FrankieOne is a leading Australian leading company that automates data capturing and decision-making for client onboarding and ongoing monitoring through its end-to-end unified platform. With its affordable infrastructure, the regtech (regulatory compliance) company handles biometrics, fraud detection data sources, AML, and other popular third-party tools. 

FrankieOne was established on December 1, 2017, by founders Simon Costello and Aaron Chipper as a means of revolutionisingrevolutionizing the banking industry. The vision of the founding fathers from the start was to create a simple and personal banking product that enables a seamless banking experience. They have been able to do this through a unified API, a single customer dashboard, and a decision engine. FrankieOne assists fintechs, banks, and other regulatory bodies to manage their systems, focus on core business, and protect them from global fraudulent activities. With their tools, customers can now enjoy a more cost-effective, safer and a better banking experience.

FrankieOne is the brainchild of Co-founder and CEO Simon Costello, who has a vast knowledge and experience in investment banking. He is also the brains behind many successful start-ups in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Costello, through his impressive creations, has been able to raise $150 million in funding during his career. Aaron Chipper is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at FrankieOne. Unlike Costello, his career path has always been programming focused. He started coding at the age of 7. He is responsible for the creation of social and mobile payment networks all over the world.

Investments

With three lead investors and fourteen investors in total, FrankieOne has raised more than A$46 million over in three funding rounds. Kraken Ventures and Apex Capital Partners are two of their latest investors. Their most recent funding event was on the 29th of November, 2022 in the Series A round. 

FrankieOne Funding rounds

• Series A (29th of November 2022) – A$23 million raised by 7 investors. Greycroft and AirTree Ventures were the lead investors.
• Series A (12th of October 2022) – A$20 million was raised by 11 participating investors. AirTree Ventures and Greycroft were also the lead investors at the event.
• Seed Round (15th of January 2022) – A$3 million was raised by 2 investors. Tidal Ventures was the lead investor. 

Investors’ profile

Apex Capital Partners

Apex Capital Partners is a leading Australian investment company that provides venture capital to financial services landscape sectors. They are interested in firms that promote the development of blockchain infrastructures, digital assets, and recruitment services. FrankieOne is one of their many investments in Australia. The venture capital company has also invested in Immutable, Gods Unchained, and Consumer Physics. Apex Capital Partners participated in the FrankieOne Series A round in November 2022.

Kraken Ventures

Kraken Ventures provides funds for early-stage companies in the fintech and crypto ecosystem. FrankieOne is one of the many companies in its investment portfolio. Kraken has also invested in the likes of Pinwheel, Nimble, Fonbnk, pStake, Messari, CoinsPaid, and among others. The company was also one of the investors in the Series A funding round in November 2022. 

Tidal Ventures

As a seed to growth stage venture capital fund, Tidal Ventures invests in a company with a revolutionary and global outreach. With its first seed fund launched in 2016, the Australian investment company has funded the likes of FrankieOne, Socialsuite, Pressto, Checkbox, and Shippit. Tidal Ventures participated in the FrankieOne Series A funding round in 2022. Tidal Ventures was established in 2016 by Grant McCarthy, Andrea Kowalski, Wendell Keuneman, and Murray Blach. 

Greycroft

Greycroft provides capital for early-stage ventures, seed, private equity, and late-stage ventures. The company focuses primarily on technology startups and investments in internet markets. The company has made more than 200 investments, some of which include Thrive Market, Scopely, Venmo, Yeahka, Wide orbit, and FrankieOne. In total, the American company has managed more than $1 billion. Greycroft alongside other six investors participated in the FrankieOne funding round on November 29 that raised A$23 million.

AirTree Ventures

AirTree Ventures is a leading Australian capital firm that invests in the most promising Australian and Kiwi technology companies. The venture capital company has managed over half a billion dollars. One of their investment portfolios is FrankieOne. Other notable companies include A Cloud Guru, Athena, Pet Circle, Secure Code Warrior, Brighte, and Canva. They also help start-ups with advocacy, connections, recruitment, and expertise. To date, AirTree Ventures has participated in two FrankieOne round fundings. Their most recent one was in 2022. 

Achievements

• As a global regulatory firm headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, FrankieOne has successfully created a unified platform that has helped financial institutions and fintechs with fraud detection and prevention, as well as customer onboarding.
• FrankieOne was part of Fintech Friday, a program that assisted start-ups in Australia connect with potential customers and investors. The event comprised mentoring and giving tips to startups on how they can gain access to UK markets and pitch to potential customers.
• The company participated in the Virtual Fintech Academy in the UK. It was part of its collaboration with Austrade to gain access to new markets. FrankieOne has been part of many events organisedorganized by Austrade in Taiwan, the UK, the US, and Singapore. 
• FrankieOne emerged winner of the 2022 RegTech PitchFest for the #Accelerator Award. This award is for companies whose solutions align with the environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impacts on institutions and firms across various sectors. 

Board of Directors at FrankieOne

As of 2022, FrankieOne has 43 employees, including 16 engineers and six sales reps.

• Simon Costello is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at FrankieOne. He was formerly an investment banker and was responsible for 3 other startups across three continents.
• Aaron Chipper is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at FrankieOne. He was part of the team of brilliant minds that sold Fusion Payment to Telstra. 

Insights

With all the recent hacks on major institutions in Australia, it was only a matter of time before we started seeing companies such as FrankieOne emerge. Combining blockchain with fraud prevention and regulatory compliance was a smart move. We’re all familiar with the term Software-as-a-Service but Infrastructure-as-a-Service is a new one I haven’t seen being used before. 

Will be watching this space. I’m sure we’ll see a lot more funding and developments in fraud detection and risk management over the coming years.