HashChing cracks the growth hacking code with young millennials
Growth hacking – the new buzzword for the techies – a growth strategy for businesses heartily embraced by many bold and out of the box startups and denounced by the conventional marketer. Simply put, growth hacking refers to using creative and technical marketing techniques with the sole purpose of growth. Current online users are quite wary of signing up on websites and providing their personal information. A lot of talent and creativity is required to engage them to sign up for a website or subscription; exactly what growth hackers do by organizing cool competitions, building email lists, offering double sided referrals and much more. If you are a start-up planning […]
Federal government set to introduce “regulatory sandbox” to help early-stage fintechs
Treasurer Scott Morrison has outlined the government’s plans to remove regulatory hurdles for early-stage startups in a move that could further push Australia towards being a regional leader for fintech, Fintech Melbourne founder Andrew Lai says. Morrison says a range of policy changes, including the introduction of a “regulatory sandbox”, will be released next week with the aim of helping entrepreneurs commercialise financial services technologies and cut through the red tape, as the Sydney Morning Herald reports. It follows a meeting between government representatives and a newly formed fintech advisory council last week. A regulatory sandbox was also one of three core policy requests from national body Fintech Australia, presented […]
Start-ups to banks: Wake up, Australia
It is Australia’s great sense of complacency that has opened the big four banks up to competition from an array of fintech disruptors, who are forming their own ecosystems to challenge the majors. That was the key message from a panel of financial technology players at a business conference yesterday who argued that the $30 billion of net profits made by the banking oligopoly each year made them a fair target. “Bluntly, the Australian consumer gets screwed at every single step of the way — credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, credit card fees,” says Mitchel Harad of the peer-to-peer lender, SocietyOne, whose backers include Kerry Stokes, James Packer, and […]
Invoice trading is the new darling of Australia’s fintech loan market
Invoice trading, where companies put up their unpaid invoices to get cash for their businesses, is booming in Australia. It’s grown from almost nothing two years ago to $US105 million ($A140 million) in 2015, according to the first comprehensive research of the fintech loan market in Asia-Pacific. This alternative way for small businesses to raise cash has been made possible by the rise of digital networks and tools, making it easier for startup fintech players to connect with borrowers to grab a slice of a loan market which has traditionally belonged to banks. Australia’s alternative finance market — including peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding — grew 320% to $US348 million ($A466 […]
Fintech start-up Afterpay plans ASX listing
Fintech start-up Afterpay — backed by legendary corporate raider Ron Brierley and a host of alumni from his former Guinness Peat Group — plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange to supercharge growth plans after signing up more than 100 retailers to its online e-commerce product in the past nine months. Afterpay, whose backers include Mr Brierley’s ASX-listed Mercantile Investment Company, LinkedIn Southeast Asia managing director Cliff Rosenberg and Melbourne IVF founder John McBain, plans to raise $25 million in a float that will value the company at about $150m. Mr Brierley’s Mercantile last year bankrolled an $8m capital raising by the company. Mercantile is expected to emerge with […]
Treasurer Scott Morrison tells big regulators to prepare for new fintech rules
Australia’s top financial regulators have been told by Treasurer Scott Morrison to prepare for a new system to regulate financial technology start-ups that will allow entrepreneurs to spend more time building business ideas and less time navigating complex financial services regulations. The federal government is expected to release next week policy changes to support the growth of fintech companies threatening to disrupt banking incumbents. This will include a “regulatory sandbox” scheme, which will allow fintech startups to test their products and systems in a controlled environment. Under the proposal, early stage start-ups would be able to avoid extensive regulatory licence applications, which can eat up seed capital before they determine […]
A quarter of bank revenue may be lost to disrupters: PwC
Incumbent banks throughout the world are bracing for the loss of almost a quarter of their revenue to financial technology disrupters during the next five years, a global survey by PwC has found. PwC’s global fintech report, published on Tuesday, finds 95 per cent of bankers believe at least some of their business will be given up to fintech players in the coming years. PwC’s Asia Fintech leader, John Shipman, said he was surprised the number wasn’t 100 per cent. “Almost all of the financial services clients I’ve spoken to acknowledge that fintechs either now or very shortly will have the ability to disrupt the majority of their business,” Mr […]
Fintechs push Morrison to enhance quality of credit data
Treasurer Scott Morrison has been urged to turn his encouraging words about fintech into action by pushing the big banks to share more information about customers to boost competition. In an article published in Thursday’s The Australian Financial Review, Mr Morrison said fintech could become a driver of economic growth and said the quality of data was important to those companies seeking to disrupt incumbents. Exactly two years since the comprehensive credit reporting (CCR) regime came into force, the fintech industry wants the government to mandate the regime and to extend the categories of data it captures. Data reported under the CCR allows competitors to the big banks to price […]
