About

Woomera Labs is inspired by the Australian aboriginal word for a wooden ‘spear-thrower’, an innovation that adds force and speed via additional leverage. The word “woomera” comes from the Dharug language of the Eora people of the Sydney basin. That the South Australian township of Woomera also became the base for the Woomera Rocket Range Complex, adds colour to our belief in learning via experimentation.

Woomera Labs aims to advise fintechs, financial institutions and central banks on technology leverage and transformational change in financial services. We are particularly interested in emerging models for the use of cryptographic tokens, digital currencies and distributed ledger technology to re-invent global payments infrastructure.

Principal Advisor Dilip Rao has been Program Director, CBDC Research at the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre and an advisor to Flash Payments.

Dilip has over 40 years of experience with technology in banking and payment systems, including with Ripple in New York, engaging with central banks and regulators as Global Head of Infrastructure Innovation. He previously led business development for Ripple across APAC and the Middle East, securing banking clients for RippleNet. Dilip was also founder of the first person-to-person payments startup in Australia and has advised commercial financial institutions as well as central bankers and regulators. Dilip has spoken widely at conferences around the world.

Dilip holds degrees in Physics from Bangalore University, Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is based in Sydney, Australia.