LinkedIn Top Startups 2020: The 10 Australian companies on the rise

The 2020 LinkedIn Top Startups list reveals the 10 young, resilient companies where Australia wants to work now.

2020 has been a year of upheaval as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, upending both business and personal plans. Startups have not been immune. Many have found ways to navigate these changes — or pivot altogether — and some have even thrived. Our 3rd annual Top Startups list reflects 10 companies that have remained resilient during a tumultuous time, continuing to attract investment, employees and attention.

Our editors and data scientists parsed millions of actions generated by LinkedIn’s 11 million members in Australia — and looked across four pillars: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. To be eligible, companies must be 7 years old or younger, have at least 50 employees, be privately held and headquartered in Australia. You can learn more about our methodology at the bottom of this article.

This list is also meant to be a resource for you. These 10 startups point to growing trends in business, from digital banking to e-learning, indicating where there might be career opportunities in the future. Or, you may want to land a job at one of these companies now. In which case, take a look at who you might know at the company, see what jobs are open or find out the common skills among their workforce. Use this as a resource to connect to opportunity.

You can also check out the Top Startups in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, the UK, US and the Netherlands.

Check out this year’s 10 Top Startups in Australia — and join the conversation using #LinkedInTopStartups.

Headcount: 202 | Headquarters: Melbourne | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Risk Management, Commercial Banking, Financial Analysis | Largest job functions: Business Development, Finance, Operations | What you should know: This challenger business bank, which provides small and medium enterprises with funding and services to grow their businesses, hasn’t let the pandemic slow it down — it recently doubled its headcount, expanded into Perth, was labelled a unicorn with a total value of over $1 billion and hit its goal of profitability in record time.

See more: How Judo Bank bagged the top spot once again | See jobs at Judo Bank | See people you may know at Judo Bank

Headcount: 120 | Headquarters: Sydney | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Banking, Financial Services, Risk Management | Largest job functions: Engineering, Information Technology, Finance | What you should know: This consumer neobank considers itself to be the next generation of banking, offering the latest payment innovations to customers. With a range of tech collaboration tools already at its disposal, it was able to provide a smooth remote working experience for its teams and hit some critical milestones during the pandemic, such as the beta launch of everyday transaction account Volt Spend. 

See more: How Volt Bank is taking it up to the Big Four | See jobs at Volt Bank | See people you may know at Volt Bank

Headcount: 108 | Headquarters: Melbourne | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Cloud Computing, ITIL, Solution Architecture | Largest job functions: Engineering, Information Technology, Business Development | What you should know: This award-winning technology company specialising in cloud-based solutions aims to help businesses and government agencies stay competition and evolve quickly. Born in the cloud and with a culture of flexible working already ingrained, LAB3’s transition to working from home during the pandemic has been seamless for employees — its retention rate of 98.5% speaks for itself.

See more: LAB3 CEO Chris Cook shares his advice for startup founders | See jobs at LAB3 | See people you may know at LAB3

Headcount: 53 | Headquarters: Sydney | Year founded: 2013 | Most common skills: Recruiting, Cloud Computing, Finance | Largest job functions: Sales, Engineering, Business Development | What you should know: A skilled marketplace where companies can hire elite consultants, project managers, data analysts and developers, Expert360 met the challenges of the pandemic head on — introducing its first company-wide flexible-first working model whilst expanding globally to service key clients in Europe and Asia.

See more: The superpower Expert360's Bridget Loudon says all startup founders need | See more about Expert360 | See people you may know at Expert360

Headcount: 200 | Headquarters: Sydney | Year founded: 2015 | Most common skills: Payroll, Cloud Computing, Recruiting | Largest job functions: Sales, Human Resources, Business Development | What you should know: Employment Hero creates software to help small and medium-sized businesses with their end-to-end employment, including HR, payroll and employee engagement. Reacting swiftly to the coronavirus pandemic, the company launched a Covid-19 resource hub to help small businesses respond, and shifted its own team to an entirely remote model. It’s been so successful, Employment Hero will remain a remote-first business going forward.

See more: Why the best ideas start from passion | See jobs at Employment Hero | See people you may know at Employment Hero

Headcount: 198 | Headquarters: Brisbane | Year founded: 2015 | Most common skills: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Management, Digital Marketing | Largest job functions: Sales, Engineering, Support | What you should know: This Brisbane-based corporate training marketplace helps connect individuals and businesses globally to a range of training programs. By focusing on mental health and wellbeing, the company’s teams performed “above and beyond expectations” throughout the pandemic, resulting in the most successful quarter of the year.

See more: Why Go1's CEO and co-founder thinks you should do less | See jobs at Go1 | See people you may know at Go1

Headcount: 82 | Headquarters: Sydney | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Banking, Business Analysis, Finance | Largest job functions: Engineering, Finance, Business Development | What you should know: An independent, made-for-mobile, 100% digital bank, Xinja received its full banking licence in September. Its systems are in the cloud and its Xinjarati (call centre) can operate entirely remotely when needed ... such as during a pandemic. The company recently announced the launch of Dabble, its US share trading platform, and plans to roll out personal lending to the public in Q4.

See more: What Xinja is planning next | See more about Xinja | See people you may know at Xinja

Australia headcount: 66 | Headquarters: Sydney | Year founded: 2015 | Most common skills: SQL, Business Analysis, Digital Marketing | Largest job functions: Engineering, Sales, Information Technology | What you should know: Describing itself as the world’s simplest shipping platform, Shippit uses algorithms to help retailers match with the best carriers. The company quickly transitioned to working from home when the pandemic hit and, thanks to a shift in consumer behaviour, saw its business grow at 3x growth for 2020. It’s now been operating profitably for the past five months.

See more: Why Shippit co-founder William On thinks you should stop and smell the roses | See jobs at Shippit | See people you may know at Shippit

Headcount: 52 | Headquarters: Sydney | Year founded: 2015 | Most common skills: SQL, Information Technology, Software Development | Largest job functions: Engineering, Information Technology, Business Development | What you should know: Originally created by veterans to solve the problem of veteran unemployment, WithYouWithMe helps companies and individuals start new digital careers and deploys workers into in-demand roles. During (and despite!) the pandemic, it launched in Canada and secured a partnership with the Canadian government.

See more: The one key value that keeps WithYouWithMe striving for success | See jobs at WithYouWithMe | See people you may know at WithYouWithMe

Headcount: 185 | Headquarters: Sydney | Year founded: 2017 | Most common skills: Revit, Agile Methodologies, Software Development | Largest job functions: Engineering, Program and Project Management, Information Technology | What you should know: A tech company that works in the buildings and infrastructure (rail) sectors, Willow provides access to high-quality, real-time data through its software platform. The pandemic forced it to transition to an almost entirely remote work model which, to its own surprise, has helped it to collaborate better across its global offices thanks to a greater sense of comradery and community. The company has just released the latest version of its WillowTwin software in North America.

See more: Why every member of the Willow team is a leader | See jobs at Willow | See people you may know at Willow

Share the full list and your thoughts on this year's Top Startups using #LinkedInTopStartups.

Methodology

LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over methodology time frame, which must be a minimum of 15%. Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page, as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings. Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from any global LinkedIn Top Company, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalized across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is January through July 2020. 

To be eligible, companies must be independent and privately held, have 50 or more full-time employees, be 7 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, venture capital firms, law firms, management and IT consulting firms, nonprofits and philanthropy, accelerators and government-owned entities. Startups who have laid off 20% or more of their workforce within the methodology time frame are also ineligible. 

About company insights

*Company insights were sourced from LinkedIn Talent Insights. Data reflects aggregated public member data from active LinkedIn profiles in the relevant country and includes full-time employee profiles associated with the company on LinkedIn. We exclude members who identify as part-time or contractors.

Reported by: Cayla Dengate, Natalie MacDonald, Andrew Murfett, Capucine Yeomans