Gobbill co-founders, Quentin Marsh and Shendon Ewans (L-R)
Microsoft has ramped up its support for local tech start-up and independent software vendor (ISV), Gobbill, as the company prepares for an attack on the UK market.
The Melbourne-based start-up revealed on 16 October that Microsoft had increased its level of support for Gobbill on its Microsoft for Startups program until late 2020.
Gobbill has made a name for itself creating and operating a digital finance assistant that automates bill payments using artificial intelligence for small businesses and households.
The start-up’s service runs extensively on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and also utilises artificial intelligence services within the platform and its ecosystem.
Founded in 2015, Gobbill was recognised early on by Microsoft, which welcomed the company into its BizSpark start-up program.
“Without Microsoft’s sponsorship and support, especially in the early days, we would have struggled to get Gobbill off the ground,” Gobbill CEO and co-founder Shendon Ewans said in a blog post.
“Looking back, it was a great decision my CTO and co-founder Quentin Marsh made by selecting Azure and pitching the idea of Gobbill to the 2015 Microsoft BizSpark team in Sydney.”
Fast forward to 2019, and Gobbill has gone from strength to strength, with Microsoft continuing to support the company with a combination of Azure credits and professional services.
Now, Microsoft has substantially increased its support for the start-up, with Ewans aiming to get the company into scale-up mode.
“What we want to do is work with [Microsoft] really closely to see how we get to a point where we become a scale-up and be more active on [Microsoft’s] network,” Ewan told ARN.
The additional support comes as, and is partly due to, Gobbill’s efforts to expand into the UK market, where the company has hired a business development for the manager to introduce its solution more broadly to the region.
Meanwhile, Gobbill is at a point in its development where it makes sense for the company to join the Microsoft Partner Network Support (Australia) and commence initial co-selling activities under Microsoft’s $500m investment in its Microsoft for Startups program.
“Gobbill has benefited greatly from its support from early days of proof of concept through to today, being used commercially by businesses throughout Australia. Microsoft says it loves startups and, well, the feeling is mutual,” the company stated.
