Sonya Williams

Sonya Williams is a New Zealand entrepreneur and a co-founder and co-chief executive of Sharesies, the micro-investing platform that made share investing accessible to everyday New Zealanders.

Williams developed the core concept for Sharesies in 2016 while working at Kiwibank, driven by her own frustration with traditional brokers’ high entry barriers. In her twenties, she had tried to start investing and been turned away because she did not have enough capital. That experience, the feeling of being told the financial system was not for her, became the founding insight.

In 2017 she co-founded Sharesies with five others, including Brooke Roberts, Leighton Roberts, Richard Clark, Ben Crotty and Martyn Smith. Williams serves as chief executive for product and marketing, shaping the platform’s user experience and brand voice. Sharesies has since grown to more than one million investors across New Zealand and Australia, with over billion in assets under management and earned B Corp certification.

Williams was the joint winner of the 2020 NZ Women of Influence Award in the Business Enterprise section alongside Brooke Roberts. She is a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington and has become a prominent voice on financial inclusion, arguing that investing should be as accessible as online banking.

Williams’s profile is noteworthy because she turned a personal experience of exclusion into the founding thesis for one of New Zealand’s most successful fintech companies — proving that products built from genuine frustration, rather than market analysis, can resonate at national scale.

Sources: Wikipedia · Victoria University · Sharesies