071: Athena, Nathan Walsh & Michael Starkey

By Joanne Cousins on 18/02/2021

In episode #71 of Fintech Australia Podcast Dexter Cousins chats to Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkey as they celebrate the 2nd birthday of Athena Home Loans.

Who is Athena Home Loans?

Athena is on a mission to save Australians a whole lot of money and help pay off their home loan faster. Founded in June 2017 to revolutionise the home loan industry and make it better in every way, Athena built an innovative digital home loan platform to deliver savings to borrowers, backed by local home loan experts.

Athena is backed by Australia’s leading investors, including AirTree Ventures, AustralianSuper, Hostplus, Macquarie Bank and Square Peg. 

Athena has been the proud recipient for Finnies Emerging Fintech Organisation of the Year Award for 2 years in a row – 2019 and 2020.

Nathan Walsh
Co-founder & CEO, Athena Home Loans, Australia

Nathan Walsh, Athena’s Co-founder and CEO, is a fintech entrepreneur with over 20 years’ expertise in financial services, top-tier consulting and legal practice. Nathan is a former NAB executive who started his career with BCG before taking senior roles at Citi and NAB in wealth management. At NAB, Nathan founded Nabtrade and built it from an idea into a $40 billion platform over 7 years, winning multiple innovation awards along the way.

Follow Nathan on Linkedin

Michael Starkey

Co-founder & COO, Athena Home Loans, Australia

Michael Starkey, Athena’s Co-founder and COO, has an entrepreneurial background, having been the co-founder of iSelect in AU. He spent 7 years at NAB in personal banking, was a board member of the Australian Payments Council and ASX listed Homelands Ltd and former director of the New Payments Platform (Australia’s new real-time payments network).

Follow Michael on Linkedin

Find out more about Athena here

Article written by Joanne Cousins

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