Company: Annature, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Company Description: Annature is the leading Australian-owned eSigning and ID verification solution with an integrated digital signature, identity verification, and payments platform built on blockchain technology. Annature delivers a complete ISO 27001 certified Digital Transaction Management (DTM) solution.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Female Entrepreneur – Business Services –10 or Less Employees
 Nomination Title: Amreeta Abbott
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers.
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below:
Written answers.
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 197 words used.
Amreeta Abbott is a highly credentialled and successful Fintech entrepreneur in Australia. She is an innovator of remarkable inspiration whose accomplishments is hailed across accounting, law, financial services, real estate and many other businesses. Amreeta has focused on automating processes that occupied squadrons of workers for generations on repetitive tasks. These occupied a considerable percentage of budgets and led to thousands of daily frustrations over delayed appointments, missing signatures, misfiled documents and the fear of losing every record if fire or flood affected premises.
An accountant by training, she created the groundbreaking cloud-based document suite for accountants, NowInfinity. Over eight years, it was developed to provide its Documentation Suite, Corporate Messenger, Trust Register, and Super Comply products to more than 4,000 accounting firms responsible for around 750,000 entities. Then selling it to the ASX-listed Class Limited (ASX: CL1) early in 2020. Today she has invested in and launched Annature, which is now building a reputation as the leading Australian-owned digital signature, ID verification and payment platform facilitating global transactions. Additionally, she has invested in CarExpert, where she heads the Sustainability Function and sits on the board of another transformation digital business for the automotive sector.
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
At a time when Covid lockdowns transformed business as global organisations accelerated the digitisation of customer and supply chain interactions. eSigning became a necessity. Even before the pandemic, Amreeta's frustration with the friction points of the business, which exhausted business and customers with countless hours and money absorbed during in-person signatures, document and contract exchanges and storage of millions of papers. Ahead of many industry analysts, she reasoned that traditional electronic signatures were at the end of their shelf life - they wouldn't work in a global business environment.
Creating Annature and building it on secure blockchain technology, Amreeta was specific about her product - capable of seamless integration into all major document management programmes, transparent pricing the multi-nationals were unwilling to match even as technology became cheaper by the day, Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering functionality and with data storage and management in Australia.
Amreeta was recognised with a Grand Stevie® Award as the highest rated nomination for Innovative Management in the 2022 Asia Pacific Stevie Awards. Annature won a Gold Award for its eSigning platform and Silver level recognition for Amreeta Abbott in the Innovative Management, Business Product & Service Industries – with up to 100 Employees category.
Annature has developed major industry business and integration partnerships as the exclusive eSigning partner with Qantas Business Rewards to offer Qantas airline Points on eligible eSigning subscriptions; a 10% discount and Qantas Points for 131,000 Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand members, plus other industry software alliances.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
Amreeta’s biggest masterstroke came even as the first lines of Annature code were written by her development team: having seen global giant, Stripe launch an ID product, she decided, at inception, to adopt Stripe. Its easy and powerful ID and Payment APIs were easy to embed into the Annature e-signing process to make them an integral part of the user flow. Partnering with one of the world's most documented platforms at such an early stage lowered her development investment. It boosted Annature's feature attractions way beyond that of most competitors. Today, Annature users can electronically sign a contract, identify its parties, and use payment facility tokenisation in one single inseparable process. For any business with a large number of documents, this removes many friction points and follow-ups. Another benefit was that Stripe's metered usage feature allowed Annature to offer a Pay As You Go feature to customers, the only eSigning company doing this. Stripe is ideal for the continued development of Annature's billing and subscription engine. It allows for easy embedding of Stripe's powerful Payment APIs and Identity APIs into Annature's workflow for a holistic contract execution experience. Key software companies are making Annature their default eSigning solution, attracted by its competitive price, bank-grade security and onshore data storage in the countries it operates in. With enhanced ID verification and an embedded payment process, Annature's multi-jurisdictional compliance and reporting capabilities provide a renewed focus on Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance – a growing international compliance requirement.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
Annature’s growth is 100% organic and has outperformed forecasts in its first full 12 months. Launched in September 2020, it has accelerated its footprint and numbers across many industry sectors.
Results: In 2021, the first full calendar year of operation, the number of eSigned envelopes for digital document signatures tripled. Annature forecast 300% growth for FY22. It is on track to exceed 500%. In Q3 FY22, there has been 400% growth in the number of envelopes signed in the quarter alone.
Adoption Rate - 1 in 3 businesses that trial Annature signs on for a paid subscription within the 7-day Free Trial Period. It has only expanded its Customer Success function by one headcount in FY22.
R&D - Annature maintains a dedicated headcount for R&D and a dedicated headcount for information security. Due to its underlying Stripe technology, the platform can continue to be developed at a lower price point and within shorter timeframes for more sophisticated and advanced technology outcomes.
Stripe Payments APIs embedded into the Annature platform has produced a 10 times increase in customers paying by Stripe in FY22.
Annature has ensured it meets individual international country requirements for eSigning and identity verification worldwide. The Annature platform can be used in every country worldwide. It will be launching UK availability and operations from FY23.
Recent client additions to the ever-growing Annature platform include LegalVision, Sprintlaw, BBQs Galore, illumin8, Salestrekker, LoanQ and Margin Gains. Annature now partners with Stripe, FYI Docs, myprosperity, APS Reckon, Xero and Chatti.
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