InDebted founder steps back as chief executive search begins

InDebted founder Josh Foreman is stepping down as chief executive to take on a founder role focused on product, AI, and research and development. The company has begun a search for a new chief executive.

Foreman, who founded the business in 2016 and wrote its first code, will directly lead strategy, product, engineering, and AI transformation under the new structure. The incoming chief executive will oversee day-to-day operations, including finance, sales, and go-to-market leadership across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UAE, and the UK.

The leadership change comes as the debt collection software group reports its strongest quarter to date. It exited March at an annual revenue run rate of more than US$80 million, with revenue up 52% year on year and monthly profitability at a record level.

The move reflects Foreman's view that technical founders should spend more time building products as artificial intelligence reshapes business models and software development. It also follows a broader product push at InDebted after years in which the group largely operated with one core product.

Recent launches include Release and Comply, bringing the number of products in its collections platform to four. The suite now includes Receive for early-stage first-party collections, Collect for scaled third-party collections, Release for late-stage recovery and portfolio work, and Comply for cross-border compliance.

All four products sit on a common AI layer, compliance framework, and communications system. InDebted operates across seven countries and positions itself as a global collections infrastructure business.

Foreman outlined the rationale for the move in a statement.

"At my core, I am a builder. InDebted started with me writing the first line of code," said Josh Foreman, founder of InDebted. "Over the last decade I have necessarily stepped away from that work to build the organisation. But what is happening in AI right now demands that technical founders go back to their roots - not to retreat from the business, but to refound it. To take everything we know about the domain, the customer and the operations, and rebuild on a fundamentally different foundation."

The transition points to the split leadership model many growing software companies adopt as they expand internationally and take on more operational complexity. In InDebted's case, the board is seeking a chief executive with experience scaling companies in regulated markets, a relevant requirement for a business handling collections and compliance across several jurisdictions.

Growth push

InDebted's latest figures suggest the company is entering the search from a position of financial strength. Revenue growth has been accelerating, while monthly profitability has reached a record as AI has become more deeply embedded across its products and internal operations.

That momentum may help frame the handover as a reallocation of responsibilities rather than a response to pressure. By moving Foreman closer to product development and AI, InDebted is betting that founder-led technical direction can support its next phase of expansion while a new chief executive focuses on execution in market.

Investor Airtree backed that interpretation.

"InDebted moved early to an AI-first operating model, and the latest quarter's results prove it's working. This is the next evolution of that strategy, and having a product-minded founder like Josh with deep context at the helm of these decisions at a pivotal time for the industry is a real advantage," said Craig Blair, partner and co-founder at Airtree.

Sector shift

The move also reflects a broader shift among software founders and investors as generative and agentic AI tools change how companies design products, automate workflows, and organise teams. In some cases, founders with engineering backgrounds are choosing to spend less time on management and more on product architecture and technical direction.

For InDebted, that trend carries particular weight because its core market sits at the intersection of automation, regulation, and customer communications. Collections businesses need to balance recovery rates with compliance and customer treatment, especially when operating across borders. The addition of a product such as Comply suggests the company sees cross-border regulatory demands as both a challenge and a commercial opportunity.

Release, meanwhile, extends the company's offering into later-stage recovery and portfolio work, broadening the platform beyond earlier points in the collections cycle. Together, the recent launches suggest InDebted is trying to cover more of the debt recovery workflow with a single software stack rather than relying on a narrower product set.

The next chief executive will lead organisational leadership and market execution, while Foreman remains closely involved in strategic decisions through his oversight of product, engineering, and AI transformation.