The Pulse of Fintech
‘ The Pulse of Fintech ’ is a quarterly report created by KPMG along with KPMG Enterprise’s Global Network for Innovative Startups and CB Insights (the ‘go to’ name for insights related to venture capital investment) which launched on August 17th, 2016. The series analyses the latest global trends in venture capital investment data on the fintech sector. Given the significant interest in fintech globally, and its ongoing evolution in terms of market drivers, technologies and potential use-cases, KPMG and CB Insights are partnering to bring you the pulse on fintech investment globally. Each quarter, we’ll highlight key fintech deals, issues and challenges around the world, in addition to key […]
Barry Lambert backs robo-adviser Ignition Wealth
Financial planning pioneer and Australia’s 167th richest person Barry Lambert has taken another leap into the future, pairing his chairmanship of cloud-based self-managed super administrator Class with a $1 million stake in digitally led adviser Ignition Wealth. Class, which Lambert has chaired for eight years, on Tuesday announced a 71 per cent rise in net profit for the year ended June 30 to $5.83 million. Its Class Super product now administers more than 19 per cent of Australia’s 576,000 self-managed super funds. Ignition Wealth, launched in 2008 as a pure robo-adviser called Advice Connect, is also gaining traction since in February 2015 becoming the first digitally led adviser to be […]
Money for nothing, cheques for free in the sharing economy
THE bank of mum and dad is receiving a welcome cash injection as a growing number of households put a price on the things they previously gave away for free. More households are renting out a spare room, car sharing, selling goods and services and even lending to each other as the “sharing economy’’ expands, research shows. According to polling by RateSetter, some households are earning up to $120 a month. On the downside, however, all those people who benefited from the “free economy” are now having to wait their turn, or pay for it. Free rides, spare rooms, and even the kids’ old books and toys are increasingly thin […]
SelfWealth take out Australian Business Award for Software Innovation
SelfWealth has been recognised as an ABA100 Winner in The Australian Business Awards 2016 for Software Innovation. The award recognises SelfWealth’s achievements in the Financial Technology (fintech) industry through the research and development of SelfWealth INTELLIGENCE & TRADING. Andrew Ward Founder and Managing Director of SelfWealth says the award recognises the transformative nature of SelfWealth INTELLIGENCE & TRADING. “Winning the ABA100 award for Software Innovation in the Australian Business Awards means a great deal to us, we are passionate about providing financial technology to help investors achieve greater returns. Our team have worked tirelessly over the last few years building a solution that fits all investor’s needs. Winning this award […]
VentureCrowd stakes its claim as alternative investment option
Local equity-based crowd-funding platform VentureCrowd and residential property developer Clearstate have closed a second funding round, giving more than 50 investors 49 per cent equity of a development site in western Sydney. VentureCrowd’s crowd-funding platform allows investors to buy equity of a property development before it’s subdivided and sold, and former Credit Suisse adviser Mitchell Hopwood said he invested through his self-managed superannuation portfolio as an alternative to a listed property fund. “The Austral opportunity provided a relatively high, short-term return in a bite-size, easily understandable transaction that is fairly de-risked from an investment perspective,” he said. Mr Hopwood said the crowd-funding platform, believed to be the first of its […]
Westpac puts another $50 million into Reinventure
Westpac Banking Corp has doubled its exposure to venture capital, investing a further $50 million into a second fund to be managed by Reinventure Group to invest in fintech start-ups including those which could potentially disrupt the bank. The closure of Reinventure’s $50 million Fund 2 reflects Westpac’s belief that technology is reshaping financial markets and that the bank should hold equity stakes in a selection of potential disrupters as a defence mechanism to potential disintermediation. It also shows how Westpac wants to improve the experiences of its customers by developing relationships with start-ups. The second fund will be managed by Simon Cant and Danny Gilligan, the co-founders of Reinventure […]
FINCAST has secured a pilot programme with OCBC
Australian headquartered Fintech start-up, FINCAST, has secured a pilot programme with Singaporean headquartered Asian bank OCBC as its first deal. Managing Director and Co-Founder, Andrew Connors, commented, “the appetite for and commitment to innovation by Asian banks means the Australian big four banks are being left behind. Major Asian banks like OCBC aren’t just kicking the tyres on new technologies that will advance their business, they are firmly focussed on having a first-mover advantage by utilising technology”. “We are still hopeful that early adopters of our technology will include an Australian bank or corporate partner of our home, the Stone & Chalk Fintech hub”. The pilot between FINCAST […]
Fintech platform revenues set for massive rise: Juniper
Fintech platform revenues for unsecured consumer loans issued using machine learning technology are set to jump by a whopping 960% globally over the next six years, according to new research from Juniper. According to the latest report on the worldwide Fintech market from Juniper Research, revenues will rise to US$17 billion by 2021, with spending advancing rapidly due to the highly data-driven nature of the market, “meaning that AI integration is likely to spell substantial benefits”. Juniper says that until recently, machine learning was too expensive and computationally time-intensive to break into the mainstream, while access to extensive data sets for algorithm training were limited. Research author Steffen Sorrell says […]
