Synnch makes senior hire with appointment of Adam Stead as Chief Technology Officer

Fast-scaling RegTech company Synnch continues to strengthen its leadership team with the appointment of leading eCommerce figure Adam Stead as its Chief Technology Officer.

Joining a leadership team including founder Andrew Antonopoulos and General Manager Evan Barker, Adam brings 20 year’s worth of product leadership experience to the role from leading Australian technology companies, including being a key partner for Shopify during its entry into the domestic market.

Synnch is a cloud-based digital platform that automates the process of applying for the lucrative R&D Tax Incentive – an Australian scheme that annually returns $3 billion worth of rebates to companies lodging a successful claim.

Synnch Founder and Managing Director Andrew Antonopoulos said it would look to Adam to lead the “next generation of Synnch’s product suite,” as it positions itself as a turnkey solution for businesses seeking to access the R&D Tax Incentive.

“Adam’s extensive experience in technology-centric eCommerce marketplace businesses and providing data-based solutions for rapidly scaling businesses set him up to make a big impact for Synnch,” he said.

“Synnch improves businesses access to the R&D Tax Incentive Synnch by providing them streamlined record-keeping, data accessibility and reporting abilities to ensure that their claims meet the governments legislative requirements around eligibility. Adam’s role is to lead product management and design while assisting the customer operations teams to scale to meet the demand from the thousands of Australian businesses who access the scheme and require its funding to support their R&D activities.”

The R&D Tax Incentive is a cornerstone of nationwide efforts to drive innovation, providing close to $3 billion worth of rebates back to businesses that have lodged a claim. This demand from businesses for the incentive is driven by the significant amounts of money returned to organisations at a time when they are making a significant investment into a new product or service offering.

Compliance is a critical element in the lodgement of a successful claim where companies have to prove that some type of innovation has occurred and ensure that all records documenting the investment in new technology or processes are kept in order. This is where Synnch comes into play as it is specifically designed to simplify the application process, reducing a great burden on enterprises ranging from small businesses to some of the largest organisations in the country.

For Adam Stead, the opportunity to join Synnch was driven by the desire to support Australian and global companies in their innovation journeys.

“It is an incredible time to join Synnch as the platform is on the verge of making a number of key technology and partnership announcements off the back of significant growth over the past 12 months,” Stead said.

“Post COVID we expect this growth to continue as we empower businesses to focus on innovation while we ensure that they meet the compliance requirements of the R&D Tax Incentive scheme. I’m excited to join the company as we focus on providing a world-class customer experience and look to export the platform to other jurisdictions that use the R&D Tax Incentive as a key pillar of their innovation policies.”