New Pelikin app fits the bill for globetrotting millennials
Digital banking start-up Pelikin aims to reshape the way people save, send and spend their money in Australia and while travelling abroad. The company’s slogan is “spend like a local”. It will be targeting “digital natives” with its app and debit card. It hopes to launch by mid-2018 and is currently seeking expressions of interest for investment on Birchal, an Australian equity crowdfunding platform. “Acting as a transactional base for funds, Pelikin wants to create a seamless digital experience between everyday banking and travel banking; an important element for a younger market who are known for their tech-savvy and globetrotting lifestyle,” the company explains. It is currently beta testing features […]
Westpac strikes deal with Assembly Payments
Westpac Banking Corp has bought an equity stake in Assembly Payments and will work with the Melbourne-based fintech to integrate the bank’s merchant terminals with customers’ point-of-sale (POS) software, removing the need for transaction amounts to be entered into retailers’ systems twice. For workers in the nation’s restaurants and coffee shops, entering the dollar amount of a transaction into a banking terminal to complete a sale might be a small frustration, but the extra process can add up to real dollars for business owners. Westpac estimates that for a typical Sydney CBD cafe – which completes between 1000 and 1500 transactions a day – the three to five seconds of […]
On The Money: Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay explained
Over the last ten years, smartphones have replaced MP3 players, PDAs, cameras and – for some – even dedicated portable computing devices like laptops. Now, smartphone and wearable vendors are trying to replace your wallet by cementing themselves as a crucial part of the mobile payments space. If you’re confused about things like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay – here’s everything you need to know. What are mobile payments services? Mobile Payment services (also known as mobile payment platforms or digital wallets) is a term that refers services or apps that allow you to pay for things with your phone or smartwatch (via a connected credit or debit card). The […]
Equitise finalises Australia’s first equity crowdfunding with Xinja raising more than $2 million
Equitise is finalising Australia’s first equity crowdfunding offer, with aspiring neobank Xinja raising more than $2 million as it prepares to launch products designed to transform the banking experience for Australians. One-in-four investors have committed the minimum $250 for Xinja’s crowdfunding raise. Almost 7-in-10 have committed less than $1000, highlighting the accessibility of equity crowdfunding for regular investors, not to mention the opportunity for startups willing to work with them. Xinja’s capital raise was the first full retail equity crowdfunding offer to go live in Australia and is still open to investors until March 31. Equitise co-founder Chris Gilbert said the success of the raise underlines the willingness of everyday […]
ING – ‘Australia’s oldest fintech’ – is reporting a sudden surge in customer growth
The CEO of ING Australia, Uday Sareen, sees his bank as Australia’s oldest digital finance house. “We are Australia’s oldest fintech and we are profitable,” Uday Sareen told Business Insider as the bank announced its full year results. ING had record customer growth in 2017, adding more than 300,000, or almost a third, to hit 1.36 million active customers. Statutory net profit after tax was up 18% to $348 million.“We’re proud of what we’ve achieved this year,” says Sareen. The Dutch multinational banking and financial services group, which entered Australia in 1999, now has 1,178 employees and holds 3% of the local banking market.Sareen believes ING is at a tipping […]
Sydney Angels funds QPay $570k to steal millennial students from banks
Australia’s first ever student marketplace app, QPay, has raised $570,000 from a series of high profile investors, including Sydney Angels and the Sydney Angels Sidecar Fund 2, to break into student banking through the release of a student-targeted QPay MasterCard. QPay aims to use the QPay MasterCard to capture the largest cluster of millennial consumers at the point when they’re most likely to begin making serious financial decisions – when enrolled in tertiary education. “University is the time when life decisions start to become quite future-focussed, especially regarding our finances,” said Andrew Clapham, Co-Founder of QPay. “We might be weighing up the amount of student debt we can responsibly accrue, […]
Samsung Pay locks up the “big four” after new partnership with National Australia Bank
Samsung Pay has become the first mobile wallet provider to lock up the “big four” banks after today announcing a partnership with the last of the major institutions – the National Australian Bank. NAB customers now join those from Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ to use Samsung Pay to make payments with compatible Samsung smartphones, Samsung smartwatches and other wearables. Customers can load their Visa credit and/or debit card and pay securely anywhere credit cards are accepted. Apart from the big four banks, Samsung Pay works with more than 45 other financial institutions around Australia. Samsung has made good on its promise to provide its customers with a simple and […]
The data rush is on as start-ups get set for open banking
Paul Chapman believes banking is only going to get more complex. “We like to say Japan is living in the future,” he says. “People have a very fragmented life with three to four banks and several different financial products. There is so much complexity and we think that is happening in Australia.” The Australian co-founder of financial management app Moneytree, which is based in Japan and launched in Australia last year, is one of a number of start-ups jostling for position as the government looks to introduce open banking to Australia. Speaking to Fairfax Media on the sidelines of the Salesforce World Tour in Sydney this month, he said open […]
