Local tech titans are being given a platform for their achievements at the upcoming EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ awards on October 15.
The founders of Employment Hero, Tiimely, Pay.com.au and Orthocell will go head to head in the Technology category of one of the nation’s most prestigious business awards, EY Entrepreneur of The Year (EOY).
Now in its 25th year, the EOY program recognises the nation’s most prolific entrepreneurs across five key categories: Emerging, Industry, Services, Social Impact and Technology.
Winners will be announced in each category, while one will be chosen to represent Australia at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ global competition in 2026.
Will the techies take it out? Startup Daily takes a look at the four national Technology finalists.
Anthony Baum, Tiimely
Former bank exec Anthony Baum (pictured) launched Tiimely (as Tic:Toc) in 2017 to reform the inefficient, unwieldy financial assessment processes associated with lending.
“Our strategy was effectively to the be the Rocket [Mortgage] home loan of Australia,” Baum says, alluding to the brand’s launch of the ‘World’s First Instant Home Loan’ early on.
Since then, Tiimely has evolved from consumer-driven digital lender into an AI-driven B2B platform tech company powering banks, ASX companies, fintechs, brands and its own retail arm, Tiimely Home.
“We basically threw out all of the processes and technologies that the financial services industry used for financial assessment,” he says.
“And we built an exception-based fulfilment platform using predictable and explainable AI as its core.”
Baum says that the business’ values are what sets it apart: ‘Time to be human’, ‘Time to build good bonds’, ‘Time to take responsibility’ and ‘Time to be transparent’.
Ben Thompson, Employment Hero
One of the most high-profile Australian tech unicorns, Employment Hero has more than 300,000 businesses globally using its HR tech platform to manage – and simplify – employment processes.
Founder Ben Thompson (pictured above) started Employment Hero in 2014 after working as an employment lawyer and seeing how small businesses were struggling with areas like recruitment, payroll and management.
“A strategy that has benefited the success of Employment Hero is definitely our obsession with 90-day sprint cycles,” Thompson shares.
“What’s the one thing we can achieve in the next 90 days that will take us as far as possible from where we are today to where we want to be? And then we obsess on that and achieve it quarter after quarter after quarter.”
Most recently, the brand has launched AI-powered Smart Match and Employment Hero Jobs tools to speed up and improve recruitment for both employers and candidates.
“The thing that sets Employment Hero apart from others is our focus on our ideal customer,” Thompson says.
“That is the small-to-medium-sized business owner. That is unique – that’s who we chase. Most people chase the big brands and that’s not in our DNA.”
Employment Hero currently supports two million employees on their platform – a number Thompson believes will grow to 10 million by 2030.
Edward Alder, Pay.com.au
Founded in 2019 by Edward Alder, Grant Austin and Damien Walker, Pay.com.au gives businesses of all sizes the previously untapped opportunity to earn rewards off regular bills like payroll, superannuation and BAS.
As CEO and managing director, Alder (pictured above) has steered the B2B payments and rewards platform to fast become one of the top rewards currencies in Australia.
“I had been a small business owner myself and had always found it frustrating that when you pay a bill, there was no way of earning a reward like you can as a consumer,” Alder says.
Alder, who previously worked at iSelect, EY and Point Hacks, says the pivotal moment for the business was the launch of their reward currency. The business launched with credit card payments and expanded to include bank-to-bank payments that would earn rewards points in their program for businesses.
“We had to enable the trust of our clients that by making a payment, paying a fee, they would receive a reward that would outweigh that fee when they get that reward,” he says.
Pay.com.au has plans for expansion into the US and other foreign markets.
Paul Anderson, Orthocell
Paul Anderson (pictured) is the CEO, managing director and cofounder of Orthocell, a regenerative medicine company that specialises in soft tissue reconstruction.
The Perth-based company is best known for its lead product Remplir, a biological collagen medical device that helps repair nerves.
“I was originally a theatre nurse, so I was very fortunate to live in the operating suite environment to watch surgeons work on soft tissue every single day,” Anderson says.
“We saw that there was a real unmet clinical need in the way that surgeons went about repairing soft tissue, in particular bone, nerve and tendon tissue.”
Anderson went about finding a better alternative to sutures, which create scar tissue that stops nerves from complete regeneration. The Remplir collagen wrap allows surgeons to join nerves together and provide a more predictable clinical outcome.
“What we’ve brought to the table is the ability to not only repair tissue, but to regenerate tissue,” Anderson says.
The effect is life-changing for patients whose limbs can be return from paralysed to functioning again.
The next step? Growth across global markets including Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and the US.
More about EY Entrepreneur Of The Year
The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Program recognises Australian entrepreneurs who are disrupting traditional ways of doing things and building a better working world.
Run by global professional services organisation EY, the EOY program spans 60 countries and jurisdictions and provides exclusive networking and learning opportunities to participants.
For more info, visit the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year website.
READ MORE:
- Meet the Social Impact finalists
- Meet the Emerging finalists
- Meet the Industry finalists
- Meet the Services finalists
Startup Daily is a media partner for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program.
