On The Up: Atomic set to blast into Australia, UK, fuelled by Rod Drury

▤ Summary

Atomic chief executive Jo Haanstra met Drury whom she regards as a mentor in the early 2000s, when he was running Aftermail (which he would sell in 2006, the same year he founded Xero).She was a semi-professional netballer for the Capital Shakers, supplementing her income as a national sales director for a firm called Duo, which distributed IT security products.Atomic was founded in 2014 by ex-Xero staffers chief operating officer Alastair Grigg and design director Darryl Gray, and BNZ head of online sales Ben Pujji.Drury backed their efforts, with early Xero investors Sam Morgan and Rowan Simpson and Xeros original head of design Philip Fierlinger also chipping in funds. Former Xero chief product officer Anna Curzon joined Drury on Atomics board.Haanstra who took a top cybersecurity director role with PwC after leaving a long career at Duo took the reins from Pujji, now chief product officer, last year.The chief executive spoke to the Herald from Washington DC, where she has been helping her 18-year-old daughter settle in for a basketball scholarship.While Atomic has a US partner, its immediate focus is on Australia, where its at the proof-of-concept stage with a major bank - yet to be named - and the UK, where a deal is in the works with a major banking platform, whose identity is also still under wraps.Its going to be a pretty big deal for us, Haanstra says.She and Drury have also met Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins about creating a one government secure, trusted messaging app that people could use to communicate with multiple government agencies but the project is still at the whiteboarding stage.Last year, New Zealand citizens lost $2.3 billion to scams, Haanstra says, quoting a Netsafe survey.Jo is the perfect leader for Atomics next phase of growth, Drury told the Herald.Its exciting to see new leaders emerge who have taken their time to build their careers and create value.Asked about her achievements post-sports career, a difficult bridge that not everyone crosses, Haanstra who also has an 11-year-old says she is a workaholic, but in a healthy way, though she tries to balance work with other commitments.The comparatively paltry pay from professional netball encouraged her to apply herself to honing her sales and management skills with Duo as she effectively worked two jobs.Those who follow Drurys social accounts know he has long groused about the practical limitations of text, let alone its susceptibility to social engineering by the bad guys.Im very excited about Atomic, theyve built a fantastic toolset that easily connects enterprises and Government departments to their customers, so its poised to ride the next wave of digitising experiences, he says.The $2.5m round got top-ups from various existing shareholders. It was led by Drury, with support from Movac, Sir Stephen Tindalls K1W1, Xero co-founder Hamish Edwards and others.It was billed as an extension to a $4.5m Series A raise in 2022, led by Movac and supported by Drury (who is the largest single shareholder according to an April 7 Companies Office update, with a 27% holding, followed by Movac on 20%; others are in single digits. Were aiming for 30% growth this next financial year, she says.Atomic has 15 staff, and piling on more is not central to the expansion plans.Were a small team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.

$ Funding

▦ Linked Companies

Atomic.io Limited

$1M to $5M