Women-only ride-sharing startup Shebah bags $3 million in biggest-ever equity-crowdfunding raise
Australian women-only ride-sharing platform Shebah has broken the record for the most amount raised under Australia’s new equity-crowdfunding regime, pulling in a total of $3 million over its month-long campaign. Midway through March, the company cracked the $1 million mark for its crowdfunding campaign, and in the final minutes of the raise last night it pulled over the $3 million mark on crowdfunding platform Birchal, meaning the raise was fully subscribed. Speaking to StartupSmart, Shebah founder George McEncroe said while she is still a bit shocked, she felt “just stoked, delighted beyond words”. “I’m so relieved and amazed, and I feel really supported, and also a bit daunted. I’ve got […]
Fintech Start-Ups invited to apply to Accenture 2019 FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific
To be eligible for the Accenture 2019 FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, startups must have a working version of their technology/solution for financial institutions Applications are now being accepted for Accenture’s annual FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, a 12-week program that helps early- and growth-stage fintech companies accelerate product and business development through mentorship with executives from top financial institutions. Fintech entrepreneurs developing cutting-edge products, services and technologies are invited to apply now until May 10. The sixth year of the Lab comes after global fintech investments more than doubled in 2018, to US$55.3 billion, led by a surge in funding to start-ups in mainland China, as well as by record fintech […]
Australian FinTech company profile #1 – Investfit
For exclusive members of Australian FinTech we’re going to do a Company Profile on each company and post it on our website, share it to our 10,000+ global social media followers and have it appear in our weekly newsletter which goes out to over 3,000 subscribers. Here is our very first profile for Investfit: 1. Company Name: Investfit 2. Website: www.investfit.io 3. Key Staff & Titles: James Claridge, CEO, Co-founder Ed de Salis, Sales Director, Co-founder Gavin Daw, Technology Director, Co-founder Antony Pritchett, CTO 4. Location(s): Sydney 5. In one sentence, what does your fintech do?: Technology that helps financial advisors provide better, lower cost, lower risk […]
Square partners with Australia’s community banks to help regional SMBs go digital
Today, global payments provider Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) announced it is teaming up with Unity Bank, Southern Cross Credit Union and the WAW Credit Union in a string of regional partnerships that will give more small businesses outside of Australia’s capital cities greater access to innovative payments technology. Small businesses across regional New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland will be able to benefit from the new partnerships and will see affiliated branches provide access to the iconic Square card reader for contactless and chip for just $59. Customers will also receive fee-free card processing for their first $1,000 worth of sales to help them get started. Square’s Country Manager […]
What are the potential uses for emerging blockchain technologies?
When you say the word “blockchain” most people jump instantly to cryptocurrencies, but this is just one of the many uses for the new technology. Blockchain isn’t just a form of online currency, but in fact is a security and information storage system with a number of potential applications that are encouraged by incubator companies such as Block8. What is blockchain? A blockchain is a list of linked records (like blocks in a chain) that are linked through cryptography. A block cannot be modified, however new blocks can be added to the chain with new information. The chain thus contains a record of all modifications that have been made to […]
TabSquare extends Zingrill’s custom POS and lifts average check value by 12%
Today’s consumers are extremely hard to please. In our instant, technology-driven world, we have high expectations that our demands will be met with a minimum of delay. In fact, a retail survey has reported that if you keep customers waiting more than 10 minutes, 48% of them will assume your business is poorly run and the other 52% will vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere. The food and beverage industry, in particular, is a victim of our impatience. How often have you walked into a quick service restaurant (QSR) and turned around and headed right back out when you’ve seen a long queue? Encouragingly though, 87% of […]
Sending money overseas with Bitcoin
Bitcoin has a lot of uses in real life. It makes payments much easier by allowing people to pay from anywhere in the world. In that sense, it also helps the e-commerce industry. It allows business owners to expand their market reach and add another mode of payment. Another real-life use is Bitcoin’s ability to preserve wealth. Countries with struggling economies can use bitcoin to preserve the value of their native currencies. With all those real-life uses, we have yet to mention the one that stands out the most: remittances. According to a report on Clovr, cryptocurrencies take 15.8% of the total money being sent across the world in 2018. […]
Blockchain boost as HSBC links Australia and China
Blockchain has long been cited as one of the upcoming technologies to solve many of the world’s current financial problems when it comes to cross-border trade, and it appears to have taken another step forward this week as HSBC confirms it has been able to link a transaction between Australia and China. The development is based on the use of a Letter of Credit (LC) format, which is typically a paper-based format that makes up a significant proportion of trading in China and being able to digitize this is expected to create plenty of savings in terms of time and invested resources. HSBC set up the link between two of […]
