Australian Government calls on South West startup to help with UK expansion of tech businesses

Bristol-based growth marketing startup HdE AGENCY has been selected by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, Austrade, to help Australian exporters expand into the UK market. 

HdE AGENCY will be using their specialist skills, knowledge and network to help connect ambitious Australian businesses across a variety of tech sectors to the UK market, starting with Fintech. 

The agency, based at the Engine Shed, is no stranger to working with the land down under. The team is currently working with one of Australia’s largest enterprise tech companies, TechnologyOne, to raise UK brand awareness and advocacy, directly impacting the flow of commercial deals across the UK public and higher education sector. 

HdE AGENCY’s CEO, Ashley Wheeler, said: "Since HdE AGENCY began, we have supported Australia's largest technology ERP provider to achieve fantastic success in the UK, hitting record revenues and growth. This excellent work by everyone at HdE has been recognised by the Australian government and has brought us to this exciting opportunity, allowing us to assist more Australian tech businesses to gain UK and EU market entry. We've been operating in really challenging markets for the past few years with the global context, but we are so proud of this partnership with Austrade.”

The agency will be collaborating with TechSPARK UK to provide a variety of support services designed to facilitate successful UK expansion, including:

• 1:1 coaching and advice around key areas such as market and fundraising strategies, feedback on pitch materials, and guidance on potential targets and investors
• Market sector profiles including market and industry intelligence, an overview of opportunities, upcoming accelerator programs and major events.
• A series of deep dive sessions that will cover key topics of interest around doing business in the UK.
• The organisation (in collaboration with Austrade) of demo days and pitch events to help promote the Australian technology companies
• The organisation (in collaboration with Austrade) of physical and/or virtual market visits for Australian technology companies.

The partnership kicked off last week when 11 Series A, scaleup-level Fintech companies flew in from Australia to attend a series of events that offered them the opportunity to network with the UK finance market and get together with industry experts, and potential customers and investors. This included the Innovate Finance conference at the Guildhall in London and an industry roundtable with NatWest, Coutts and RBS Group. The agency will host more cohorts throughout the year and hopes to welcome more innovative Australian businesses to start trading within the UK.