WeMoney, a Western Australia–born financial wellness startup, has finalised a $12 million Series A funding round led by Lance East Office, and supported by existing backers BetterLabs, Dorado Capital, and Eastcourt Capital. As part of this round, global payments technology company Mastercard has also come on board as a new investor.
The successful raise underscores WeMoney’s commitment to helping Australians improve their financial wellbeing through financial literacy, open banking, and AI-driven behavioral insights, especially pertinent given the ongoing impact of inflation and higher interest rates.
WeMoney, which went live in October 2020, has recently surpassed 1.0 million downloads. The company was an early adopter of the Consumer Data Right (CDR) Australia’s Open Banking Regime, enabling Australians to more effectively stay on top of their finances and seamlessly switch to lower-cost financial solutions. According to an internal survey from August last year, WeMoney’s members reported average monthly savings of $333 after comparing and then switching to more suitable products, revisiting subscriptions, and improving recurring expense management. WeMoney’s internal data suggests that 75% of consumers are currently overpaying on credit-related products, while 58% say they’d be more inclined to switch if the process were simpler.
The Australian government passed watershed Open Banking legislation last year in August dubbed the “Action Initiation Bill” that allows customers to switch products more easily has accelerated WeMoney’s development of BrightMatch. This platform was created to simplify the process for customers to switch to different banks, lenders, and other financial providers. BrightMatch already works with three companies, and WeMoney’s goal is to have 30 companies using the platform by the end of the year.
“BrightMatch by WeMoney is a game changer for our members, making it incredibly simple to move to better-priced alternatives by displaying relevant options in our product marketplace. Australians can now see products pre-filtered for eligibility,” said Dan Jovevski, Founder and CEO of WeMoney. “For lenders, this means streamlined direct applications, leading to higher approval rates and eliminating much of the overhead involved in managing product applications. We’ve coined it ‘Comparison 2.0’ or ‘programmatic switching.’”
To keep pace with rapid growth and strengthen its role as a tech leader, WeMoney intends to allocate a significant portion of the Series A funding toward research and development. This includes deeper AI-driven features—such as the ongoing collaboration with Google Cloud’s Gemini—and expanding its AI engineering team to fuel future product innovation. “As we continue to scale, our objective is to hire standout talent across engineering, product, design, and growth marketing. WeMoney wants to be a place where dedicated, ambitious individuals can make meaningful contributions toward improving the financial wellbeing of Australians,” said Jovevski.
The round was spearheaded by Lance East Office — the family office of tech entrepreneur Laurence Escalante — and represents its third time investing since 2021. “We’re delighted to continue our support of Dan and his team, who have done a great job growing the business and reaching this milestone. WeMoney is solving real challenges in a large market with strong tailwinds, and we look forward to seeing what can be achieved in the years ahead as it helps more and more people better manage their finances.” said Escalante.
Mastercard also joined the round as an investor. Participation in the Mastercard Start Path Open Banking Program paved the way for Mastercard’s involvement. Over the past year, both organizations worked together to deliver Mastercard Open Banking to WeMoney users, alongside developing fresh open banking applications aimed at promoting financial inclusion and literacy in Australia.
“Mastercard’s deepened relationship with WeMoney will help more Australians securely unlock the benefits of open banking and better manage their money. The technology holds immense potential across various use cases, and Mastercard is excited to partner with WeMoney, Australia’s most prominent user of open banking, to explore these in more depth,” said Brenton Charnley, Vice President and Head of Open Banking, Australasia, Mastercard.
“This investment will allow WeMoney not only to maintain leadership in Australia but also assess prospects on a global stage. Over 80 jurisdictions worldwide are now exploring open banking, and we see huge potential for supporting consumers internationally,” Jovevski said.
As WeMoney continues on its path of rapid growth and advancement, the company is also weighing an IPO in the coming years. “Our goal is to build a globally scalable business, and going public has always been in the blueprint—this round brings that future a step closer,” Jovevski concluded.
