How Hnry changed accountancy forever...
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 and accountant. 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 the KiwiBank FinTech Accelerator, an amazing 3-month programme designed to help refine and scale 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 was an amazing year for Hnry. In January, we announced a major partnership with ASB New Zealand as our strategic banking partner, which provided even more amazing opportunities for us to keep delivering top-notch service to our customers. We picked up another round of investment and were able to bring on more staff – rounding out our Customer Success, Development, and Marketing teams – and expanded into some new office space in September. We even featured in 'awards season': winning a Wellington Gold Award for Emerging Service and becoming a finalist for the Hi-Tech Awards. All of this amidst some incredible growth for the service: we reached a thousand customers, released some new features and automation improvements, and set some big plans for the future.
So far in 2020, we've grown even more exponentially. We announced the inaugural Hnry Awards, to recognise the experiences, skills, and creativity of independent earners, providing cash prizes to talented individuals. In late 2020 (and by popular demand) we launched the Hnry service into the Australian market - after having been testing it with an initial group early adopter customers since early 2020.
It's been a great journey so far, and we're only just getting started!
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