Thought waves on seed venture

Kieran O'Neill
Principal

Former founder, solution-oriented. With a broad range of experience in finance and sales, Kieran loves to work with founders to tackle unique problems. By leveraging his incisive mind and unyielding commitment, he helps entrepreneurs sharpen their operations and ready themselves for growth. Formerly Hometime, Macquarie, Goldman Sachs.

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Investment Notes: Vinyl
Investment Notes

Investment Notes: Vinyl

We’re excited to share our investment in Vinyl, an AI-native platform helping accounting firms capture, structure, and act on everything said in client meetings. We led Vinyl’s Seed round through Tidal Seed Fund III, backing a team with deep industry roots and a clear vision to become critical infrastructure for advisory-led firms.
19 Aug 2025
5 min read

Vinyl AI is building the central hub for the “context layer” in accounting firms, where real value comes from strategic conversations, not just compliance work. It starts with automated meeting transcription, capturing and organising client discussions so they can be turned into clear, actionable insights.

We have just backed Vinyl, an AI-native platform transforming how accounting firms capture, structure, and act on the full context of client meetings. By turning every conversation into structured, actionable insight, Vinyl is redefining how firms deliver advisory services. We led the Seed round through Tidal Seed Fund III, backing a team with deep industry expertise and the ambition to become essential infrastructure for modern, advisory-led practices.

Markets with tailwinds

The accounting profession is under structural pressure. Fewer graduates are entering the field, experienced practitioners are retiring in large numbers, and compliance workloads are rising. Clients are shifting expectations from reactive reporting to proactive advice and strategic guidance.

Core compliance work is being commoditised by cloud adoption, automation, and AI. This is forcing firms to redefine their value proposition around advisory services, scaling expertise while protecting margins.

Cloud-native operations are accelerating, with fully digital firms growing at ~30–40% CAGR globally. AI adoption is surging: in the UK, 91% of accountants are using or planning to use AI, with 70% already on generative AI. In Australia and APAC, adoption rose from 55% to 69% in the past year. Firms that adopt more technology are materially more profitable, creating urgency and willingness to invest in solutions like Vinyl.

Game-changing products

Vinyl’s wedge is a vertically integrated tool for automated meeting capture and transcription, purpose-built for accounting workflows. It captures, transcribes, and structures client conversations so they can flow seamlessly into existing practice systems.

The roadmap unfolds in three phases:

  • Now: Deep integrations with Xero Practice Manager, Karbon, and FYI push notes and action items directly into workflows, saving time and reducing rework.
  • Next: Automate proposals, SOPs, and pricing, and productise common workflows such as Tax Planning, Client Onboarding, R&D Claims, and Strategic Reviews, embedding best practice and enabling consistent client service.
  • Future: Combine unstructured conversation data with structured general ledger data to predict advisory needs, flag revenue gaps, and drive proactive service.

The long-term goal is to become the “relationship ledger” for accounting firms, capturing the context, trust, and opportunities that power growth.

Founders that hustle

Co-founders Trent McLaren, Liss McLaren, and Jordan Vickery bring complementary strengths. Trent is one of the most recognisable figures in accounting tech, with a career spanning leadership roles in high-growth SaaS and an unmatched ability to build trust in a conservative industry. Jordan brings deep technical execution capability, having led development of integrated SaaS platforms with complex data and workflow demands. Liss leads product, with expertise in translating complex workflows into intuitive, high-impact software experiences.

They are backed by influential leaders in accounting tech, including Richard McLean (KeyPay co-founder, now Employment Hero), Michael Wood (Co-founder, Dext), Guy Pearson (Co-founder and CEO, Ignition), and Nathan Harper (Co-founder, FinLert).

Compelling business model

Vinyl is initially targeting high-value early adopters: cloud native firms that invest heavily in technology, influence their peers, and have the workflow maturity to integrate Vinyl deeply. Expansion into the much larger “transitioning firm” segment will significantly grow the addressable market.

Every firm runs client meetings, each generating tasks, decisions, and follow-ups. Vinyl embeds into this flow, driving compounding usage through:

  • Daily use across teams and service lines
  • Expansion from initial users to firm-wide adoption
  • Deep integrations that increase switching costs
  • A pricing model aligned with value delivered

This creates strong retention and built-in growth.

Seed phase ready

Our investment thesis rests on three pillars:

  • Market timing: The shift from compliance to advisory is accelerating, and AI adoption is becoming business-critical.
  • Product vision: A clear pathway from solving an immediate workflow pain point to owning the firm’s core knowledge system.
  • Team: Founders with the credibility, network, and execution capability to win in a trust-driven, change-resistant industry.

Vinyl is moving fast, with over 700 users in its beta program and a significant portion already converted to paid contracts. The team has launched simultaneously in Australia, the UK, and the US, a rare feat at this stage, and is rapidly building market presence. In the next 12 months, Vinyl will deepen penetration in the cloud native segment, expand integrations, and continue monetising beyond transcription.

Global appeal

The problem Vinyl solves is universal. Every firm in every market faces meeting follow-ups, lost context, and administrative overhead. Accounting offers a focused, regulated, and globally consistent starting point where trust is paramount. From there, the product can expand into other service-based sectors where conversation is the core workflow.

We are backing Vinyl to turn a forgotten workflow into a source of leverage. If you are building something similar in another category, we would love to hear from you.

Investment Notes: Asseti
Investment Notes

Investment Notes: Asseti

We’re delighted to have led Asseti’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of building the world’s leading intelligent asset management platform. Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs, minimising downtime and maximising lifespan.
16 May 2024
5 min read
Leading the charge in powering the asset management industry forward with AI, Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs, minimising downtime and maximising lifespan.

We’re delighted to have led Asseti’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of building an AI-powered asset condition monitoring platform. Asseti is a game-changer in intelligent asset management, covering an expansive market of real assets. Its software platform utilises high-quality imagery and advanced machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs. It monitors wear and tear, leaks, and potential hazards, thereby minimising downtime and maximising the lifespan of valuable assets. Asseti is quickly becoming the leader in condition management across the lifecycle of these assets.

Markets with tailwinds

You only need to look out your window to know that asset management is an expansive market. Imagine all the offices, stores, warehouses, quarries, properties and buildings around the globe—Asseti can be used with all of them, no matter where they are. Managing these real assets has traditionally been cumbersome and risky. Infrastructure demands regular upkeep to minimise downtime and ensure a safe operational environment. Another market factor driving Asseti forward is the opportunity presented by digitisation.

Historically, asset-heavy industries have lagged in digital transformation due to deep-rooted processes and legacy operations. However, recent drivers like COVID-19 and the push for sustainable practices have accelerated this shift. Predictive maintenance, which leverages data analytics and predictive modelling, has gained popularity for its ability to prevent unplanned downtime and costly repairs. Furthermore, the growing demands for sustainability have underscored the importance of reducing carbon emissions. Asseti meets these needs by enabling remote access to assets, thereby reducing travel and enhancing worker safety.

Products that change the game

Asseti’s platform uses high-quality imagery to create detailed 3D digital models. Machine learning and AI analyse these models to comprehensively list components, quantities, conditions, and issues. This empowers managers to create detailed work plans for their asset portfolios, assessing them in risk and cost.

Traditionally, engineers or staff would climb structures, take inadequate photos with digital cameras, write reports, and circulate them as PDFs. Asseti captures this condition data over time, giving asset managers and senior management a complete overview of their portfolios’ condition across different time periods.

By moving costing and forecasting from Excel to a dynamic, data-driven platform, Asseti provides primary data and insights across the asset lifecycle: acquisition, operation, and disposal.

Their newest innovation, Asseti Foresight, revolutionises capital expenditure (CapEx) planning in asset management. Powered by AI, it forecasts total replacement lifecycles and maintenance costs across entire asset networks, optimising intervention timing based on degradation and financial modelling. This tool streamlines long-term financial planning, offering strategic insights for future expenditures.

Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs

The next stage for Asseti is instant asset assessment through satellite imagery, offering more frequent evaluations.

Founders that hustle

Founder Aonghus Stevens, with 15 years of experience in the drone imagery industry, leads a stellar team with members from notable companies like NearMap, Commbank, and Deloitte.

Being a solo founder demands resilience, focus, drive, a clear vision, and problem-solving skills—Aonghus exemplifies all of these qualities and more. By being data-obsessed and focused on providing solutions that offer asset owners and managers insights over the entire asset lifecycle, not just at a single point in time. He believes the future of asset management lies in data-led decision-making, envisioning data use decades into the future.

Team: Katrina Bignasca, Alex Doyle, Aonghus Stevens, and Nima Idel

A compelling business model

Every building and structure is a potential asset that Asseti can assess and help manage. Asseti’s model not only reduces time and risk but also provides asset owners with a detailed view of their asset’s condition over time. This understanding of condition data over time then allows Asseti to offer detailed insights into CapEx planning and affords them the right to influence both the acquisition and disposal stages in the asset lifecycle. Asseti also owns the primary condition data of the building, which can be transferred to a new owner of the building, almost like a system of record for an asset.

On top of its existing traction, Asseti’s latest functionality to drive CapEx planning and spending involves more teams and stakeholders across its customer base, including finance and executives. This enables the platform to be an indispensable part of their customers’ businesses. This transition will lift these teams out of spreadsheets and into Asseti, similar to what Orkestra has achieved in the solar and battery space.

The Seed phase and beyond

Asseti is in its Seed Phase, having demonstrated strong product-market fit. It is already trusted by industry leaders such as Mirvac, CBRE, Caltex, Colliers, and Toyota. Asseti has achieved remarkable growth of 200%+ year over year and is poised for continued growth in its expansive addressable market.

The Asseti team is looking to enhance its product and engineering capabilities, specifically focusing on scaling its software offering. Driven by their initial success in the market, they are also keen on expanding in the US and are excited to introduce new AI-driven features for instant asset condition insights—a true game-changer in the industry!

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

Meet the Tidal Team: Kieran O’Neill
Thought Waves

Meet the Tidal Team: Kieran O’Neill

I’m Kieran O’Neill, Principal at Tidal. I’m known for combining my finance background and time in the trenches, founding my own startup, to help founders see around corners and get to their next stage of growth. Keen to get to know a little more about me? Well, read on.
25 Mar 2024
5 min read

My journey to get here

Much like Taylor Swift, I’ll categorise my life in eras. Here’s my professional journey in a nutshell:

  • Student era: After completing a Commerce degree in Finance and Accounting at the University of Queensland, I began my career at KPMG in Audit and Transaction Services while getting my Chartered Accountant qualification.
  • London era: I relocated to London and worked at Goldman Sachs in Product Control and Finance and at Lloyds Bank in PMO. I started the CFA program and passed Level 1, but I quickly realised it wasn’t for me.
  • Sydney era: I got engaged in the Swiss Alps before settling in Sydney and transitioning to Macquarie Bank in project management. Wanting to escape the machine that is a large corporate, I moved over to a small private cloud and managed service provider called VMTech.
  • Founder era: I co-founded Hometime, where I assumed various roles, including leading go-to-market teams, serving as CFO, managing acquisitions, and navigating team scaling.
  • Investor era: In late 2022, I wanted to find that happy spot where I could put my financial expertise and startup background to good use, partnering with other founders to grow and thrive—that’s when I joined Tidal, and here we are!

As you can see, I’m a generalist with a foundation in finance. My finance background equips me with solid analytical skills to navigate complex problems. What you can’t surmise from my CV is my love of people. I’m all about understanding, relating to people, and building strong, authentic relationships. This also extends to connecting others—with just the slightest hint of common ground; I can connect with the right people at the right time if I see a mutual benefit. This blend of financial acumen, emotional intelligence, and a genuine love for connecting people makes me, me.

What I love about Seed

My passion for Seed phase technology investing springs from a profound appreciation for this particular phase of company building. There’s an undeniable allure to being part of a company’s early growth, where progress is swift, and the potential for impact is vast.

What truly captivates me is the opportunity to engage with diverse ideas, innovations, and technologies. As an investor, I leverage my expertise to collaborate with different visionaries, having a larger circle of impact and contributing to meaningful change.

Beyond the excitement of innovation and growth lies the human connection inherent in early-stage investing. Witnessing a founder’s triumphs and supporting them through challenges enriches the journey. Sharing in the highs and lows with passionate founders adds a profoundly gratifying dimension to the investment process, transforming it from a mere business endeavour into a deeply personal one.

Something I believe that others don’t

I believe in the profound importance of intuition in decision-making, a belief not everyone shares. In a world dominated by data and rational analysis, the intuitive, ‘gut feel’ is often dismissed. Combining intuition with rational thought leads to more holistic and satisfying outcomes, acknowledging the complexity of human emotions and experiences that data alone can’t capture.

If I really ponder this one, I see intuition as our own internal database—it’s all about recognising patterns. ‘Gut feel’ is our brains picking up on subtle clues and nudging us in the right direction based on things we’ve seen or experienced before.

Going from founder to investor

Well, for one, I deeply empathise with founders because I’ve lived that challenging and rewarding journey myself. I know how hard building a business can be and know the lingering feeling of having a million things to do. At the same time, I understand how profoundly fulfilling it can be and how it offers unparalleled rewards that are sometimes impossible to see at the time.

  • I’ve lived the reality of sobering scenarios. I’ve lived losing 80% of revenue in a single month because of COVID-19, necessitating hard and fast strategic decisions that fundamentally changed the business model and our organisation at every level (including minimising headcount by 80 in a matter of weeks)—knowing that without these changes the business would have died in a matter of months.
  • I’ve lived the need for optimism. As a founder, you are always optimistic; you need to be; otherwise, you would never have taken on the challenge, but maintaining the same level of optimism throughout the journey can be challenging. I’ve lived the balancing of setbacks with a healthy dose of perspective and pragmatism.
  • I’ve lived culture starting with the founders. I know it can take years to build and moments to destroy. A great culture can influence things as important as employee (and ultimately customer) satisfaction, your ability to recruit great talent, that talent’s performance and productivity, and their ability to adapt with resilience.

My battle scars help me see around corners for my portfolio companies. My experiences building, managing, acquiring, and restructuring teams across GTM, Finance, and HR shape the way I partner with our portfolio founders to navigate the complexities of growth.

Characteristics of a top founder

  • Resilience is key. More will go wrong than right, so you need the resilience to see it through and roll into the good times.
  • Driven by “why”. The founder needs to champion the “why” because it’s ultimately why employees and customers choose to join and stick around. They’re all buying into the vision.
  • Being coachable. You have to take on feedback and advice like it’s your job. You won’t know every answer, but if you speak to the right people and listen to those who have been there before, you might just find them.
  • Customer focus. Customers pay the bills; you should focus on them. Some founders build what they think customers want but don’t spend enough time truly understanding what they need, what they do, how they do it, and why they do it.

How the world will change in 10 years

Mark my words: quantum computing will revolutionise the world. Quantum computing can process and analyse vast amounts of data more efficiently than classical computers, which can significantly enhance the capabilities of AI and machine learning algorithms. This could lead to advances in natural language processing, image recognition, and predictive modelling. Given the amount of quantum computing investment, advancements, and activity, the industry is set for a dynamic change similar to that caused by AI – increased performance, functionality, and intelligence. This also comes with the same challenges presented by AI, such as security, as outlined in the recent Quantum Safe Cryptography article. But just like AI, quantum computing is coming. You might say that quantum computing is where AI was in 2015, fascinating but not widely utilised. Fast forward five years, and AI has been integrated into almost every platform and application. In just five years, quantum computing could take computing and humanity to a new level of knowledge and understanding.

What keeps me up at night

Aside from my reoccurring nightmare of getting sent a Microsoft Teams meeting link, the widening inequality between those with and without access to technology keeps me up at night. Ensuring equal access and digital literacy is vital to preventing social and economic disparities. Governments must intervene to make technology and education widely available, especially in schools. Starting tech education early is critical to nurturing a world-class technology sector and boosting our economy.

That being said, I stay awake thinking about how technology impacts the generations of tomorrow. Outside of work, my passion lies unequivocally with my family. I am immensely proud to be the parent of two delightful little girls, aged 5 and 3, who are at the very core of my universe. They are not just an integral part of my life; they serve as my anchor, providing a perspective that transcends the daily hustle and bustle. As a parent, I’m deeply concerned about the pervasive influence of technology in our daily lives. I yearn for a future where my children can uphold genuine, meaningful human connections, recognising their importance for our mental well-being. While advancements like VR and AR continue to shape our world, I worry that they may further consume our precious time and divert our attention from what truly matters—cherished moments spent with loved ones.

What excites me about Australia’s tech scene

The Australian tech landscape is still in its infancy, with substantial growth to come. Despite being a newer market than established tech hubs like the US and Europe, Australian founders and businesses have demonstrated remarkable resilience, often having to punch above our weight to be recognised internationally. As Tidal partner Georgie pointed out in her article in Startup Daily:

The perception that Aussie companies excel in capital efficiency and early monetisation remains unchanged. A slight advantage is that we’ve created a reputation that we can achieve significantly higher annual recurring revenue (ARR) levels at the Seed and Series A stages than our American counterparts raising at similar stages.

Because of the size of the Australian market, founders adopt a global mindset from day one. They know that to reach the scale required, they‘ll need to think beyond Australia. This collective mindset underscores the ongoing evolution of the tech industry in Australia, signalling promising developments on the horizon.

My investment wish list if I had a time machine

I could say Apple because I’m a massive fanboy, and it would have been a very lucrative call if I had invested early on. Or I could say OpenAI because it is so hot right now and is providing some revolutionary products. But I’m going to pick Notion, the platform I use almost every day, and it has truly revolutionised how loads of people work. Notion epitomises coolness with its sleek UI and spot-on UX design.

The advice I live by

Don’t ask, don’t get. You’ll be surprised at what answer you might get.

My first founder question

What problem are you solving, and how are you solving it?

If you’re a visionary founder ready to chat about what problem you’re solving, then we should chat!

Investment Notes: Orkestra
Investment Notes

Investment Notes: Orkestra

We’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to lead both Orkestra’s Pre-Seed and Seed rounds. Orkestra is a software provider that empowers teams within the clean energy sector to streamline the feasibility and deployment of new projects with enhanced ease and precision.
24 Oct 2023
5 min read

Orkestra is revolutionising the energy industry with its game-changing platform that enables critical decision-making throughout the lifecycle of renewable energy projects.

The Tidal team is excited to share our investment notes from our second investment in Orkestra to give you a glimpse into our decision-making process. At Tidal, our investments across various markets, models, and products are guided by our core foundational principles that help us define a great Tidal Seed Investment.

Markets with tailwinds

The global transition towards cleaner, more efficient energy sources is no longer a mere aspiration; it’s an imperative driven by environmental factors, regulatory pressures, and evolving consumer preferences. By 2030, this burgeoning sector is poised to become a colossal +$2 trillion global market. As we stand at the cusp of a transformative shift away from fossil fuels, we look to navigate the intricate landscape of clean energy and uncover promising opportunities within renewable technologies, energy storage, and the broader sustainable ecosystem. At Tidal, we look for markets ripe for disruption, and it’s clear that the market Orkestra exists within fits that mould. A few of the factors we’ve taken into account when assessing this opportunity include:

  • Bloomberg declared that the energy sector must collectively deploy five times more wind power, three times more solar energy, and a staggering twenty-six times more batteries annually until 2030 to meet basic clean energy targets.
  • There is a critical need for enhanced controls in generating and distributing clean power to the grid.
  • The future of the power grid is set to be substantially more decentralised in contrast to the conventional centralised fossil fuel-based grid.
  • Batteries will emerge as an indispensable component, seamlessly integrated into every renewable energy deployment.
  • Virtual or Distributed Power Plants (VPP or DPP) aggregate and scale distributed power generation to normalise supply based on demand to the grid. There is a significant opportunity for a data player to emerge in orchestrating VPP’s power distribution to the grid by improving yield and, in turn, potential margins.

The magnitude of this opportunity is immense, and the race to meet these ambitious climate targets will largely depend on innovation from industry disruptors like Orkestra that empower the industry with much-needed tools that help drive quick and accurate decisions about renewable energy projects at scale.

Products that change the game

Orkestra’s B2B feasibility platform is helping drive the transition to clean energy by providing modern energy companies with the tools they need to analyse, sell, and manage their energy solutions and projects.

Historically, Excel was the go-to tool for analysing the feasibility of clean energy projects, demanding extensive hours from skilled analysts. However, as the urgency of achieving the net-zero targets intensifies, there’s a need to arm sales teams with easy-to-use and accurate tools to quicken the time to a decision. Orkestra’s software is pivotal in the renewable energy transition, enabling teams to set up and evaluate 250 solutions in just ten minutes, compared to the days it would have taken with Excel and expert analysts.

Orkestra aims to be the intelligence layer that underpins clean energy projects worldwide.

The platform seamlessly integrates its user-friendly interface with sophisticated algorithms and analytics to significantly reduce the time and expense associated with assessing project viability while also enhancing project outcomes from both economic and sustainability standpoints. Orkestra Co-Founder, Chris Cooper, summarised their strategic vision:

We aim to be the intelligence layer that underpins clean energy projects worldwide. Teams that previously used Excel spreadsheets or outdated software instantly see the value in Orkestra’s offering.

Founders that hustle

Co-founders Chris, James, and Michael have deep domain experience, having met at a new energy consultancy, where they worked together on innovative solutions for leading energy and property companies. The team has used their industry expertise and mathematics and data science background to develop sophisticated modelling capabilities for the Orkestra platform. They are deeply data-driven, and their passion to help drive the world towards its climate targets is second to none.

They have built a powerful and capable team that has proved that they can build world-class technology that is loved by its customers and is delivering real-world impact by unlocking clean energy solutions for businesses all around the world.

Co-Founders: Chris Cooper, Michael Jurasovic, and James Allston

A compelling business model

The Orkestra team has created a mission-critical product and currently offers subscription plans across three tiers that appeal to a broad spectrum of customers, from small-scale businesses to some of Australia’s largest energy retailers.

Driven by a strong commitment to unlocking the potential of the renewable energy sector, Orkestra is dedicated to enhancing its capability for precise site feasibility modelling. This enhancement will play a pivotal role in facilitating the implementation of a greater number of renewable projects.

Customers have successfully modelled numerous projects and conducted over a million solution simulations through their innovative platform, solidifying their status as the industry benchmark for energy feasibility assessment. With an ambitious goal of sustaining its remarkable growth rate exceeding 200% since the start of this year, Orkestra is poised for substantial expansion.

As time progresses, Orkestra envisions numerous opportunities for further growth by introducing new products that assist energy companies in assessing, tracking, and managing energy assets throughout their entire lifecycle.

Global appeal

Orkestra’s solution addresses a universal problem, which is why they’ve set their sights on further international expansion beyond Australia, New Zealand, and Japan and are eyeing Europe’s thriving renewable energy markets.

By achieving critical mass in their various markets, they can secure a significant data advantage, tapping into a broad spectrum of primary data sources. This wealth of information, combined with Orkestra’s top-tier AI capabilities for modelling, benchmarking, and offering optimisation insights, positions them for excellence in overseeing existing and newly established sites within a multi-site portfolio or virtual power plant (VPP).

The Seed phase and beyond

In its Seed Phase, Orkestra has assembled a highly capable team, demonstrated strong product-market fit, and built a global-ready product. The funding from this round will support their global expansion, enable them to build exciting new product features, and implement a scalable and repeatable go-to-market approach. We see a significant opportunity to ramp up growth efforts with all product and sales activities working in harmony and provide customers with different maturity levels with the opportunity to either self-serve or tailor their offerings with a higher degree of support.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

Investment Notes: Flagship
Investment Notes

Investment Notes: Flagship

We’re delighted to have led retail tech platform Flagship’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of revolutionising the retail industry through cutting-edge technology.
12 Sep 2023
5 min read

Flagship’s retail tech platform is poised to become integral to retail operations, driving data-driven insights and ushering in transformative changes across all retail establishments. This evolution has the potential to reshape the way retailers conduct business, empowering them to encapsulate their expertise within an embedded knowledge system.

The Tidal team led Flagship’s Seed round, and we’re excited to share our investment notes with you below. Our investment strategy encompasses diverse markets, models, and products, guided by a set of core principles fundamental to our decision-making process. If you’d like to explore the key pillars that define an exceptional Tidal Seed investment, you can learn more about how we invest here.

Markets with tailwinds

Simply put, retail is a massive market—with a staggering global expenditure of US$28 trillion in 2022. For those who can see beyond the challenges of a discouraging macroeconomic landscape, the post-COVID retail trends offer intriguing opportunities to identify emerging tailwinds. Trends like:

  • Shoppers remain strongly inclined towards traditional brick-and-mortar stores, with a whopping 85% of global retail sales happening physically in-store.
  • Interestingly, pure-play e-commerce brands are venturing into the world of physical retail. They recognise that in-person shopping experiences offer a unique dimension that their online counterparts can’t replicate.
  • The concept of omnichannel retail has shifted from a nice-to-have luxury to an absolute necessity for any brand aspiring to thrive in today’s market.

As elucidated by Shopify:

Retailers are using stores to deepen the consumer connection with the brand. In a crowded social and e-commerce space, stores can drive engagement and loyalty.

Tidal has been steadfast in our conviction regarding the e-commerce theme for quite some time now. We have demonstrated our commitment through investments in innovative companies like ShippitSearch.ioCarted, and Drive Yello. We haven’t yet seen a proposition around critical technology infrastructure that truly enables omnichannel retailers to reach the same level of sophistication in-store as they have online.

Products that change the game

Over the past six months, our close collaboration with the Flagship team has given us a profound insight into the incredible potential to transform retail operations management. It’s evident that retailers are eager to unify their segmented business units, bridging the gap between online and offline realms to create a cohesive operating system. Flagship envisions a future where they solve this—with the workflows and metrics of diverse departments, such as Buyers, Planners, E-commerce, In-store Visual Merchandising, and Marketing, seamlessly integrated.

Operational efficiencies often start and end with better data, and retail isn’t any different. Flagship’s leading product is a visual merchandising tool for retailers that provides unique primary data insights around granular store-based revenue performance. It enables retailers to centrally and digitally manage the roll-out, track the compliance, and get performance insights into their visual merchandising guides.

We firmly believe that better data and improved workflows can enable retailers to harness their experience and knowledge, convert it into embedded expertise, and subsequently codify their intellectual property for iterative improvements.

Founders that hustle

Flagship Founder Simon Molnar

Flagship’s founder, Simon Molnar, brings a wealth of retail experience to the table. He served as CEO at Ice Jewellery and held various roles at Afterpay, giving him a dual perspective as both retailer and retail technologist. Simon is deeply customer-focused, collaborating closely with retailers to ensure that the product genuinely addresses their challenges and delivers tangible value. His unique background fuels his passion for helping retailers expertly position their products, optimise sales, minimise waste, and drive business growth.

Simon has meticulously assembled an exceptional team of individuals who have achieved remarkable success at renowned Australian tech giants such as Atlassian, Canva, and Afterpay and possess a profound understanding of the retail industry. This collaborative strength has enabled Flagship to successfully onboard some of Australia’s most prominent retail brands, including Venroy, LSKD, Aje Athletica, and SIR.

A compelling business model

Flagship’s mission is to become an integral component of retail operations, driving data-driven insights and facilitating transformations across diverse business units. They aim to supercharge mid-sized retail groups that are currently burdened by manual processes—significantly impacting their efficiency and effectiveness.

Flagship’s inaugural visual merchandising product drives a wedge in retail operations by creating primary data insights on store performance that have not existed before. From there, they can offer insights and workflows into the broader retail operation, capturing additional wallet share. With a huge market to target, a product that adds a lot of value, and a cross-section of teams and functions to serve within retail ops—Flagship has the makings of a seamless land and expand SaaS business model with a hybrid product-led-sales strategy.

The Seed phase and beyond

Flagship is currently in its Seed Phase and has already shown strong product-market fit, successfully onboarding industry-leading retailers, including Venroy, LSKD, Aje Athletica, and SIR. These partnerships have positioned them for the next phase of growth on the global stage, with the allocated funds primarily fuelling the development of an exceptional team to enable them to bring their visionary products to life.

From day one, Simon’s unwavering focus has been on establishing Flagship as the backbone of retail operations not only in Australia but also on a global scale, and we wholeheartedly support this mission. We look forward to continuing to support the Flagship team as they set out to transform how retail operations are managed.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.