ALI Group in lead generation agreement with fintech
Loan protection specialist ALI Group has partnered with HashChing to provide mortgage brokers with access to a consistent source of new leads. The partnership will now provide ALI authorised mortgage brokers the opportunity to use their ALI reward points to access HashChing leads and client tools. “We’re excited to partner with HashChing to help brokers build their business. We’re committed to supporting broker businesses and helping them access leads and new clients is a very direct way of doing this,” ALI Group CEO Huy Truong said. “We will continue to add similar products/services to the ALI Rewards Program over the coming month,” he said. HashChing is a lead generation platform […]
Millennials to drive huge passive funds management switch, threatening jobs
The massive generational group of Millennials will accelerate the seismic shift to passive fund management as they seek to grow and protect their wealth, costing the jobs of more stock-picking professionals, according to investment specialists. Jay Pelosky, principal of New York-based Pelosky Global Strategies, said the Millennials’ greater experience with technology compared with Baby Boomers, distrust of so-called “experts” since the 2008-09 financial crisis and debt burdens from university education, meant they were attracted to low-fee automated investing such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and robo advice. “There will be a much greater and sustained move towards passive investing in part because of the Millennials,” said Mr Pelosky, a former Morgan […]
Intuit believes it can steal market share from Xero and MYOB
The head of accounting for global accounting software giant Intuit has thrown down the gauntlet to local leaders MYOB and Xero, saying it will win market share from the major players and emerge to be the dominant force in the region. “We have internal projections where we think we’ll be at the same level of market share as Xero in the next few years,” Intuit global head of accounting Richard Preece told The Australian Financial Review. “Those companies had a significant head start in terms of time in the market… so we have to have the best product to drive market share. We believe the biggest opportunity is that the […]
VentureCrowd CEO Vivian Stewart slams lengthy crowdfunding legislation process
The newly appointed chief executive of crowd-sourced equity funding platform VentureCrowd, Vivian Stewart, has labelled the leisurely pace at which the government passed equity crowdfunding funding laws “embarrassing”. “Aussies are entrepreneurial and we’ve earned the right to stand on the world stage,” the renowned tech entrepreneur and investor told The Australian Financial Review. “But sometimes structural things around the way we do business have let us down. The delay in getting the crowd-sourced equity funding legislation up and running here is an example of an un-Australian way of not being innovative. It was embarrassing to see these other large first world countries moving faster than us.” The comments from Mr […]
Payout platform Hyperwallet expands into Sydney to target growth in APAC
Vancouver-founded, San Francisco-based payments startup Hyperwallet has expanded into Australia, looking to target growth across the Asia Pacific region from its new Sydney base. It will also have a number of staff on the ground in Melbourne. The company operates a global payout system, effectively allowing companies to easily pay out employees, contractors, or service providers in their local currency. With the gig economy a strong market for Hyperwallet, Australia and the wider APAC region are ripe for growth. The Australian office will be headed up by managing director and senior vice president of APAC, Simon Banks, a former PayPal executive. Appointed in March, Banks said the region is punching […]
Fintech to help consumers be their own broker
A new platform is soon to be launched that uses technology instead of a mortgage broker to help consumers find the right home loan. The fintech, Hero BroKer, aims to give back to the consumer by giving them access to the complete home loan application process. “By providing the right tools and technology to the borrower, we let them control their finances so they’re not reliant on a broker. They effectively become their own broker,” Clint Howen, founder of Hero BroKer told Australian Broker. The Hero BroKer model is similar to other tech players such as Airbnb, Howen said. “Airbnb looked at a sea of houses. They built a platform […]
NAB-owned UBank launches robot to sell home loans
In a first for an Australian bank, NAB-owned UBank has launched an artificial intelligence “chatbot” for home loans. Using IBM Watson’s supercomputer technology, it aims to reduce the time it takes to complete an application for a home loan, by providing real-time answers to questions that is available 24/7. Called RoboChat, it has been trained using data collected from customer questions and will continue to learn as more customers engage with it, becoming smarter and more user-friendly over time. Users ask it questions such as “what term do you offer on home loans” and “do you offer redraws and how do they work”, with RoboChat offering on-the-spot help. A handful […]
ATO recognises fintech start-up Gobbill as Early Stage Innovation Company
The Australian Taxation Office has ruled that technology start-up company Gobbill satisfies the requirements to be an Early Stage Innovation Company (ESIC). Gobbill is a new digital service to automate and centralise all bill payments, giving users a streamlined solution offering greater security and increased control of their finances. The start-up is sponsored by Microsoft’s BizSpark program and is also a partner of Stay Safe Online, a Commonwealth initiative to protect Australians from cyber related crimes. New users can sign up for a free account at gobbill.com.au The ATO ruling states, “Gobbill’s email bill innovation is the first holistic product that provides end-to-end processing using a digital service platform that […]
