Last night was a special one for the Zepto team.
At the 2026 Finnies Awards, we were honoured to receive two awards:
🏆 FinTech Organisation of the Year
🏆 Excellence in Industry Collaboration & Partnerships (with Employment Hero for HeroClear)
While we're incredibly proud of the recognition, what made the night particularly meaningful was the opportunity to celebrate alongside so many outstanding organisations helping shape the future of financial services in Australia.
The Finnies have become one of the fintech industry's most important nights of the year, a chance to recognise the founders, innovators, operators and teams building products, solving complex problems and driving meaningful change across our economy.
Australian fintech continues to punch well above its weight on the global stage, and we're proud to play a small part in that story.
FinTech Organisation of the Year… Again!
For Zepto, receiving FinTech Organisation of the Year is especially significant.
We were fortunate enough to receive this recognition a couple of years ago. To return and be recognised again at a completely different stage of our journey is something we don't take lightly.
Since the Finnies began in 2017, only one other company (Afterpay) has received the FinTech Organisation of the Year award more than once. To now join that company is both humbling and incredibly rewarding. More importantly, it reflects something we're particularly proud of: our ability to continue evolving alongside the market, solving new problems and building for what's next.
The payments landscape has evolved dramatically in that time. Customer expectations have changed. New technologies have emerged. Regulatory priorities have shifted. Entirely new categories of financial infrastructure have been created.
To be recognised again isn't just a reflection of what we've achieved, it feels like recognition of where we're heading next.
Over the past year, we've continued to invest in Australia's account-to-account payments future, helping businesses modernise how money moves while building new layers of trust, intelligence and certainty into every payment experience. From our direct connection to the New Payments Platform and ongoing leadership in account-to-account payments, through to the launch of Zepto Validate and our work supporting customers preparing for Payday Super, we've remained focused on solving real customer problems and helping drive the industry's evolution.
Most importantly, this award belongs to our team, our customers and our partners. Their trust, ambition and willingness to challenge convention are what make innovation possible.
More Than a Partnership
We're equally proud to have shared the stage with Employment Hero as winners of the Excellence in Industry Collaboration & Partnerships award for HeroClear.
The award recognises a partnership that was built to help solve one of the most significant infrastructure challenges facing Australian employers today: Payday Super.
Together with Employment Hero and OZEDI, we set out to build a better way forward, creating Australia's first payroll-embedded, real-time superannuation clearing solution designed specifically for the Payday Super era. The result is HeroClear: a solution that helps employers validate fund details, move money in real time, reduce errors and gain greater confidence in meeting their compliance obligations.
But what made this partnership successful wasn't just the technology.
From day one, there was a strong alignment between our organisations. We shared a belief that the industry shouldn't wait for problems to solve themselves. We shared a willingness to challenge traditional approaches, move quickly, and build solutions before the broader market was ready.
Throughout the project, teams from Zepto, Employment Hero and OZEDI worked side-by-side to navigate ecosystem challenges, engage with regulators and industry stakeholders, and help prepare Australian businesses for one of the biggest changes to superannuation in decades. HeroClear is proof of what can happen when organisations come together around a shared vision and a genuine desire to move the industry forward.
The Best Part? We're Just Getting Started
One of the themes we spoke about throughout the evening was that the future of payments isn't simply about moving money faster.
It's about moving money with greater trust.
Greater intelligence.
Greater confidence.
As real-time payments continue to become the norm, the opportunities ahead for Australian fintech are enormous. Whether it's account-to-account payments, verification, embedded finance, AI or entirely new financial experiences we haven't imagined yet, we're excited about what comes next.
To FinTech Australia, the judges and everyone involved in bringing the Finnies together, thank you.
To our partners at Employment Hero and OZEDI, thank you for your ambition, trust and collaboration.
To our customers, thank you for backing us, challenging us and trusting us with some of your most important payment experiences.
And finally, to the Zepto team.
These awards are a reflection of your hard work, creativity, resilience and commitment to building something meaningful. Every product launch, customer conversation, late-night problem solved, industry forum attended and challenge overcome contributes to what Zepto is today.
We are incredibly fortunate to work alongside a group of people who care so deeply about our customers, our industry and each other.
We're proud of what we've achieved together.
But we're even more excited about building what's next.
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