Xinja is among a clutch of Australian challenger banks leveraging new digital technologies to take on the might of Australia's incumbent providers. Luanched by a former NAB executive, the company has recruited Jason Bates, co-founder of both Monzo and Starling, as an advisor.

Xinja has applied for a restricted banking licence from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority with a view to launching later this year. The company has so far raised $4.4 million (including a $2.4 million crowdfunding round), and launched a pre-paid debit card ahead of the roll out of a fully-fledged banking platform.

The contract with SAP will give the challenger a technology backbone comprising rapid customer onboarding and real time risk and financial assessment. It will also equip it for the impending introduction of Open Banking, under which Australia's top banks will be mandated to share customer data with third parties.

Xinja is planning to raise a further $20 million to support its entry into the banking market and will implement SAP S/4HANA Finance; SAP Transactional Banking (Loans and Deposits and Payments Engine) on SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC); SAP Cloud Platform (SCP); and SAP Application Management Services (AMS).

Eric Wilson, founder and CEO, Xinja, comments: “We have a world class technology platform that will allow us to develop fantastic products for our customers into the future, as we work alongside a global company with a wealth of experience in the financial services sector. The speed and flexibility of the new cloud-based core banking platform gives us the potential to revolutionise banking.”