but as an opportunity to create a fundamentally better experience for employers and employees.
That shared perspective became an important foundation for everything that followed.
Rather than asking how we could help businesses adapt to change, the conversation quickly became about how we could use that change to deliver something genuinely better.
In industries as complex as payroll, superannuation and payments, it's easy to become constrained by the way things have always been done. The teams involved in this project consistently approached challenges from a different perspective. Rather than asking why something couldn't be done, the conversation was usually about how we could make it happen.
The collective experience around the table challenged all of us to think bigger, move faster and set a higher standard for what the industry should expect.
That mindset created a foundation that made everything else possible.
The challenge itself was significant. Payday Super represents one of the most substantial changes to Australia's superannuation system in decades. Employers are moving from quarterly contribution cycles to paying super on every payday, creating new expectations around speed, visibility, reconciliation and compliance.
The obvious approach would have been for each organisation to focus on its own piece of the puzzle. Employment Hero on payroll. OZEDI on superannuation processing. Zepto on payments infrastructure.
Instead, we approached the challenge collectively.
One of the biggest misconceptions about partnership is that it requires constant agreement.
In reality, some of the most valuable moments throughout the project came when we challenged each other's assumptions.
Employment Hero pushed us to think differently about the employer experience and what customers would need to confidently navigate a changing regulatory environment. We challenged thinking around payments infrastructure, settlement models and how emerging capabilities could simplify traditionally complex processes. OZEDI brought decades of expertise in superannuation and data exchange that shaped how the solution evolved.
Those conversations weren't always easy, nor should they have been. The goal wasn't consensus. The goal was to build the best possible solution.
What made those discussions productive was the culture underpinning them. Nobody was defending territory. Nobody was protecting ego. There was a shared respect for expertise and a collective belief that robust debate leads to better outcomes.
When you bring together talented people with that mindset, progress tends to happen much faster than anyone expects.
The project also reinforced the importance of trust.
Trust is often spoken about as the outcome of a successful partnership. In our experience, it is usually the starting point. Trust allows organisations to move faster, have difficult conversations earlier and remain focused on solving problems rather than protecting positions.
From initial concept to working beta in just three months, more than 25 specialists across five joint squads worked side-by-side to bring HeroClear to life. That pace wasn't possible because of technology alone. It was possible because the teams involved trusted each other's expertise, shared accountability for the outcome and maintained a common focus on the problem we were trying to solve.
Perhaps the most important lesson, however, was that some of the hardest challenges weren't product challenges at all.
As the project progressed, many of the questions we encountered extended well beyond any one organisation. They touched industry infrastructure, payment rails, reachability, operational processes and broader ecosystem readiness.
At several points, it would have been easier to wait for the ecosystem to evolve.
Instead, the partnership chose to engage.
We worked alongside industry participants, regulators and stakeholders to better understand the barriers, contribute to solutions and help move the broader conversation forward.
That wasn't because it sat neatly within the scope of the project. It was because solving meaningful customer problems often requires engaging with the systems that surround them.
Looking back, the biggest lesson wasn't about payroll, superannuation or payments.
It was about people.
The best partnerships are not created by contracts, governance structures or project plans. They are created by good people who share a common ambition, challenge each other constructively and believe that meaningful problems are worth solving.
That's what we found in Employment Hero and OZEDI.
It's also what we look for in every partnership we build.
Technology matters. Products matter. Commercial outcomes matter.
But the organisations that create lasting impact are rarely the ones with the best technology alone. They are the ones that bring together talented people, a pioneering mindset and a shared belief that there is always a better way forward.
HeroClear is a great example of what can happen when those ingredients come together.
And it's exactly the kind of partnership we hope to keep building.
Interested in building something together?
If you're navigating industry change, launching something new or tackling a challenge that doesn't have an obvious answer, we'd love to talk.
Because the best outcomes aren't built by technology alone.
They're built by great people, solving meaningful problems together.