A little over four years ago we opened the doors to Assembly with a small team in the backstreets of Collingwood, Melbourne. Today we’re thrilled to announce we’re putting our roots down in the city that raised us, making Melbourne our global headquarters.
While we have grown to a team of 65 with offices in St Louis, Manila and Sydney, it all began for us in Melbourne so we’re really excited about building a global payments business right here from home. That doesn’t mean we won’t be building out our international operations, it just means our HQ, like our hearts, will be in Melbourne.
This was not necessarily an easy choice to make. With a rapidly growing customer base around the world, particularly in the US, there was strong argument to move overseas, but in the end the benefits of staying here won out.
Here are just a few of the reasons why Assembly’s global headquarters will be in Melbourne:
World class team
We have worked really hard over the past four years to create an incredible team and culture here in Melbourne. Together we have built the world’s most flexible payments platform that services more than 100 major businesses globally including some of Australia’s fastest growing platforms Airtasker, hipages and Carsales.com. There is magic in this team and we didn’t want to dismantle the band.
World class talent
The search for top tech talent is tough globally, but Australia is home to some of the best people in the world — not just skills but attitude, values and being generally good humans (with good taste in food and coffee). We have proven our ability to build an outstandingly diverse team representing the best Australia has to offer right across the spectrum from engineers to product and sales. We can’t wait to meet the next wave of team members (yes, we’re actively hunting in Melbourne — come join us!)
Huge opportunity
While Australia may only be 1% of the world’s economy, we have some of the largest financial institutions in the world, creating enormous opportunities for domestic fintechs. Australia is charging towards a cashless society — 86% of consumer payments are cashless, putting Australia amongst the most advanced countries in the world towards cashless transactions. We will not turn our back on that opportunity.
Global mindset
Australians, and perhaps most particularly Melbournians, are very alive to the global opportunity — they are ready and willing to work with teams and customers across multiple time zones. Just about everyone in our offices (in Australia and around the world) have travelled extensively and respect and engage in a global culture.
Victorian Government support
This is not a statement on one state vs another (I’m on the record and very vocal about the need for national ecosystem) but it would be remiss not to mention the great support we have had from Minister Philip Dalidakis and the Victorian Economic Development Unit in making Melbourne our offical home.
None of this is to say we are turning our back on the international opportunities. We are continuing to build out our teams around the world and still firmly believe in the need to be where are customers are. But Assembly is on a mission to transform the way organisations use payments to provide extraordinary experiences to their customers and we’re looking forward to continuing that journey from home.
