Former CEO of Finder co-founds back-office automation provider

Chris Ellis, the former CEO at Finder Australia, has been named CEO of Collabra.ai, a back-office automation engine for mid-market enterprises.

The move comes as the Sydney-founded company moves from two years of deep product build into full commercialisation.

The product combines RPA-grade reliability with the intelligence of AI, all running securely inside the customer’s network.

Early customer traction has come from sectors such as logistics, recruitment, IT service providers and property management, with expansion into retail and financial services planned in the coming year.

Ellis, who also co-founded GorillaStack which went on to be acquired by SoftwareONE, is one of three co-founders of the business.

Alon Novy, a technology startup entrepreneur and advisor with multiple ventures including BlueFire (acquired by Dimension Data), Immutable, ScalaMed and Kinela; and Neill Miller, a serial entrepreneur and investor whose company Zeetings became Canva’s first acquisition, with a portfolio of early investments including SEEK, SafetyCulture, System Builder, Envizi (sold to IBM) and Blackbird Ventures, are the two other co-founders.

Ellis said c-suites want growth without bloated headcount - and they need to keep funding the core while backing the highest-value growth bets.

“Too many AI projects stall before production. Collabra is built to change that," he said.

"Our rule-following AI agents deliver consistent, auditable outcomes for mid-market enterprises, so leaders can reduce costs and redeploy capital and talent toward growth.