WATCH: Australian Energytech founder who raised $100 million during Covid shares her startup journey
Katherine McConnell, Founder & CEO of Brighte shares her journey to building her startup, as well as how she’s been able to achieve 912% revenue growth over the past three years and built relationships with investors such as Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian.
Sarah Kimmorley
It has never been a better time to build a business.
Access to low-cost, high-impact technologies has made it possible to reach vast segments of the population faster than at any time in history.
Even despite the impact of Covid-19, it's proven that new businesses flourish during an economic downturn. Just look at Dropbox, Airbnb and Uber. All launched, raised capital, and grew during the 2008 great recession.
But while many people dream of building a business, they often don’t know where to start. Others believe they have spotted an opportunity, but the struggle to put it into clear, precise terms.
Bede Moore, Managing Partner of Antler in Australia, and Katherine McConnell, founder and CEO of Brighte, will discuss how and where the best ideas emerge, and how to capitalise on them to seize an opportunity to build a defining company of tomorrow.
For those who (somehow) haven't heard of Brighte or Katherine, Brighte is a credit technology platform making it easier for Australians to pay for home energy and home improvements. Katherine, at the time of writing, has over 16 years of experience in Investment Banking and Financial Services, 14 of which were at Macquarie Bank, Katherine was perfectly positioned to bring her vision to life in 2015.
Since then, Brighte has approved more than $600 million in finance for about 75,000 Aussie households.
Over the past three years, the business has seen a massive 912% revenue growth. That makes it the sixth-fastest growing technology company in Australia, according to Deloitte Tech’s Fast 50 Australia report.
And with an addressable market of about $45 billion per year, McConnell is only just getting started.
Evidence of that is Brighte’s most recent fundraising efforts. In December last year, Brighte closed a massive $100 million to “go deeper” on the Energytech space.
Despite the huge growth, McConnell is keeping a startup mindset, and we’re going to ask her all about it.
The most driven founders are joining Antler - the world's day zero investor - to solve important problems. Apply to join Antler in Australia, or sign up here to access insights and resources to help you on your founder journey.
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