Escalante-backed fintech WeMoney doubles down on WA roots as it eyes ASX listing

Laurence Escalante-backed WeMoney is on the path to an ASX listing even before it turns a decade old, its chief says, as the WA-founded fintech charts ambitious local expansion plans.

The financial wellness app, founded by former National Australia Bank banker Dan Jovevski, aims to help people manage earnings by using artificial intelligence to detect their spending patterns and make suggestions on where to save cash.

With the app already clocking over one million downloads in Australia since it went live in late 2020, Mr Jovevski is now charting the business’ next phase of growth.

“We’ve always had a desire to become a public company and for our particular business, it makes a lot of sense because the growth (trajectory) we’re currently on, there may not be an option to raise money privately,” he said.

“We’re not going to rush into it . . . but our general goal now is to (list on the ASX) within the next three years based on our current growth rate.”

All of that would be done from WA, Mr Jovevski said.

WeMoney on Friday unveiled its new headquarters on St Georges Terrace and plans to create 50 news jobs across data science, AI development and product design within three years, with a strong focus on early-career professionals and recent graduates.

“The office is symbolic because it plants our roots here in WA, but also sends a signal to the broader tech community that more companies should (establish) offices here because the talent pool and density is phenomenal,” Mr Jovevski said.

It comes after WeMoney in April secured $12 million in funding — valuing the enterprise at $100m — led by Virtual Gaming Worlds founder Mr Escalante’s family office.

The round also attracted support from RAC’s venture capital arm BetterLabs and Mastercard.

The funds raised were used for research and development.

With 80,000 monthly active users, Mr Jovevski pointed to the persistent high cost-of-living pressures as being “an accelerant” of its growth.

“About half of Australians are living pay cheque to pay cheque,” he said, with higher interest rates and housing costs crunching people’s incomes.

“People are still struggling even amidst the interest rate cuts and what’s been a real catalyst for our growth is people wanting to get more control and transparency over their money and their finances.”

Mr Jovevski said on average, its customers saved $335 a month by using the WeMoney app.

“One of the outcomes were really proud of is in a short nine months of using WeMoney, our members report that their credit health improves by 63 points,” he said.