Fintech fund Reinventure seeking riskier investments
Armed with a $50 million cheque from Westpac and many lessons from their first fund, Danny Gilligan and Simon Cant are dialling up the risk. Not the type that raises eyebrows in banking, but rather trying to get more blockbuster returns out of the more mainstream fintech industry, even if that means failing often. “If you look at the data out of the US, the greatest risk as a venture capitalist is that you don’t take enough risk,” Gilligan told The Australian in their first interview since the founders of venture capitalist group Reinventure raised their second fund. “The worst-performing VC funds in the US, 50 per cent of the […]
Fintech Cover Genius expands to the US
Australian fintech Cover Genius, which enables ecommerce companies to sell insurance to their audiences, is expanding to the US with an office in Austin, Texas. Cover Genius, formed by former Google and Yahoo executives in 2014, already has offices in Sydney and London. “Being near the insurance hub of Dallas brings us closer to multiple underwriting partners, and our location in Austin puts us in the new epicentre of the tech industry in the US,” says Chris Bayley, Cover Genius co-founder and CEO. Cover Genius works with global underwriters to provide an end-to-end solution, using its BrightWrite platform, for companies selling insurance products via online platforms. The move to the […]
How this fintech startup is improving content marketing and lead generation
Financial marketplace startup, Neu.Capital, claims cost per acquisition has dropped by 60 per cent and content marketing quality has gone up after implementing an inbound marketing and sales platform. The company was formed in 2015, and provides an alternative capital marketplace for established mid-sized Australian and New Zealand companies looking to raise debt or equity of up to $100 million. The matchmaking service officially launched in August with six deals live in the platform, two to launch in coming weeks, then several more in January 2017. It also plans to launch in the UK in Q1 next year. Neu.Capital co-founder, Joshua Khoddami, told CMO lead generation activity had been going […]
Stone & Chalk says the new paradigm is outside-in innovation
It should come as no surprise that Alex Scandurra, chief executive officer Stone & Chalk, is a passionate advocate of collaboration: the raison d’être, justification, objective and mission statement of Stone & Chalk is to help foster and accelerate the development of world-leading fintech start-ups, by leveraging greater collaboration between stakeholders in the fintech eco-system. Stone & Chalk itself is a collaborative effort between fintech entrepreneurs, venture capital (VC) firms, companies, academia and government, to incubate and nurture financial services-focused tech start-ups in ways not seen in Australia before. “Collaboration is at the core of what we do, and it’s one of the main reasons why we’ve been able to […]
LoanDolphin completes $1.1 million seed funding
LoanDolphin, Australia’s leading loan bidding platform, has successfully raised a total of $1.1 million from key investors to expand its presence in major capital cities in a bid to claim a stake in Australia’s $1.5 trillion home loan market. Strategic investor Barry Lambert provided $1 million, with the remainder from fintech investment firm H2 Ventures. Mr Lambert founded Count Financial in 1980 and sold the company to Commonwealth Bank in 2011 for $373 million. The seed funding values the Sydney-based fintech startup at $5 million post capital raising rounds. LoanDolphin is a free online platform for people to refinance or obtain new home loans at rates […]
EY FinTech Australia Census 2016
FinTech Australia and EY Sweeney release the most comprehensive analysis of Australia’s fintech ecosystem to date, the EY FinTech Australia Census 2016 FinTech Australia and EY Sweeney are today releasing the inaugural EY FinTech Australia Census 2016, the most comprehensive and detailed report on the Australian fintech industry to date. The research was formally launched in Melbourne today by EY’s Anita Kimber at FinTech Australia’s national summit, Collab/Collide 2016 in partnership with LaunchVic. This significant piece of research was commissioned by FinTech Australia as part of their efforts to foster a thriving fintech ecosystem in Australia. The report identifies important characteristics of the Australian fintech industry, and establishes a set […]
Thorney invests in Timelio fund for invoice financing
Thorney Investment Group has seeded the Timelio Capital Fund, a new unit trust to be offered to institutional investors seeking a diversified exposure to the emerging asset class of invoice financing. Thorney and Timelio, a Melbourne-based fintech that has built a peer-to-peer platform allowing small businesses to access funding based on the amount of money owed to them on unpaid invoices, expect the new fund to grow to $100 million over the short-to-medium term. Timelio has also raised $5 million in fresh equity, backed by Thorney and former ANZ Banking Group director John Dahlsen, a recent critic of the big banks. Timelio has facilitated $45 million in funding for small […]
AtlasTrend completes $2.8m capital raising
Australian based fintech and global equities fund manager, AtlasTrend, is pleased to advise that it has completed a capital raising of $2.8m to grow its online investment platform and progress its continued disruption of the trillion dollar traditional funds management sector. AtlasTrend provides retail and sophisticated investors with online access to proprietary investment insights and an easy way to invest in four exclusive global equities funds, with portfolios aligned to global investment megatrends focused on where the world is heading – Big Data, Online Shopping, Healthy Lifestyle, and Baby Boomers. AtlasTrend completed the capital raising through new and existing investors, with notable investors including some of the early backers of […]
