{"id":32088,"date":"2023-10-20T14:27:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/sorry-sydney-square-joins-eventbrite-etsy-and-stripe-and-chooses-melbourne-as-its-australian-headquarters-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:27:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:27:01","slug":"sorry-sydney-square-joins-eventbrite-etsy-and-stripe-and-chooses-melbourne-as-its-australian-headquarters-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/sorry-sydney-square-joins-eventbrite-etsy-and-stripe-and-chooses-melbourne-as-its-australian-headquarters-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorry, Sydney: Square joins Eventbrite, Etsy and Stripe and chooses Melbourne as its Australian headquarters – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Payments platform Square is the latest big-name international startup to launch an Australian headquarters in Melbourne thanks to the city\u2019s reputation as a technology and cultural hub.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2010, Square closed a funding round of more than $150 million last year \u2013 bringing the startup\u2019s valuation to around $US6 billion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Australia will be the third country the startup has expanded to, following Canada and Japan.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Melbourne headquarters will be based in the CBD and led by country manager Ben Pfisterer, who has a background in startups<\/a> as well as Visa and National Australia Bank.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pfisterer said in a statement Melbourne was the right home for the company\u2019s Australian operations thanks to its small business community and growing tech scene.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to open our local office in Australia, which continues to grow as a country renowned for a strong and diverse entrepreneurial small business community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLeveraging our knowledge of the local market, and the growth of Square around the world, we are looking forward to deploying an exciting product roadmap in the future that will help to make commerce easier for Australian small business owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Large US startups like Stripe, Etsy and Eventbrite have all chosen Melbourne as the location for their Australian headquarters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scott Handsaker, co-founder of Startup Victoria, told StartupSmart<\/i> when companies expand into Australia they want to make sure their staff will work well in the city they are sending them to, and Melbourne has a lot of drawcards.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, he says the Melbourne startup scene is growing and therefore provides attractive hiring opportunities for US companies once they set up shop.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people choose Melbourne and I think it\u2019s because of the culture,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also has a density in terms of the ecosystem of startups that other cities don\u2019t have. There\u2019s also an ecosystem which is growing, I think, at a faster pace than other Australian cities\u2026 so that makes recruiting easier, tapping into existing networks easier and just makes it easier to do business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Handsaker adds that it doesn\u2019t hurt that Melbourne is consistently ranked as one of the world\u2019s most liveable cities.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got so much diversity in things going on such as sport, art and culture,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these US companies, when they\u2019re looking for expansion options, are thinking about how easy it\u2019s going to be to get existing staff to move over there and get the culture right. So I think Melbourne comes up pretty well for that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? <\/i>Let us know<\/i><\/a>. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Payments platform Square is the latest big-name international startup to launch an Australian headquarters in Melbourne thanks to the city\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}