Home Articles 23-year-old UNSW grad raises $3.4 million funding round for social payments platform

23-year-old UNSW grad raises $3.4 million funding round for social payments platform

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Sydney-based startup Get has completed its latest funding round, raising $3.4 million.

Previously known as Qnect, the online platform facilitates payments for university clubs and societies, with large amounts of users in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The round was led by Vertex Ventures, the VC arm of Temasek Holdings (early backers of Grab, Mobike and Waze) and Click Ventures (early backers of Spotify and Meetup).

The wunderkind behind Get, 23-year-old Daniel Liang, says the funds will be used for local and international expansion, product development, and building out the teams in each country.

What does this funding mean for Get?

“This is a very exciting time for us. Get is targeting an untapped market of students whose spending behaviours and expectations are vastly different to the generations before them.

“This cohort is inherently social, and Get is really one of the only services that leverages this insight as the basis for a payments platform. This generation wants to buy what their friends are buying, and being able to provide that level of transparency on a scalable digital platform is incredibly powerful,” he said.

Get currently enables students to purchase event tickets, merchandise and club memberships, but Mr Liang envisions greater potential down the line.

“One of the main reasons we changed our name to ‘Get’ was that it brought us closer to our mission of helping students get their hands on the things they want. Often, the things they want are heavily inspired and dictated by the actions of their peers, which is why the social aspect underpinning this platform is so important,” added Mr Liang.

What has Get achieved so far?

Since Get’s initial launch in 2016, the home-grown startup has gone from strength to strength. It is now being used in more than 500 organisations around the world, with majority of its user base in Australia. It launched in Hong Kong in September 2017, and most recently opened its doors in Singapore.

Carman Chan, managing partner at Click Ventures, said they were impressed with Get’s execution ability, attention to detail, and learning speed.

“More and more selling will be automated and moved to mobile. The social element of Get’s model is the missing piece of the current offline to online selling model. We believe startups need to be able to execute but also be nimble enough to pivot when the opportunity arises, and the Get team definitely demonstrates these qualities, which will see it grow quickly.”