Attekus adds Fat Zebra payments for councils & venues

Attekus has integrated Fat Zebra's payment technology into the software it provides to councils, universities and venues. The arrangement covers more than 140 organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

Users of Attekus systems can now complete bookings and payments in a single checkout, rather than being redirected to a separate bank payment page. Payment options include cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay for activities such as booking council halls, reserving campus venues and buying tickets for council-run theatres.

The change brings payment processing further into the software used to manage bookings, events, ticketing, appointments and customer records. More than half of Attekus customers' transactions already come from smartphones, underscoring the importance of mobile payment options for public-facing organisations.

Fat Zebra provides the payment infrastructure behind the new Attekus Card Payments product, while Attekus Digital Payments adds Apple Pay and Google Pay. For new customers, embedded card payments will be the default option. Existing customers can switch depending on their current arrangements.

Public sector shift

The partnership reflects a broader change in how public sector and education organisations handle payments. Traditionally, councils and universities have relied on bank-run gateways outside their booking systems, adding a separate step to the customer journey.

Fat Zebra, which says it processes more than 500 million transactions a year, argues that specialist software providers are increasingly integrating payments directly into sector-specific systems. That can reduce the number of systems organisations need to manage while shortening the path to payment for users.

"Councils, universities and venues run complex operations, but payments technology has rarely been built with them in mind. Payments have traditionally sat with their bank, separate from the booking, ticketing and customer systems they rely on every day.

"Specialist software providers like Attekus understand these sectors in detail, and their platforms already handle the bookings and ticket sales. Bringing payments into the same platform means fewer systems for these organisations to manage and a faster checkout for the people paying them.

"Giving vertical software providers that capability is where we see the real opportunity for Fat Zebra, and for the more than 2.8 million businesses operating in Australia," said Kyle Willersdorf, Head of Sales and Partnerships at Fat Zebra.

The companies positioned the move as a response to changing consumer behaviour. Attekus cited data showing that nearly 40% of Australians leave home without wallets or cards, while mobile use has become a major channel for bookings and registrations.

Mobile demand

Attekus said payments had become a natural extension of its software as customer expectations shifted towards integrated digital transactions. The company serves local government, broader government bodies and education organisations in Australia and New Zealand.

"More than 50% of Attekus customers use smartphones to make bookings, register for events and purchase tickets. Customer behaviour has moved, and the payment experience needs to move with it.

"For us, this is bigger than adding another payment option. It's about making the final step of the customer journey feel as modern and intuitive as the rest of it, while giving organisations a payment capability more closely connected to how they already manage bookings, events and customers," said Peter Suchting, Chief Executive Officer at Attekus.

Shared investor

Both companies are backed by Five V Capital, which invested in Fat Zebra through its Frontier Fund and in Attekus through its Venture Capital Fund. The deal also shows how portfolio companies with adjacent products can work together on distribution and product expansion.

Five V board member Chris Gillings described the arrangement as a fit between Attekus' experience in government and education software and Fat Zebra's payments specialism.

"One of the great powers of Five V's multi-strategy approach is when businesses across our different strategies can identify opportunities to collaborate. Attekus brings deep experience in government and education software, while Fat Zebra brings specialist payments capability. They're a perfect match.

"This partnership is a good example of two businesses combining complementary strengths to create additional value for customers and support their respective growth strategies," said Chris Gillings, Managing Director at Five V Capital.