If the bill payer has Volley installed on their device, they can send a link or QR code to everyone they want to collect money from. The link can be emailed, shared with a WhatsApp group or sent by another sharing method of the person’s choice. The payees then click on the link – no need to have Volley installed – and can pay as long as they’re with ASB, ANZ, BNZ or Westpac. The recipient will automatically have the details securely populated within their banking app, ready to be approved.

Volley’s founders said the app could also be used by small stallholders at farmers’ markets or by a householder to pay a tradie.

Volley will be free for consumers.

McCann said once it’s built up its profile, businesses will be encouraged to also use it, with a flat 35c transaction charge because, as Callister said, “it costs the same to transfer money whether it’s $500 or $5000”.

Functionally, Volley is the same as Venmo, the popular casual payment bank in the US that most Kiwis know through pop culture.

But McCann and Callister said their app is closer to Tikkie in the Netherlands and Swish in Sweden, which have taken advantage of the EU’s open banking push.

The pair know the territory. Before co-founding Volley, McCann worked for Amsterdam-based Monzo, a “neo bank” that released a bill splitting app (earlier in his career, he was technical lead for a rebuild of Consumer NZ’s Powerswitch). Callister, a software engineer who joined Wellington City Council as a project manager, is a member of Payments NZ’s API Council – the body advising the industry on the nuts and bolts of open banking.

When open banking terms were first announced by the Government in May, some app developers screamed at charges of up to $5 per customer per month to access each bank’s payment systems.

McCann and Callister first met Drury two years ago through a mutual friend. The Xero founder, who has long pushed for open banking, kept in touch as, nudged by the Government, the banks started to tilt towards opening up access to their payment systems.

Drury took a 20% stake in Volley last month for an undisclosed sum.

‘Fixing AI’s chaos-induced blind spot’

The Huljich family, which has backed marquee Kiwi software firms including Pushpay, Diligent, Ideally and Valocity, has chipped in A$1.2 million ($1.3m) to an early-stage funding round for Sydney-based Nevam – maker of an AI tool for marketers to “visualise a customer journey”.

NZ investors Aaron Bhatnagar (whose family co-invested with the Huljiches in Pushpay) and Brand Fund (a joint venture between New and Improved Ventures and Icehouse Ventures) also participated in the raise.

Nevam was founded in January last year by Brittany Fox, whose career has included a brief stint as a Victoria’s Secret sales exec and an extended run as a senior manager for Deloitte Digital Australia.

Fox said she’s “fixing AI’s chaos-induced blind spot” with a live tool that helps visualise the deluge of data generated in the artificial intelligence era.

Early adopters include BWS and Endeavour Group.

“I’m part of the 1.5% of funding to go to solo female founders in Australia. This round highlights how ANZ investors are backing women founders who are tackling systemic challenges,” Fox said.

A mentor at Australian backer Techstars told Fox they knew of a Kiwi VC who was looking for female entrepreneurs in MarTech, the founder tells Tech Insider.

That VC turned out to be Brand Fund’s Simon Pound, who, in turn, introduced her to the Huljich family and other local angel investors.

Rocket Lab’s hiring spree

Times remain tight for many firms but Sir Peter Beck’s Rocket Lab is recruiting for 38 roles in New Zealand and a total of 156 overall when including jobs in the US.

The company is adding staff in California, Virginia, Maryland, Colorado, Mississippi, Washington DC and New Mexico – a spread of operations that reflects acquisitions and Nasa partnerships.

The Kiwi-American firm also recently announced it is issuing new shares to raise US$750m ($1.3 billion).

The new funds will go, in part, towards paying for recent acquisitions, including the just-closed deal to buy Arizona’s Geost, a maker of tech that can be used for missile-tracking, for US$275m – the better to position Rocket Lab to contribute to US President Donald Trump’s envisaged “Golden Dome” defence.

Rocket Lab said Geost’s 100 employees took its global headcount to 2600 – around 800 of whom are in NZ.

Pay isn’t listed for most roles, but a handful give salary bands, including a propulsion engineer based in Long Beach, California, at US$116,000-US$225,000.

Rocket Lab acquisitions

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.