Member To Remember – Zetifi
[Name, role, business]
Overview of your business
Zetifi was founded in Wagga Wagga in 2017 by Dan Winson, then a networking teacher at TAFE NSW and Charles Sturt University. After reading about a Queensland farmer who had installed a 53-metre tower just to get connectivity, Dan set out to build a more affordable, scalable alternative, prototyping evenings and weekends out of the back room of local IT store Computer DenCity.
Early momentum came through a $25k NSW Government MVP grant, Telstra's muru-D and SparkLabs Cultiv8 accelerator programs, and a $644k Federal Accelerating Commercialisation Grant that funded Zetifi's patented 'sleepy Wi-Fi' power management technology. Zetifi has also maintained a close relationship with Charles Sturt University over the years, completing various projects through the AgriPark.
Zetifi's senior leadership team includes Dan Winson (CEO), Warwick Clancy (COO) and Paul Maybon (Chief Product Officer), guided by a board of directors chaired by Hakan Eriksson. The company is headquartered in Wagga Wagga, with a second team based at Telstra Labs in Melbourne, and has raised more than $12 million in capital, co-led by Telstra and GrainCorp, alongside more than $15 million in State and Commonwealth funded projects and grants.
What is your business focus?
Zetifi was founded to solve a big problem: reliable connectivity in rural and remote Australia. The arrival of low earth orbit satellite services like Starlink disrupted that original vision, solving parts of the problem Zetifi had set out to fix. Rather than fight that shift, Zetifi leveraged the technology, team and partnerships it had built solving connectivity in the hardest conditions to launch a range of connected fleet technology solutions, spanning tracking, telematics, fleet safety and lone worker safety, all developed in Wagga. Zetifi's smart antennas integrate cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS in a single unit, paired with fleet telematics and lone worker safety software, including its new Zetifi Marshal lone worker safety solution, which plugs directly into tools customers already use, such as Microsoft Teams. Being based in rural Australia means Zetifi builds and tests its solutions in the same conditions its rural and remote customers rely on every day.
What are your current opportunities and challenges?
Zetifi is expanding beyond its rural connectivity roots into fleet safety and telematics, backed by a $5 million Industry Growth Program grant to launch its Smart Antennas globally with partners including Icom, Telstra and Nextivity. New partnerships with Geotab and the NSW Farmers Association are extending the reach of our Connected Fleet Safety technology including the Zetifi Marshal lone worker safety solution, which was recently shortlisted for AIIA's iAward for Technology.
The challenge is managing this rapid expansion into new product categories and markets while staying focused on the reliability rural and remote customers depend on.
What are the broader opportunities and challenges for Wagga?
Wagga Wagga has a genuine opportunity to build a reputation as a regional hub for technology and engineering, anchored by companies like Zetifi and its long-standing research ties to Charles Sturt University. The challenge is attracting and retaining the specialist engineering and software talent this kind of growth needs in a regional centre, and continuing to invest in the connectivity infrastructure that underpins agriculture and business across the wider Riverina.
What are your achievements?
Key milestones include: US$500k prize in Cornell University's Grow-NY food and agtech competition (2020); a US patent granted for Zetifi's 'sleepy Wi-Fi' technology (2022); a $12.25m Series A raise co-led by Telstra and GrainCorp (2022); more than $15 million in State and Commonwealth funded projects and grants, including a $5m Industry Growth Program grant; multiple world-first product launches, including location-aware Smart Antennas (2024) and the UHF & Cellular Combo Smart Antenna (2025); new partnerships with Icom, Nextivity, Geotab and the NSW Farmers Association; a pilot with Telstra Fleet Services to help develop its Connected Fleet Safety technology; and, most recently, Silver at the 2026 BETTER FUTURE Australian Design Awards for Product Design Technology.
What element of your business makes you most proud?
Taking world-first, patented antenna technology from a backroom workshop in Wagga Wagga to a nationally recognised company, while staying true to the decision to build it in rural Australia. That includes the team's resilience when low earth orbit satellites changed the connectivity landscape, turning the technology and partnerships built for farm Wi-Fi into a new generation of connected fleet products. Being based in the same rural and remote conditions its customers operate in has shaped every product Zetifi has built, from its earliest farm Wi-Fi devices through to its newest connected fleet technology and worker safety solutions.
Why is your business involved with Committee 4 Wagga?
Connectivity is literally in Zetifi's name and its reason for being, and one of its founding values is being 'invested in the bush,' building the business in a regional community and growing a team that understands its customers. That aligns closely with Committee 4 Wagga's mission to drive the sustainable growth of the city, including its own Connectivity and Economic Development pillars, and gives Zetifi a voice in shaping the future of the region it calls home.