Prospa raises $20m from Partners for Growth
Online business lender Prospa has raised $20 million from Silicon Valley-based Partners for Growth through a tailored debt facility that will allow it to ramp up loans and further develop its technology allowing credit assessments to be made in seconds. Prospa, which has lent more than $400 million to small businesses, up from $250 million in February after a strong fourth quarter, has deals with 4000 distribution partners, including finance brokers and cloud accounting platforms. It also has a referral partnership with Westpac Banking Corp. Prospa chief financial officer Ed Bigazzi said some of the new capital will be used for product development, including in invoice financing, and a stronger […]
Do fintech platforms spell the end of banking as we know it?
There are around 400 fintech companies in Australia at the moment, as a country we’re ranked fifth in the world for fintech adoption, and our use of mobile banking apps doubled in the last two years. So do emerging fintech platforms spell the end of traditional banking as we know it? According to a Swift Institute report on the API economy and digital transformation in financial services, the days of big banking aren’t over – but there are plenty of changes coming in the way we manage our finances. Collaboration is key Rather than fintech companies replacing traditional banks, it seems collaboration between the two may be the future of […]
Search for 2017 Fintech 100 innovators kicks off
Nominations are now open for the 2017 KPMG & H2 Ventures Fintech 100, the annual list designed to recognize leading fintech innovators. Visit www.fintechinnovators.com by Thursday, 31 August 2017 and nominate your company, or any fintech you think should be considered for the Fintech 100. The Fintech100, available at www.fintechinnovators.com, is compiled by fintech investment firm, H2 Ventures in collaboration with KPMG’s Global Fintech practice. The annual Fintech 100 includes both the leading 50 established fintechs, and the most intriguing 50 “emerging stars.” How to nominate and the judging process: Nominations for the Fintech 100 can be made at www.fintechinnovators.com website by Thursday, 31 August 2017. […]
Fintech the future
According to Kate Carnell, there have been less than 10 complaints about fintech operators in Australia since March 2016. “None of these have been fully-fledged complaints,” the small business ombudsman says. “It was more a misunderstanding or even confusion as to the contract they entered.” Burgeoning industry There are an estimated 600 fintech operators in Australia. The industry is burgeoning and continues to attract new players, so receiving less than double-digit complaints in 16 months isn’t a bad track record. “In addition to those 600 there’s probably another 20 to 30 overseas-based fintech companies that are operating here such as PayPal, Stripe and Square, for example,” says Cameron Dart, Australian […]
Prospa’s Telstra Business Award win puts the fintech sector ‘on the map’, says co-founder
Online small business loan provider Prospa has become the first fintech company to win Telstra’s NSW Medium Business Award, with co-CEO Beau Bertoli stating that the accolade shows fintech is “no longer just some startup idea”. Bertoli, who founded Prospa with Greg Moshal in 2011, spoke to Dynamic Business about the five-year-old company’s victory at the 2017 NSW Telstra Business Awards. DB:What does the win mean for Prospa and how useful was the experience? Bertoli: We were a Telstra Business Awards finalist in 2015 and 2016, which was very encouraging but it meant there was room for improvement. We’re pumped to have taken out the crown this year – third […]
Prospa announced as NSW state winner in 2017 Telstra Business Awards
Prospa, Australia’s leading online lender to small business, has been awarded the 2017 Telstra New South Wales Medium Business Award in the 2017 Telstra Business Awards. Prospa is the first fintech company to be awarded the accolade and this year’s win follows the company’s third consecutive appearance as a finalist at the Telstra Business Awards. Over the past five years, Prospa has disrupted a previously traditional industry by transforming the way small business owners experience finance, injecting more than $400m into the Australian small business economy through over 12,000 loans to small business owners. Alongside this growth, Prospa has maintained extremely high customer satisfaction of over 90%, as well as […]
Peer-to-peer lending remains unfamiliar for borrowers and investors
IT’S one of the fastest-growing financial products in Australia but two-thirds of us still have no idea what peer-to-peer lending is. New research by Finder.com.au has found despite the sector growing from one to eight lenders since it launched in Australia in 2012, 65 per cent of consumers don’t know about it and women are less likely than men to understand and use it. Peer-to-peer providers such as SocietyOne, Direct Money and RateSetter are fintech companies that link investors with borrowers using online platforms, typically offering better interest rates than people get from the banks. “Generally P2P providers may have fewer funds to spend on marketing,” Finder spokeswoman Bessie Hassan […]
What online finance can give you that the Big Four can’t
With dissatisfaction among the big banks continuing to rise, more Australian SMEs are attempting to figure out how they can use alternative lenders to grow their businesses. But that’s easier said than done. With so many alternative lenders arriving in Australia, it can be difficult for SMEs to figure out which is going to best suit their needs for unsecured business loans. How can they start? According to the recent SmartCompany SME survey, which questioned hundreds of SMEs around Australia, 25% of readers said they wanted to get a business loan in two years. Of those, 51% said they would approach one of the big four banks, and 31% would […]
