The news: A Melbourne deceased estate startup founded by former NAB and PEXA executives has secured $12.5 million in funding from Macquarie Capital, OIF, and Paul Little's family office.

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The context: Sarah Poole and Marielle Yeoh founded estateXchange in 2023. Their online platform aims to streamline a traditionally fragmented process by connecting estate representatives with financial institutions. The platform offers document sharing, verification, and stakeholder collaboration services.

A press release shared by the startup said that the business model is pay-per-transaction; there is no upfront joining fee and no recurring subscription or membership fees.

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Poole was previously head of deceased estate services at NAB, where she led a significant digital transformation program, while Yeoh was one of PEXA's longest serving executives with two decades of experience across firms including ANZ, NAB, and PEXA.

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The startup’s first funding round was also participated in by angel investors Carol Schwartz AO and Christine Christian AO.

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The AFR reported that proceeds from the raise will be put towards hiring software engineers and business-to-business go-to-market professionals.

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What they said: Dan Phillips, executive director of venture capital at Macquarie Group said: "We were immediately impressed by co-founders Marielle and Sarah, who bring deep sector expertise and have already demonstrated they can execute strongly. The estateXchange proposition resonated strongly given our early-stage involvement with PEXA and the clear parallels in how both platforms streamline processes in their respective industries.”

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"estateXchange is bringing long-overdue modernisation to one of the most outdated parts of financial services," said Isabella Rich, investor at OIF Ventures.

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The sources: estateXchange press release, AFR