Melbourne ‘buy now, pay later’ fintech Openpay just raised $10 million and cancelled IPO
Openpay has completed a $10 million capital raising round, and revealed it has cancelled plans for an initial public offering. The $10 million, which was originally marked as a pre-IPO round, came from “a group of investors” that included existing backer Meydan Group, as well as Investec and SL Investments Group. The company did not comment on the reasons for cancelling the IPO plans. Business Insider understands that chief executive Simon Scalzo departed the company in August after less than a year at the helm, with chairperson Avi Schechter currently acting as the public face of the fintech. The latest investment also sees Investec head of emerging companies David Phillips […]
Australia a target for international fintechs
Australia’s wealth management industry is an attractive prospect for foreign technology firms and will likely see international players enter the market in coming years, a Microsoft report has found. The Moving Past Prosperity report, which the tech giant conducted in conjunction with Harvard Business Review, said that while payments and lending dominate the Australian fintech landscape, wealth management technology is growing rapidly, according to KPMG data. “Australia hosts the world’s sixth largest pool of funds under management, substantially filled by its compulsory superannuation scheme,” the report said. “With its potential for scale and cost savings through robo-advice, wealth management is expected to attract many international entrants.” Added to this is […]
Fintech startup, Trade Ledger, launches world-first tech to help banks fight off global tech giants
Career technologists, Martin McCann and Dr. Matthias Born, are launching a world-first lending tech for banks and traditional lenders that will help to equip them against competition from tech giants such as Facebook, Tencent, and eBay wanting to enter financial services. Trade Ledger is the world’s first business lending platform that transforms digital data from business supply chains in real time, allowing banks to assess and regularly update credit and default risk of businesses they lend to. Currently this is only done on a one-off or infrequent basis on a very small sample of invoices, and not on any other trade documents. The platform will finally give banks more advanced network and data […]
Backing local talent to build the Australian FinTech sector
New scholarship announced to grow future FinTech leaders FinTech may be the talk of the town, but it’s nothing if it doesn’t move forward. To ensure the industry keeps innovating, and to give back to the country supporting their battle against the ‘big dogs’ of the FinTech world, Nifty Personal Loans (Nifty) has launched a scholarship program. To pave the way for the business and finance leaders of tomorrow, Nifty has announced that they will be giving one Bachelor or Masters Business, Finance or IT student a helping hand in the form of a $2500 lump sum each semester which can be used for university fees, resources and technology, research materials […]
Afterpay surges as sales head for $1.5b
Lay-by payments service Afterpay Touch says its underlying annualised sales are on track to surpass $1.5 billion as more major brands sign up. The fintech’s first quarter sales hit $367 million, up from $271 million in the fourth quarter of 2016/17, and comes after Target, Luxottica and Petbarn recently adopted its online payments system. Shares in Afterpay jumped 48 cents, or 10.2 per cent, to $5.18 on the company’s quarterly sales update. Afterpay says more than 8,600 merchants are now on board, up from about 6,000 on June 30. And more brands are expected to join up in the second quarter. “Significant development of partnership and platform initiatives in the […]
Australian FinTech and Avila Financial Solutions partnership, a step forward for Fintech and Start-ups
Last week Avila Financial Solutions joined Australian FinTech’s lending partners portfolio. This partnership shows the relentless determination of both companies in the support of the SME, Fintech and Start-Up industries of Australia. Avila Financial Solutions is an alternative finance company that has been leveraging their knowledge and solutions to add value to Small and Medium sized businesses since 2015. They focus on providing tailored cashflow solutions such as Invoice Financing, Supplier Financing, R&D financing and Factoring. With over 80% of their portfolio being SMEs, they have developed a very good understanding of small business needs and have built a solid experience tailoring these solutions to specific challenges impacting the SME […]
MyDeal partners with Prospa on new business loans service
Online retail marketplace MyDeal.com.au has launched a business loans service in partnership with fintech lender Prospa, offering unsecured loans which it claims will accelerate the growth of retailers. According to MyDeal Marketplace, retailers who list their products through it can now apply for a business loan of up to $250,000 directly through their supplier management system and “in many cases receive the funding in under 24 hours”. MyDeal.com.au chief executive Sean Senvirtne says MyDeal Marketplace loans are designed to assist with a variety of common scenarios which small businesses face including expansion costs and the need to access rapid funding to secure an opportunity. Senvirtne says the decision to diversify […]
Mortgage fintech looks to blockchain for home loans
The CEO and founder of an online mortgage platform has revealed that the fintech is looking into how it can utilise blockchain to make the home loan contract process more efficient. Speaking at the Informa Credit Law Conference, Mandeep Sodhi, the CEO of HashChing, revealed that the platform was looking into the distributed ledger technology for mortgages. When asked by The Adviser what HashChing was using blockchain for, Mr Sodhi said: “We have been exploring blockchain in the home loan contract, smart contract space and securitisation as well. “It’s more in the future roadmap but mostly around how quickly can we exchange a contract – through smart contracts. But also, […]
