Now in its eighth year, the Finder Innovation Awards acknowledges excellence and creativity while recognising the impact of innovation across a range of industries.
The 15 categories celebrate new initiatives across banking, insurance, telecommunications, retail and more.
After judging nearly 200 entries, we are extremely excited to announce the winners of the 2023 Finder Innovation Awards.
Award categories and winners
Best B2B innovation
Taking out the title for the second year in a row, Hnry has proven itself hard to beat as a unique and innovative solution for Aussie small business owners. This fintech platform offers an easy way for self-employed contractors, freelancers and gig workers to manage their taxes by doing it for them. As they earn, Hnry automatically works out how much they owe and pays the ATO on their behalf.
RelayPay continues to innovate in Australia's digital currency space, having been named as a finalist in the 2021 Finder Innovation Awards. The digital currency payment platform has continued to make it easier to buy, sell and spend crypto, launching gift cards to let users exchange crypto for gift cards that can be redeemed at over 100 brands. It also became the first in the Australian market to become licensed to process AUD transfers to Australian bank accounts from the sale of crypto.
Coinbase has been handed the top award for best innovation in digital currencies & Web3 for its launch of BASE. The Ethereum Layer 2 network offers a way for users to build decentralised apps onchain and has seen rapid adoption. BASE was incubated within Coinbase, offers cost-effective transactions and has already seen Australian projects deployed on it.
Flip continues to flip the script on what insurance looks like – it's not the first time it has been recognised for innovation in our awards. Flip Insurance offers Australia's first on-demand accidental injury cover, aiming to fill the gap between Medicare and private health insurance. It recently made cover available to anyone in Australia, including international students, and launched Flip Kids, which made cover available to those between 5 and 17 years old.
Blossom's innovative partnership with Humanforce Thrive has won the top score from the judges in this year's investment category. The partnership allows any employees using the Humanforce Thrive app to open a Blossom account seamlessly, then continue to fund the account with a fixed percentage of their pay each pay cycle. For every Grow account opened, a tree is planted by Blossom in a bushfire-affected area.
Bridgit is taking out this award for the second year in a row for its innovative bridging loans product. It saw an opportunity in the complicated and under-serviced bridging loans market, which other lenders were shying away from, and developed its Single Security Bridging Loan. Along with Bridgit's commitment to bridging finance education, Bridgit has established itself as the go-to for bridging finance for its target customers and brokers.
Home-in has taken out the top award for best online customer service, its second award this year. It has invested heavily in improving its customer service offering which includes an Australia-based home-buying assistant that users can now chat to in the Home-in app. All Home-in buying assistants are real people that can help simplify the purchase process, such as connecting to a conveyancer or lender.
The best retail innovation has gone to Dropshipzone for its innovative approach to dropshipping. The platform connects suppliers and retailers together in a marketplace to facilitate dropshipping, with technology at its core. The B2B marketplace platform is the first of its kind in Australia and Dropshipzone's continued innovation of its product shows a clear focus on customers and a drive to transform the ecommerce experience.
Airgarden has taken out the top gong for its innovative vertical garden system. The Brisbane brand empowers customers to grow their own produce at home even if they only have a balcony or a small garden space. The Airgarden uses 95% less water than soil-based gardening and the design of the product means the plants only need 5–10 minutes of care a week.
Verve started as Australia's only women-focused, ethical super brand. Now, it has launched Verve Money, an investing platform that is ethically screened and based on research into behavioural economics. Investments have been positively screened to increase exposure to assets that align with member values, such as carbon efficiency, and also negatively screened to remove exposure to certain assets. Members are able to choose portfolios based on their risk appetite and investing timeline.
Australian insurer ahm has taken out the top award for best tech innovation. It was also recognised in the 2022 awards with a highly commended for best insurance innovation. ahm impressed with its adoption of a number of technologies to improve the experience of purchasing insurance for its customers.
Australian internet service provider Superloop has taken out the top award for best mobile phone and broadband innovation for its My Speed Boost product. The service is available to current and new customers and is a relatively simple concept that lets households boost their internet speed for up to 24 hours up to 5 times a month for free. Superloop is the only telco in Australia offering a free same-day speed upgrade to their home NBN internet speed.
Hnry's second award this year is digital disruptor of the year. The unique platform automatically calculates, forecasts and allocates tax in real time as sole traders earn income throughout the year. Tax can be a burden for contractors, freelancers and ABN holders and Hnry's platform provides an all-in-one solution that's hard to beat.
The Amber for Batteries product is an impressive renewables innovation that could not have happened without Dr Aleksis Xenophon. The product gives Amber customers control over their solar and battery with a remote, allowing them to optimise their energy decisions based on the mode of their choosing. Amber for Batteries is underpinned by the SmartShift algorithm designed and modelled by Dr Xenophon.
Highly commended: David Pearson, HSBC | Desk.coach, Leigh Sherry
updoc is a previous Finder Award winner and it continues to prove it has innovation at the heart of its company and team. To meet its goal of reducing the burden on Australian healthcare the team experiments with new technologies and ways of improving the updoc platform. This includes with machine learning, committing time to cross-functional learning and building and improving its core technology platform.
A judging panel of external industry professionals and Finder experts review and score the submissions based on the entry criteria for each category. Please note, finalists and winners will be notified online and there will be no in-person event this year. View the entry and scoring guidelines for more information.
Looking for more information?
If you have questions or want to find out more about the Finder Innovation Awards, then please get in touch with the Finder Awards team via awards@finder.com.
Elizabeth Barry is the lead editor for Finder. She has over 10 years' experience writing about a range of topics with a focus on personal finance. You’ll find her writing and commentary in a range of publications and media including Seven News, the ABC, MSN, the Irish Times and Singapore Business Review.
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