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Judo Bank

“Can a relationship-first, technology-enabled Australian challenger bank win the SME lending and deposit market from the Big Four by replacing algorithm-driven credit scoring with banker judgement?”

Founded2016
HQMelbourne, Victoria, Australia
FoundersJoseph Healy, David Hornery
Total raised~$500M AUD equity + ~$450M AUD debt + $500M AUD government funding
Latest roundSeries C, 2020
Valuation$1B+ AUD (unicorn at Series C, 2020)
IndustryBank / Sponsor
The story

Founded in 2016 as Judo Capital, the company was conceived as a challenger to Australia's Big Four banks in SME lending, built on relationship banking rather than algorithmic credit assessment. After receiving its ADI licence in 2019 and rebranding to Judo Bank, it expanded from pure lending into deposit-taking (personal and business term deposits), becoming the first Australian challenger bank licensed specifically for SME banking. The company raised substantial government backing during COVID-19 and went public on the ASX in 2021, positioning itself as Australia's only bank purpose-built for small and medium businesses.

Last 12 months
—
Product timeline
2016
Founded as Judo Capital by Joseph Healy and David Hornery, targeting relationship-based SME lending as an alternative to major Australian banks.· pivot
2018
Raised $140M+ AUD Series A — the largest private startup capital raise in Australia at the time.· banking
2019
Received APRA authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) licence, enabling deposit-taking and rebranding from Judo Capital to Judo Bank.· banking
2020
Secured AUD $500M in government funding from AOFM (via Australian Business Securitisation Fund and Structured Finance Support Fund) to support SME lending during COVID-19.· lending
2020
Raised Series C of ~$147M USD, crossing AUD $1B valuation and becoming Australia's first fintech unicorn.· banking
2021
Received CDR (Open Banking) exemption from ACCC deferring phase 2/3 data sharing obligations until March 2023.· banking
2021
Listed on the ASX under ticker JDO via IPO.· ipo
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Judo Bank
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
3 layers disclosed in Judo Bank’s embedded-finance stack
Ledger
Temenos T24 Transact
Lending
in the full report
Unified APIs
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
10 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.