Australian payments software goes global

As retail markets continue their rapid evolution across the globe, Australian and international businesses are turning to a Sydney-based payments organisation to future-proof their customer relationships. 

Datamesh is a SaaS success story many Australians would have used but possibly never heard of. It was founded in 2018 by several payments experts from the banking industry who recognised the significant tech debt that had emerged between banks and their customers. 

Now a global issue that dominates the world’s payments landscape, this tech debt resulted from a lack of investment and innovation by acquirers – the firms that act as the intermediaries between merchants, the card, and the cardholder’s bank or issuer to settle the transaction. 

DataMesh is becoming a familiar name across domestic and international financial institutions and card schemes, including Visa and Mastercard. Founder and CEO Mark Nagy saw a need to adapt to retailers’ changing requirements and to anticipate customer preferences better while meeting consumers’ rapidly evolving expectations. 

An increasing challenge for banks is the proliferation of payment disrupters. They find their way directly to merchants and are funded by taking a share of the transaction fee to enable their services. Compounding the issue, “The disputers rarely, if ever, offer an end-to-end solution and almost never for banks,” Nagy says. “And once a merchant flips to a disruptor, they often lose bank support. In effect, they are trapped.” 

The heart of DataMesh’s solutions is its Unify™ platform. It seamlessly connects to most legacy platforms, unlocking capabilities that weren’t possible in the past. 

“We saw that if we could create a platform with the merchants in mind but also allow banks to deliver it, we could solve a whole portfolio of problems,” Nagy says. “Some retailers choose to go it alone to become technology independent. We can also support this”. 

“DataMesh can cost-effectively provide a 100% SaaS-based payments platform to any organisation, regardless of size, with the capability and flexibility only previously available to major corporations. That means merchants can direct their own acquiring relationships, solution capability and design without the typical exorbitant costs traditionally associated with this capability.” 

DataMesh’s modular systems are designed to completely replace, as an option, the outdated payment technologies that many merchants have been forced to endure, which can be measured in lost revenue. Its systems include replacing outdated, legacy POS (point of sale) integration solutions that dominated the merchant landscape for many years. 

“These systems have dramatically slowed the propensity for enhanced retail experiences,” Nagy says. “The inflexibility of the architecture was designed at a time that had never contemplated IP-based payments, cableless solutions and certainly not data analytics or unique payment formats. This further puts the control back into the hands of the merchants.” 

Fuelling innovation

Along with Unify’s behind-the-scenes capabilities, there is an e-commerce engine that offers more customer-facing benefits. One of the sectors where the DataMesh platform has made a name for itself is in retail fuel and convenience, where there’s a big trend towards unattended in-store purchases and quick service food. 

“We’re starting to see old ‘service stations’ being converted into multi-tenanted retail hypermarkets. Our systems provide the flexibility to accommodate that multifaceted type of business.” 

One of DataMesh’s earliest clients was the OTR. The company now has a partnership with Viva Energy, which is licensed to retail Shell and other branded sites across Australia. 

“The consumer payment landscape is rapidly evolving, with customers demanding support for everything from loyalty programs to contactless apps.  

Our platform ensures retailers are future-proofed to accept any payment method while generating rich data insights.” 

Nagy says an example of DataMesh’s commitment to being ahead of the curve is that several of its retailer clients allow cryptocurrency payments. 

“We’ve got staff around the world and we’re appearing on the radar of more internanational establishments.” 

Mark Nagy

“We’ve recognised that to be at the heart and soul of a great merchant and consumer experience, you need to be at the core of the payments cycle. By virtue of its design, flexibility and being cloud-native, Unify allows an organisation to quickly unlock a set of reliable tools they’ve probably never had access to before.” 

Nagy says the platform offers a data analytics package that’s a world-first in terms of functionality. 

“We’re demonstrating the value created for our customers by showing them how to understand their consumer relationships better and have greater knowledge of every transaction associated with that individual. That’s turning into dollars via increased footfall and basket size.” 

Supported by AI, DataMesh even provides insights for merchants on tangible and non-tangible goods and services. 

“For example, you can’t scan a tank of fuel, yet we recognise all products sold and add them to the basket, tangible or not.  

But we pick up all products. We tokenise the transaction to a payment event so we get a far more accurate picture of what consumers are buying – and the ability to better predict their future needs and behaviours.” 

“With the broader deployment of our platform, we’re now seeing DataMesh being specified in RFPs (request for proposals) as mandatory.” 

Internationally, DataMesh recently expanded its partnership with Deutsche Bank. The global corporation’s payments business is deploying across 14 APAC markets. DataMesh’s tech means Deutsche Bank clients can enjoy a standardised payment acceptance experience and access diverse local payment methods across borders without additional investment in hardware or other systems within individual markets. 

Funding for growth

DataMesh’s SaaS business model has ensured it has the capital to grow. With close to $100 million invested, Nagy suggested the company, with its double-digit monthly revenue growth and high gross profit, could start looking at options such as an IPO in the next 12 to 24 months. 

DataMesh has agreements with several major global partners to distribute its solution. That includes an agreement with Visa, finalised last May, to provide highly featured card-based payment solutions. 

The company is expanding its team in Singapore as its Asian hub, supporting regional customers.It is putting more people on the ground in Vietnam after recently winning a major banking deal there, as well as people in India. DataMesh is also working on gaining a foothold in North America, with plans to add regional personnel in the second part of 2025 to support its pipeline of clients there. 

Nagy says, “We are hearing from our investors that with strong long-term contracted revenue growth from our enterprise customers and acquirers, the ongoing valuation growth has been viewed as extremely impressive in an otherwise flatter market.” 

For more information, visit datameshgroup.com