Moroku scales to the US with FD Global

To make banking fun – that’s the goal of Australian fintech Moroku. It may not be an easy task but founder Colin Weir is a seasoned entrepreneur who is up to the challenge. He sold his first fintech company, a business aimed at improving the security of internet banking, to US tech giant Netscape in 2000.

His latest venture, Moroku, sits at the intersection of mobile, gaming and social. It creates engaging banking and payment experiences that promote customer learning and brand loyalty.

Colin says the gaming element is crucial to their success.

“Treating financial services as a game is the most transformational opportunity available to financial services executives looking for an opportunity to out compete the market.”

“When we put our customer’s success at the heart of the product design process, we unveil fabulous opportunities to win.”

While the platform was already achieving success across Australia, Europe and Asia, Colin had his sights set on the lucrative US market. He had a strong network in Silicon Valley, but limited experience and contacts on the East Coast – the heart of the country’s financial sector.

Colin applied to the NYC Immersion FinTech Program, led by FD Global Connections in order to learn more about living and working in New York City and to begin building the contacts that would enable Moroku to raise capital and gain traction in the US.

For Colin, the program ‘turned the lights on’ and enabled him to forge relationships that would solidify the company’s position abroad. It also provided him a better understanding of how to overcome the operational challenges presented by the sizeable US market.

“One of the key learnings was that it is imperative that you build a rigorous and scalable process around the sales funnel. The size and volume of the opportunities in the US can be overwhelming, so you need to be exceptionally organised with processes and procedures,” said Colin.

Colin is putting those learnings into action. As a result of the program, Moroku signed a contract with a US-based company to partner on an intensive lead generation initiative and has set up a local sales team to drive growth.

“My goal in joining the NYC Immersion Program was to find a pipeline of investors and come up with a plan. I now have a plan for this,” said Colin.