Matt Leibowitz is co-founder and chief executive of Stake, the Sydney, Australia, app that lets investors trade US and ASX shares for a flat fee. He started it in 2017, stepped back from the top job in 2024, and came back to run it in September 2025.
Zero Brokerage in Sydney
He founded Stake with Dan Silver to give Australians cheap access to Wall Street. It pioneered $0 brokerage on US stocks in Australia, and in late 2021 it opened an ASX platform with $3 trades sponsored on CHESS, the exchange's settlement register, so customers held their local shares in their own name.
A Record Series A
In May 2022 Stake completed a Series A of about $63.3M with Tiger Global and DST Global, which it called the largest Series A for an Australian fintech. "This is a vote of confidence from both customers and investors in what we have delivered," he said.
Stepping Back and Returning
In January 2024 he handed the chief executive role to Jon Howie and stayed on as executive director and a board member. By September 2025 the app had more than 750,000 customers across Australia and New Zealand and about $4.2B in assets under administration, and that month Stake announced his return. "Thanks to Jon, Stake is bigger, stronger and primed for its next chapter, and ready to be founder-led again," Chair Geoff Lloyd said.
"I'm excited to work more actively with the team and build on the foundation Jon has created, as we take Stake to the next level," Leibowitz said. He left the chief executive's office of a fast-growing start-up and came back to a larger company, one he had founded and now runs for a second time.
