Darren McMurtrie is Co-Founder and CXO of zai, a Melbourne-based fintech platform born from the 2021 merger of Assembly Payments and CurrencyFair, delivering embedded finance and payment automation for marketplaces and enterprises.
Darren spent over a decade as a designer, creative director, and strategic director for branding and marketing agencies across Sydney, London, Bangkok, and Melbourne, serving major clients such as ANZ, Macquarie, and Australia Post.
Darren brings a rare blend of brand strategy and fintech commercialisation, overseeing design, marketing, and customer experience to craft frictionless payment journeys for businesses and their customers.
As Co-Founder of Assembly Payments (originally PromisePay), Darren helped raise over $100M in venture capital across 8 rounds and co-negotiated landmark partnerships with Standard Chartered Bank, Westpac Bank, and Carsales, before merging the business with CurrencyFair to form zai.
Zai now processes over $28B in annual payments volume, and Darren also helped spin out MX51 from Assembly in 2020, which raised $57.5M and processes over $10B in payments volume independently.
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