Fintech launches robo-planner for SMSFs
Australian fintech start-up, A.S.A.P, is launching a digital advisory platform for SMSFs in response to the removal of the accountants’ exemption from the financial services licensing regime. A.S.A.P chief executive, Jim Hennington, said that the eponymous platform had been developed to fit the changing needs of SMSF clients and accountants. “We… have found a way to use technology as the elegant solution to disruptive changes in the law,” he said. “It helps SMSF trustees and their accountants, while supporting an important public policy objective.” Hennington said plenty of SMSF accountants had yet to decide whether to refer client questions to licensed advisers in the period from 1 July, or whether […]
This Australian fintech startup uses new identification technology and wants to bust open the small business loan market
An Australian fintech startup is going all-in with a unique algorithm that it says will revolutionise the business lending market. Sail Funding’s big data application analysis, with inputs from third-party databases and applicant-provided information, allows the startup to make customers a loan offer that is tuned to the applicant’s risk profile. This means less chance of rejections and less chance of sub-optimal borrowing terms. “Being rejected for a loan can be catastrophic but having to put up your home or car as collateral also causes significant personal challenges,” said Sail founder and chief executive Yanir Yakutiel, who will launch the venture in Sydney on Tuesday. “By using our proprietary algorithm […]
Fintech start-ups must ‘unblock the chains that bind them’
Australia’s fintech start-ups will need to weather the blockchain “hype cycle” if they’re to survive, a panel at Melbourne’s Collab/Collide fintech summit determined. Emma Weston, chief executive of disruptive agriculture start-up Full Profile, which uses blockchain technology to eliminate risk and inefficiencies in the agricultural supply chain, said commercial use of the technology was still at a nascent level. “We’re finding lots of potential for blockchain, but what’s going to get us into the world, it’s got to be companies that are prepared to put resources behind something that is fairly uncertain, in a market that is fairly uncertain, in a world where a lot of the incumbents don’t want […]
Banks team up with their FinTech competitors
These are challenging times for the incumbent heavyweights of the financial services sector. Beset by regulatory, governance, technological, capital, and investment issues, they are increasingly facing competition for business from a whole host of new players, primarily from ‘FinTechs’. Growth of marketplace lending In the case of online lenders, this trend began in the UK in the mid-2000s when Zopa, the world’s first digital and now Europe’s largest peer-to-peer (now called marketplace) provider, launched, quickly followed by the likes of Prosper, Lending Club, and OnDeck in the US. Eleven years on, Zopa has lent around 1.8 billion pounds to more than 150,000 borrowers funded by 63,000 investors of whom 53,000 […]
XERO CEO: London’s fintech scene is ‘world class’ and will stay that way post-Brexit
The CEO of £1.4 billion accountancy software giant Xero says London is a world leader in fintech — financial technology — and will remain that way post-Brexit. Rod Drury, founder and CEO of Xero, told Business Insider during a recent interview in London: “We love the fintech innovation happening in London, it’s absolutely world-class. When you see the apps that are being built here, they will go global. We’re really impressed by the quality of the finch thinking that goes on here.” London has become a European hub for financial technology — fintech — companies since the 2008 financial crisis. London boasts both a global finance hub in the City […]
Thorney invests in Timelio fund for invoice financing
Thorney Investment Group has seeded the Timelio Capital Fund, a new unit trust to be offered to institutional investors seeking a diversified exposure to the emerging asset class of invoice financing. Thorney and Timelio, a Melbourne-based fintech that has built a peer-to-peer platform allowing small businesses to access funding based on the amount of money owed to them on unpaid invoices, expect the new fund to grow to $100 million over the short-to-medium term. Timelio has also raised $5 million in fresh equity, backed by Thorney and former ANZ Banking Group director John Dahlsen, a recent critic of the big banks. Timelio has facilitated $45 million in funding for small […]
Fintech could be bigger than ATMs, PayPal, and Bitcoin combined
We’ve entered the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs. No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new financial technology (“fintech”) revolution. The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some of the most powerful names in the financial world: The most contentious conflicts (and partnerships) will be between startups that are completely reengineering decades-old practices, traditional power players who are furiously trying to adapt with their own innovations, and total disruption of established technology & processes: […]
NSW trade minister welcomes $1.1 billion tech company TransferWise to Sydney
A global tech company founded by Skype’s first employee and valued at $1.1 billion will set up shop in Sydney as it looks to strengthen its footing in the Asia-Pacific region. TransferWise CEO and co-founder Taavet Hinrikus says the rapid take-up of their international money transfers platform in Australia prompted them to expand down under. “Sydney is a great city and we’re looking forward to becoming part of the tech community,” he says. “Since launching TransferWise here, it’s become one of our fastest-growing routes.” New South Wales minister for trade Stuart Ayres says the government has been actively driving efforts to attract fast growing companies to the state in 10 […]
