How we became NZ's fastest growing tax agency...
Being self-employed used to require sitting on an app, reconciling your bank transactions like a zombie. At Hnry our mission is to be your trusted financial sidekick - giving you your freedom back, so you can get on with doing what you love.
Way back in 2016, whilst working as independent contractors, we realised that far too much of our time was spent reconciling transactions, using online calculator apps and making manual payments. We weren't 'running a small business' - so why were we being treated as though we were? We had an accountant and accounting software, but that still required us to have to do a load of work ourselves! We decided to create a service that brought everything into one place, making self-employment as simple as having a permanent or salary job somewhere.
During 2017 we designed the Hnry service, working with tax experts from Big 4 accountancy firms (nice suits), legal experts from the top law firms (even nicer suits), and technology experts from some of New Zealand’s funkiest startups (nice beards/Star Wars t-shirts). We collaborated with government agencies to refine our service, and soon became an accredited tax agent of IRD and ACC. We ran trials with a handful of customers, adapting our service and learning what they needed. Towards the end of 2017, we were accepted into KiwiBank FinTech Accelerator, an amazing 3-month programme designed to help refine and scale NZ technology startups.
In early 2018, we finished our trial period, and released Hnry to the New Zealand market. We started scaling very rapidly, bringing on customers at a fast pace. To help us support this scale, we raised funding through investment from the Banking and Financial Services industry, as well as from Angel Investors and private individuals. This allowed us to bring on a great team of experts, to help support our rapidly expanding customer base.
2019 has been amazing for Hnry. We've just announced some major new partnerships - most notably our strategic partnership with ASB, providing some amazing opportunities for us to keep delighting our customers in the longer term. We're still growing rapidly, and now have thousands of customers, new features coming online all the time, and some amazing plans for the future. It's been a great journey so far, and we're only just getting started!
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