‘Tripled revenue’

The company competes with Xero, MYOB and Oracle’s NetSuite, and Mr Wood said revenue had tripled over the past two years as small and medium businesses upgraded from legacy financial software and replaced the spreadsheets they use for warehouse operations or stock control.

The company recently launched a new app called Wiise Warehouse OnTime that manages warehouse activities, automates workflows and keeps accurate inventory records in real time using mobile devices or major hardware scanners to avoid mis-picks, delays and errors.

Mr Wood – whose CV includes a stint as a vice president of Salesforce after the tech giant acquired his start-up and the first local boss for Dropbox Australia – was offered the CEO role in 2021 after KPMG hired him as a consultant to develop a strategy for Wiise.

The project revealed Wiise had a good product but needed to focus more on the larger end of small and medium business customers, operate more efficiently and invest heavily in a new customer service team to keep its existing customers happy.

The new $16 million investment will be used to set up operations in New Zealand, the company’s first international market, further product development and sales and marketing.

‘A home-grown fintech’

Wiise originally launched with partnerships with Microsoft and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Although the start-up still has a close partnership with Microsoft, which supplies its underlying technology, Wiise ended its sales partnership with CBA two years ago after the strategy failed to gain traction.

Sarah Vega, the national managing partner of KPMG Futures, said the professional services firm was committed to creating “a home-grown fintech with international potential”.

“This latest funding commitment brings Wiise a major step closer to becoming not just an Australian success story but a significant player in the ERP market,” Ms Vega said.