Brett Anthony Hales (born 2 April 1985) is an Australian entrepreneur, mentor and investor. He is best known as the

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

and

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of Tappr, a mobile payments company based in Brisbane,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

."Tappr Raises $2 Million"
24 August 2013, Retrieved 24 October 2013 Tappr is Hales's first start-up."Tappr News Brett Hales"
, Tappr News Brett Hales, 18 August 2013.

Early life

He was born in Melbourne,

, the son and oldest child of Plumber Greg Kenneth Hales (1950–present) and Lorraine Joy Hales (1953–present). Hales grew up in Melbourne until he was 5 when he moved to the seaside town of Point Lonsdale, Victoria. He attended Catholic Regional College in

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

before at fifteen, Hales and his family moved to Noosa Heads, Queensland. Out of school he became a qualified Scuba Dive Master to pay the bills. During 2005, Hales went for a year-long journey to Europe and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

before returning to Australia in 2006. Back in Australia with little money he saved, Hales moved to Brisbane. Living in Brisbane, his network grew and he became friends with

Ben Lawton Ben Redmond Lawton, M.D., F.A.C.S. (July 17, 1922 – May 18, 1987) was an eminent physician, general and thoracic surgeon, healthcare-reformer, educator, and President of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents from 1984 to 1986. Ea ...

and Matthew Wick. During this time, Hales looked towards setting up his own company and in late 2011 Hales started the ground-work for Tappr with the $18,000 he had saved. During 2011, Hales travelled on holiday to Hong Kong and while there was acclimatised to Hong Kong's Octopus Transit Card System. Hales envisioned the idea of a transit payment solution that predominately uses smart phones via NFC ( near field communication) as the method of transacting while integrating into the emerging mobile payment landscape. This concept was the start of Tappr."River City Labs Making Money on Mobile"
River City Labs, Retrieved 11 August 2013."Shoe String Start Up of the Year 2013"
August 2013.

Career

Hales started Tappr in his living room and started writing and developing the necessary proposals in order to attract seed investors and

angel investors An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

."Entrepreneur raises over $400,000"
"Venture Capital".
, BPS. Requiring some further resources and assistance in

application Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...

and hardware development, he reached out to Pyxi Apps Australia's managing director Kerry Esson and the two started to form the finer plans for development with Kerry Esson eventually coming on full-time as the company's CIO ( chief information officer) and director. Over the next few months, Hales successfully attracted a host of local and international investors. Studying Australia's banking environment, Hales focused on developing Tappr's business model to cater towards using the Big 4 Banks in Australia as an aggregator as well as an

acquirer An acquiring bank (also known simply as an acquirer) is a bank or financial institution that processes credit or debit card payments on behalf of a merchant. The acquirer allows merchants to accept credit card payments from the card-issuing bank ...

. with a focus on enriching the business to consumer relationship by offering add-ons including

customer analytics In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product or an idea - obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchange for ...

and marketing enriched data. Juvo,"Tappr Juvo"
, Tappr Juvo, 17 September 2013. Tappr's first product is a mobile card acceptance terminal that enables users to accept card payments using their iOS or

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

smart phone or

tablet Tablet may refer to: Medicine * Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill" Computing * Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the s ...

. Juvo means "to aid or assist" in Latin, which is a core belief of Tappr. Juvo was due to launch into the Australian market in early 2014 and"Juvo"
17 September 2013. on 18 August 2013, Hales announced plans to start up his own technology investment fund supporting young entrepreneurs with both funding, resources and mentorship."Investor Taps into Market"
18 August 2013, Retrieved 20 August 2013. The Seed Fund launched in mid-2014.

Mentoring, speaking and other interests

Hales mentors a host of startups and had worked with startup-focused partners, including The Hub (Singapore), Muru-D (Brisbane), Little Tokyo Two (Brisbane) and Startmiup (Milan). Hales is also a regular at FinTech focused summits, conferences and events.

Interests

Hales is a Motorcycle enthusiast, qualified scuba dive master and avid surfer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hales, Brett Living people 1985 births Chief information officers