Upstreet

Upstreet, a now-defunct Australian fintech company, was established in 2019 by the married duo Christian Eckelmann and Sabine Tejerina. The firm operated as an app-based fractional investment platform. Eckelmann, who served as CEO, brought a rich background to the venture. He started his first company in Germany at 16, later worked at Audi for nearly a decade, and then moved to McKinsey in Munich before transferring to Sydney in 2015. It was at McKinsey, where he co-founded the Australian Startup Club, that he realized his desire to build a meaningful enterprise, which led him to the Antler program in 2019 and the subsequent founding of Upstreet.

The core of Upstreet's business was a platform that rewarded customers with fractional shares in publicly listed companies for their everyday shopping. This model aimed to increase customer loyalty for brands and democratize share ownership for consumers. The service was accessible through a mobile app and a website browser extension. Users would link their bank account or credit card, and when they made a purchase with one of the over 400 partnered brands, they would receive a percentage of their spending back in the form of shares. For example, a customer shopping with a brand like Marley Spoon could earn a small piece of the company with their meal kit purchase. The platform included companies listed on the ASX, NYSE, and NASDAQ. Upstreet managed these investments by purchasing whole shares or ETFs and placing them into a unit trust, giving users a fractional interest. The service was free for users, with no fees for receiving or holding shares.

In March 2022, Upstreet announced it had raised $3 million in a Seed+ funding round led by Wattle Hill Capital. This funding was intended to expand partnerships and upgrade the platform's technology. Despite this financial injection and showing strong initial returns with retail partners, the company ceased operations. In September 2023, less than 18 months after its latest funding round, the co-founders announced the difficult decision to close down the business and wind-up the Upstreet fund. Prior to its closure, the company had pivoted slightly to also offer its micro-investing rewards platform for employee loyalty programs, where companies could gift shares to their staff instead of traditional gift cards.

Keywords: fractional shares, share rewards, customer loyalty, fintech, investment platform, retail rewards, cashback, fractional investment, brand loyalty, employee rewards, ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ, shopping rewards, micro-investing, Antler program, Christian Eckelmann, Sabine Tejerina, Wattle Hill Capital, deadpooled