Chris Heaslip

Chris Heaslip is a New Zealand entrepreneur and co-founder of Pushpay, the digital giving and engagement platform built for churches, faith organisations and non-profits.

Founded in 2011 by Heaslip and Eliot Crowther, Pushpay started in New Zealand before expanding into the United States. Both founders came from Christian backgrounds and saw the same gap: organisations that relied on generosity and recurring giving still lacked modern, mobile-first tools. Their guiding idea was that giving to a church should be as quick and simple as buying a song on iTunes.

Heaslip served as chief executive through Pushpay’s formative growth years, stepping down in 2019. Under his leadership, the company listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange in 2014 and on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2016 and built a commanding position in digital giving — eventually serving more than 7,000 churches and faith-based organisations across the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Pushpay became one of New Zealand’s notable technology exports, demonstrating how a tightly focused product could scale by serving a clearly defined global niche. Its growth reflected a disciplined approach to market selection, product execution and genuine customer need.

The company’s success also added depth to New Zealand’s fintech story. Rather than chasing the crowded worlds of banking or consumer payments, Pushpay built infrastructure around generosity and community.

Heaslip’s profile is noteworthy because he helped create a high-growth SaaS company in a category many founders would have overlooked entirely. His work shows the value of choosing a specific market, understanding it deeply and building technology that solves a meaningful, often invisible, operational problem.

Sources: Newsroom · University of Auckland · Wikipedia