Akahu aspires to be the "plumbing" of open banking

“It's really important for someone to do it really well in this country,” says founder and chief executive Ben Lynch.

He compares what Akahu is doing to a phone lines company such as Chorus or the marketplace website Trade Me, saying if Akahu does its job well, there should be no need for another in New Zealand.

“There's only one Trade Me for a reason,” Lynch says.

Akahu is doing what accounting software company Xero did when in launched in 2007 in establishing connections with the banks in NZ that will allow a consumer to share their banking data with trusted third parties, such as their financial adviser.