Macquarie slips $20m into Stocard’s mobile wallet
Mobile wallet firm Stocard has landed $20 million from Macquarie Capital, with follow-on financing from original investors Shortcut, Alstin, Rocketship, HTGF and Engelhorn. Stocard co-founder and chief executive Bjorn Goss said the company would use the funds to launch a mobile payment functionality, recruit 40 employees across engineering, sales and marketing, and expand into new markets starting with the opening of its Paris office this week, then Toronto in the coming weeks. “It’s no longer a question that wallets will go mobile; the question is around how to execute the transition with the consumer’s best experience in mind,” he said. “Digital will reshape the shopping process and experience, as mobile […]
Brighte set to accelerate growth with $18.5m in funding
Sydney-based home energy fintech, Brighte, closes 18 months of strong growth with a Series B equity round of $18.5m. The round was led by Airtree Ventures and also includes Skip Capital, the Milgrom Family and further investment from Grok Ventures. Brighte is a digital credit platform offering affordable point-of-sale payment solutions for home energy improvements such as solar panels and batteries. In its first eighteen months it has over approved over $50m of applications from 6,000+ Australian homeowners. This stellar growth has been the result of a fully digital, innovative product being brought to the home improvements market as demand surges from everyday Australians for solutions to rising energy costs. […]
Prospa float reveals a new world of online business financing
Online small business lender Prospa is set to hit the ASX on June 6 with a market capitalisation of $576 million. It’s a lofty valuation for a relatively new business lender with a net loan book of $200 million and a statutory net profit in the 2017 financial year of just $1.2 million. But the number – settled after an institutional book build for Prospa shares last Thursday – points to the aggressive growth aspirations for the Sydney-based group, which is raising $146 million in an initial public offering fully-underwritten by Macquarie Capital and UBS. In its prospectus filed with the corporate regulator on Monday morning, Prospa said it expects to originate […]
Top-20 banks should be investing in disruptors, says Reinventure co-founder Simon Cant
As Reinventure announces its third $50 million fintech investment fund, co-founder and managing director Simon Cant says its important for big banks to invest in the very startups that are disrupting their industry. The latest fund brings the Westpac-backed VC firm’s total funds under management to $150 million, and follows two previous funds, which have invested in 20 startups. Cant tells StartupSmart that, under its independent venture capital structure, Reinventure is focused on ensuring “our interests are financially aligned with those of the entrepreneur”. Specifically, this third fund will be looking for startups that could be relevant to top-20 banks and their global operations. While Cant says Reinventure will still […]
FinTech Australia announce finalist for The Finnies 2018
FinTech Australia and Jobs for NSW have come together for the second year to host the national fintech awards, The Finnies. The Finnies will culminate in a Gala Awards Night Wednesday 13 June 2018 in Sydney. For more information go here. Here is the full list of finalists for the 2018 Finnies: Best Workplace Diversity ● BRICKX ● FirstStep Investments ● Link4 ● Valiant Finance Emerging FinTech Leader of the Year ● Brad Delamare – CEO, Tank Stream Labs ● Louis Edwards – Head of Renewable Energy Finance, RateSetter Australia ● Nick Molnar – Co-Founder & CEO, Afterpay ● Jack O’Reilly – Director, funding.com.au ● Rebecca Schot-Guppy – Community Manager, […]
Westpac puts another $50 million into VC fund Reinventure
Westpac Banking Corp has triple-downed on its corporate venture capital fund Reinventure Group, investing a further $50 million into a third fund to bring its total commitment to early stage fintechs to $150 million. A week after Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer described the 20 start-up investments made by Reinventure’s first two $50 million funds as a new “strategic asset” for the bank, Westpac is providing Reinventure co-founders Danny Gilligan and Simon Cant with an additional $50 million to be invested under a more flexible structure. The third fund will consist of a unit trust stapled to an early stage venture capital limited partnerships (ESVCLPs), a new structure that will allow […]
Ex-NAB execs raise $15m to disrupt home loan market with new start-up Athena
Macquarie Capital and Square Peg are the lead investors in a $15 million funding round for fintech start-up Athena, which aims to use the latest technology to steal a march on the big banks in the competitive home loans market. The firm purports to connect home buyers with loans backed directly by the superannuation industry and was founded by former NAB bankers Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkey. They have built a cloud-based digital home loan platform, which they claim will save some borrowers currently with the big four banks up to $100,000 over the life of a loan. The latest capital raise, which also had participation from Apex Capital and […]
Westpac says fintech partnerships paying off
Westpac’s $100 million investment in the Reinventure venture capital fund is paying off for the bank, according to group CEO Brian Hartzer. Reinventure has made 20 investments in areas including distributed ledger technology, payments, data analytics, digital currencies, social networking and P2P lending. Those investments are increasingly a strategic asset for Westpac, Hartzer told a briefing on the bank’s first half results. “These investments have helped build Westpac’s reputation as a good partner for fintech companies and this is now paying off in our core business,” the CEO said. He cited as an example the launch in April of Presto Smart, which integrates point-of-sale systems with merchant payment terminals. “Presto […]
