Startup ecosystem needs flywheel for growth: former FinTech Australia chief
Danielle Szetho, the inaugural CEO of FinTech Australia stepped down from her post in March this year. Since then, she has been traveling around Asia to meet like-minded individuals who are passionate about changing the world with technology, seeking new opportunities to contribute to the growth of Australia’s startup community. Talking about her past experience, Szetho said that the major factor in helping startup ecosystems to grow is momentum, the so-called “flywheel effect” that gets businesses rolling and also has a spillover effect on the entire industry. “The startup ecosystem in Australia, particularly in the last two years, flourished and many talk about startup ecosystems being very much driven by […]
Brighte set to accelerate growth with $18.5m in funding
Sydney-based home energy fintech, Brighte, closes 18 months of strong growth with a Series B equity round of $18.5m. The round was led by Airtree Ventures and also includes Skip Capital, the Milgrom Family and further investment from Grok Ventures. Brighte is a digital credit platform offering affordable point-of-sale payment solutions for home energy improvements such as solar panels and batteries. In its first eighteen months it has over approved over $50m of applications from 6,000+ Australian homeowners. This stellar growth has been the result of a fully digital, innovative product being brought to the home improvements market as demand surges from everyday Australians for solutions to rising energy costs. […]
London’s Fintech Émigrés look to Australia
Since the Brexit vote of 2016, the City of London has been rapidly losing its status as the financial technology capital of the world. Fintech startups have been moving their offices to other European cities; in fact, the mayors of Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam have been actively courting these companies, but Australia has benefited in a more direct manner. In the wake of the Brexit referendum, finance industry leaders in London were dismayed when they saw companies packing up and leaving. This situation prompted Mayor Sadiq Khan and city officials to spring into action and come up with ways to retain the financial prestige of London. On March 12, the […]
Big bank-backed Beem It launches Aussie payments app
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the National Australia Bank (NAB), and Westpac in October announced that they would be joining forces to create Beem It, an organisation focused on payments, but behaving like a startup. While the project has been in the works for a few months, Beem It quietly launched in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store earlier this year, allowing the use of the app since the beginning of May. The app enables sending and receiving money, with an interface reminiscent of a social media app. “We’re going to do pay, request, and split better than anyone else does in the market,” Beem […]
Melbourne millennial fintech Pelikin lands partnership with global payments provider Tuxedo
Melbourne travel and banking app Pelikin has partnered with global finance technology provider Tuxedo Money Solutions, to deliver the startup’s multi-currency prepaid debit card offering. Specialising in prepaid and alternative finance solutions, Tuxedo will power the payment technology and prepaid card offered by Pelikin. Founded in 2006 in the United Kingdom, Tuxedo has now grown through exciting partnerships, hosting transactions in over 200 territories worldwide and processing just under $2 billion in card loads. Technical Director of Tuxedo Nicholas Holt shared that he is excited to partner with such a cutting edge startup. “We’re very excited to partner with Pelikin and be a part of their journey, as well as […]
Global recognition continues for payments provider Verrency
Australian global payments provider Verrency has been named a finalist for the Top PayTech Innovation at the inaugural UK PayTech Awards 2018. The award category recognises PayTech companies that have been genuinely innovative within the finance and payments industry. Verrency was founded by experienced payments and banking innovator David Link and banking technologist Euan Walker in 2016. Verrency delivers Innovation-as-a-Service to financial institutions with its payments API platform and FinTech marketplace, which have been specifically designed to enable Tier 1 financial institutions to cost-effectively deliver value-added services to their customers without needing to replace or heavily modify their existing payments infrastructure. David Link, Founder and CEO of Verrency, said: “I’m […]
How the bank can beat fintechs
According to the Millennial Disruption Index, 71 per cent of young people would prefer go to the dentist than listen to their bank. Perhaps even more worrying for the banks is that 75 per cent would prefer to access their financial services from start-ups. It is not just the younger generation that feels this way. According to research from TransferWise’s Future of Finance Report 2017, Australians of all ages are among the most likely to seek alternatives to the mainstream banks. We’re also early adopters of fintech solutions. The same report revealed that 53 per cent of Australians already use an alternative financial service provider (one that’s not part of […]
Academic papers urge fintechs to put purpose above profit
The rise of fintech companies in Australia hasn’t been examined in any rigorous way by academics – until now. The Australian Centre for Financial Studies at Monash University has published four long and detailed academic papers on fintech, written by some of the country’s leading corporate academics. It’s a timely discourse, given growing questions about the high cost of fintech business lending and whether the touted benefits of technological innovations like blockchain will be realised in financial services. The research has been supported by Treasury, the Reserve Bank and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; financial services heavyweights Westpac and Suncorp; law firm K&L Gates; and FinTech Australia, the government’s […]
