Australian business cash flow specialist Cloudfloat, has appointed former PayPal executive Tyson Hackwood as Chief Customer Officer, as the emerging B2B fintech looks to rapidly scale its payments solution business locally and internationally over the coming 12 months.
What does Tyson bring to Cloudfloat in the role?
Tyson brings curated expertise having spent over 13 years in the digital commerce and payments industry, including heading up Acquisition and Engagement teams for PayPal Australia which he left to join Braintree where he was employee #1 in Asia Pacific.
As General Manager for APAC, he grew the team to over 40 employees and the customer base from zero to over 10,000, signing on some of Australia’s largest digital commerce businesses including Telstra, Stan, Temple & Webster, Bellroy and The Good Guys.
During his time at Braintree they were acquired by PayPal, and he continued his role and to grow the business, in APAC, based out of Singapore. Most recently he has been working with Aussie start up and scale ups as they go through their planning and development of their go to market plans, content strategies, payments strategy and onboarding team members.
Commenting on the his hire, Tyson Hackwood, Chief Customer Officer, Cloudfloat, said, “I see Cloudfloat as an organisation that has looked at the system and said ‘it doesn’t have to be this way’ and then built a better service. Payments should not be seen as a cost to the business, which they most often are, they should be seen as a way to generate revenue.”
“Cloudfloat offers fast, nimble access to cash flow. I’m excited to work with an innovative platform offering a ‘payments as a service’ style solution to power organisations that traditionally wouldn’t be able to access cashflow. I have a keen interest in working with disruptors out there, growth industries, and any industries trying to rebuild themselves after the Covid pandemic, like food and beverage. We’re the solution for them,” said Hackwood.
What does the appointment mean for Cloudfloat?
Founder and CEO of Cloudfloat, Aleem Habibullah said Tyson’s experience is a great addition to Cloudfloat’s executive team: “We’re thrilled to have Tyson join Cloudfloat. He brings an infectious energy and passion for innovation in the payments space, especially for tech that supports SMEs and growth industries, which aligns perfectly with our mission and values.”
Cloudfloat serves an under-served part of the community, providing SMEs easy to access hassle-free cash flow at the time of paying for any transaction. The Cloudfloat platform allows its customers to pay for goods and services on time, every time, instead of delaying the payment. The customer can then make fortnightly repayments with up to 90 day terms.
Suppliers can offer their business customers flexible payment terms without any risk, solving cash flow challenges and allowing businesses to grow. As financial pressure on Australian businesses has increased since interest rates began to rise in May last year, so has demand for Cloudfloat, an innovative cash flow solution that eases the burden on business costs.
Demand for payment requests has increased by 513% (5 times) from the month of Jan 2022 to Jan 2023, with the average value of a transaction going up from $2,500 in Jan 2022 to $3,500 in 2023. Clients have doubled since Jan 2022, going from just under 600 to 1200 in Jan 2023 (each client makes multiple transactions) with manufacturing, digital services, retail and food service industries making up the largest portion of customer share.
Aleem added: “Businesses are doing it tough and business credit is only going to tighten as the RBA hikes continue. Cash flow will only get harder for SMEs to access. For traditional players, margins are going to shrink and with that more financial tightening spreading to lenders with thin margins and who have sacrificed credit quality for the sake of growth.”
For more information regarding Cloudfloat visit the website.
