Investec funding for H2’s fintech accelerator backed by NSW government
Niche lender Investec has increased its funding facility for the fintech accelerator H2 Ventures by $4 million, in a deal that has been partially underwritten by the NSW government, which says it is willing to provide more guarantees to encourage venture capital funding. H2 Ventures says it remains committed to raising an unlisted, $30 million fintech investment fund this year, after it was forced to pull the ASX float of H2Ocean last October despite the backing of high-profile technology industry investors when it failed to raise minimum subscription levels. The unlisted version will invest in several of the 40 new fintech start-ups that will enter the H2 accelerator over the […]
Crowdfunding’s $100m kickstart making Aussie start-ups pozible
Platforms Australia-based Pozible, which launched in 2010, tops Australian campaigns launched (about 11,400), most successful campaigns (around 6500) and dollar value raised (about $46 million). Pozible also has the highest success rate at 58 per cent. At about 24 per cent, New York-based Kickstarter, which opened to Australians in 2013, has a lower success rate. But on average Kickstarter campaigns raise more money, with about 1500 Australian campaigns raising nearly $32 million dollars. A list of the top 20 Australian projects on San Francisco-based Indiegogo shows more than $27 million has been raised since the platform launched in Australia in 2010. However, about 67 per cent of Indiegogo’s total dollar […]
Robo advice start-up Six Park closes $1.5m capital raise
Melbourne-based robo-adviser Six Park has closed a $1.5 million capital raise from a powerful group of investors that includes a former finance minister.
VentureCrowd completes first Israeli crowdfunding deal with Knowmail
VentureCrowd, Australia’s leading alternative assets investment platform, today announced the successful completion of a $155,000 crowdfunding round for Knowmail. The company is the first Israeli startup to be funded through VentureCrowd under a partnership with investment management firm Kentgrove Capital. VentureCrowd raised $155,000 in convertible notes, as part of a larger US$3 million funding round led by reputable venture capital firms CE Ventures, AfterDox, Plus Ventures and 2B Angels. The investment gave sophisticated investors on the VentureCrowd platform the opportunity to access convertible notes at an interest rate of 4.5 per cent per annum. Knowmail, one of few startups to participate in the Microsoft Accelerator Program, is creating an artificial […]
Upstart fintechs learn to live with industry ‘elders’
As 2016 closes, the relationship between legacy institutions and fintech companies has reached another turning point. Fintech, the brash upstart, was initially intent on dominance through total disruption, but it now has a grudging respect for the scale, if not the agility, of the industry’s decades-old incumbents. If phase one was all-out disruption, the dominant feature of phase two has been collaboration, with phase three likely to be some kind of hybrid model. The hype that lasted several years has been diluted by a recognition that most fintech companies operate in a small, targeted niche of the financial services value chain, with very few aiming to take over the entire […]
Start-up women gain $1m to break mould
A $1 million program targeted at female entrepreneurs has been launched to shake up the start-up sector to change its image as one dominated by “blokes in hoodies and sneakers”. Start-up accelerator BlueChilli, with the support of GSK Australia, has created SheStarts, a national accelerator program and campaign to turbocharge female leadership in the start-up economy. BlueChilli’s head of diversity and impact, Nicola Hazell, who is also director of SheStarts, said there was a huge gender gap in that part of the economy. “Australia is looking at how we transform our economy to be innovative and technology-led but we are building an economy where women are missing in action,” she […]
Media mogul-backed bank challenger close to breaking even
SocietyOne, a peer-to-peer lender that is partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Stokes and James Packer’s companies, expects to start making profits within the next 12 to 18 months. The start-up lender has in recent years been heavily investing in marketing, technology and new staff as it seeks to establish peer-to-peer lending on Australia’s financial landscape, pinching some of the profits banks make from the $100 billion personal credit market. After a year of rapid loan growth, chief executive Jason Yetton said the lender now faced the prospect of breaking even, though this would depend on how much it invested. “We think it can reach profitability over the next 12 […]
Crowdfunding opened to companies up to $25m
Unlisted public companies with less than $25 million in assets and turnover will soon be able to raise capital via crowd-sourced equity funding, thanks to a new bill introduced by the Coalition on Thursday. The long-awaited bill comes almost a year after the government first tried to introduce the legislation, only for it to be knocked back by the Senate. The new bill has a few amendments from the original legislation, including expanding the size of the unlisted public companies that can access this type of funding from only those with less than $5 million in assets, to $25 million. If the legislation is passed, these small businesses will be […]
