While starting a company during the pandemic or economic downturn is never a good timing, Sydney fintech Black Opal was able to overcome the challenges and successfully establish itself in the United States.  

Black Opal’s Australian founders Matt Holden and Peter Makris remotely built up the company over the last year and have now based their US operations in Denver, Colorado.   

“We’ve found considerable investor interest in the US. Our Australian founding investors have enabled us to make this leap and pursue our next funding of $100 million,” Founder and CEO Matt Holden, who has relocated to the vibrant startup community in Colorado, said.

Black Opal is a fintech company that issues credit cards for expats, startup founders, and professionals who relocate to the United States.   

Since obtaining credit is exceptionally difficult for anyone who moves to the USA, Black Opal’s technology allows its card members to use their Australian credit report.

They then convert that to a US credit score and then issue a US credit card based on that score.  

“While the pandemic impacted us and many other companies, we used the latest technology, and our global team adopted a fully remote operation to continue our success,” Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder Peter Makris said. 

Previously the CTO of Sydney bank startup Xinja Bank, Mr Makris currently runs Black Opal’s development team. 

“We have such a vision to help our card members with the products we are creating to help expats who’ve moved or are moving here,” Mr Holden said.

“We’ve partnered with international foreign exchange providers as well as financial and wealth-building products all within our platform to improve the economic wellbeing of our foreign card members.”

With approximately 7,000 Australians and their families making their way to the USA on various Visas each year, Black Opal has provided a gateway for them to ease into their new lives without the unneeded financial stress.

“We help so many of our cardmembers and, as a business, I put our survival and success down to our team,” Mr Holden said.

“We’re Aussies and, as a startup, we’ve unquestionably been challenged, but Australians survive and with our leadership and team we look forward to continuing our international success.”  

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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