Aussie Fintech startup Black Opal survives Covid to thrive in the USA

DENVER, COLORADO. Sydney fintech Black Opal is making inroads in the USA and have based their US operations in Denver, Colorado. Starting a company during covid or an economic downturn is never the best of timing, but Australian founders Matt Holden and Peter Makris were able to survive and remotely build their companies’ success in the United States.

Black Opal issues credit cards for expats, startup founders, and professionals who relocate to the United States. Obtaining credit is exceptionally difficult for anyone who moves to the USA, but the winning difference is that Black Opal technology allows our card members to use their Australian credit report and converts that to a US credit score and then issues a US credit card based on that score.

Despite Covid and a challenging US economy, founder and CEO, Matt Holden says “We’ve found considerable investor interest in the US. Our Australian founding investors have enabled us to make this leap and pursue our next funding of $100 million.”

Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Peter Makris, who was CTO at Sydney bank startup Xinja Bank, is running the development team. Says Makris “Whilst Covid impacted us and many other companies, we used the latest technology, and our global team adopted a full remote operation to continue our success.”

Founder and CEO, Matt Holden, who has relocated to the vibrant startup community in Colorado says “We have such a vision to help our card members with the products we are creating to help expats who’ve moved or are moving here.

We’ve partnered with international foreign exchange providers as well as financial and wealth-building products all within our platform to improve the economic wellbeing of our foreign card members.

Each year approximately 7,000 Australians and their families make their way to the USA on various Visas for work. Black Opal is their gateway to make their new lives easier and wealthier. Holden says “We help so many of our cardmembers and, as a business, I put our survival and success down to our team. We’re Aussies and, as a startup, we’ve unquestionably been challenged, but Australians survive and with our leadership and team we look forward to continuing our international success.”

Lourdes Antenor

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Lourdes Antenor is an experienced writer who specialises in the not-for-profit sector and its affiliations. She is the content producer for Third Sector News, an online knowledge-based platform for and about the Australian NFP sector.

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