Borrowing

zipMoney records $10million in the month of April

zipMoney Limited (ASX:ZML) announced on the ASX that it originated more than $10 million in transaction volume on its platform in the month of April alone. An outstanding result from the entire team driven by the continued activation of large merchant accounts, the rollout of zipPay and a number of strategic marketing initiatives. You can read more here On 29 April 2016 zipMoney released its Quarterly Activities Report for the period ending 31 March 2016. Noteworthy highlights included: Revenue growth of 104% on last quarter including merchant fee revenue growth of 128% Transaction volume growth of 67% on last quarter; more than $23 million originated on platform to date Loan book ended the period […]

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Tackling longer payment terms

InvoiceX, a recently established Australian loan company, has unveiled a new invoicing scheme to help struggling mining companies overcome the new challenges created by long payment terms. This comes following this year’s likely liquidation of Queensland nickel and Arrium’s voluntary administration. As banks are more likely to offer loans for land and real estate rather than liquid assets often incurred by mining, director of InvoiceX Dermot Crean questioned their motives. “What is the intent here? To put them [workers] out of business?” he asked, pointing to Rio’s now redacted decision. The company, which distinguishes itself from other peer to peer lending groups and consider themselves a market planner, has implemented […]

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Apr
27

The fintech phenomenon: Do Aussies only want to borrow from banks?

Marketplace lending, online business loans, robo-advice, blockchain – none of it means anything without consumers. So what do Aussies think of fintech? The threatening, disrupting nature of fintech is a widely discussed topic, with consumer benefits often being the focus. However, what’s interesting is that in the push to get companies, ideas and funding across the line, the actual customer — whether they’re a borrower, investor or seeker of advice — often gets left behind. Robert Allen, director of payments technology and consulting at PwCm spoke about what’s driving fintech at a Fintech Sydney event this week. “Fintech is being pushed forward by a new way of thinking, by millennials, […]

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Apr
26

Sapien Ventures’ first fintech investment is in Hashching

Wealthy Chinese migrants will help disrupt the Australian mortgage broking industry via an investment in Hashching, an online marketplace for home loans that is putting pressure on banks and their brokers. The investment will be the first for Sapien Ventures, which was established last year by Victor Jiang and has raised a $50 million fund to invest in fintech and online marketplaces. Much of the capital has been raised from high-net-worth Chinese migrants after changes to the Significant Investor Visa program last year that require migrants bringing $5 million into Australia to invest at least $500,000 in eligible venture capital. Sapien Ventures has invested $1 million in Hashching, and is […]

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Apr
22

Focused fintechs get the nod from Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley once threw money at start-ups that aimed to disrupt broad swaths of finance. Now it is rewarding those that have sharpened their focus. While overall venture funding into lending start-ups is slowing, some platforms still are raising money by taking aim at narrower or less-traditional borrowing niches than the first generation of financial-technology firms. Faced with a glut of online lenders and cooling interest from investors in some loans, a newer crop of fintech start-ups is focusing on areas including loans for real-estate projects, people with poor credit ratings, car buyers and, at the extreme, people getting married. Venture funding for US lending start-ups dropped to $US298 million […]

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Apr
18

Growing pains: Peer to peer lending hits puberty

The eye-popping climb in the number of people attending the LendIt USA conference over the past four years reflects a real coming of age for peer-to-peer lending. The first, in 2013, attracted 300 delegates. The second lured in just under 1000, while 2500 attended in 2015. Last week, the number swarming the Marriott Marquis hotel in San Francisco was nudging 4000. Peer-to-peer lending (also known as “marketplace lending” to reflect the large proportion of funds that come from institutions rather than retail investors) matches borrowers with yield-hungry investors on an internet platform. A decade since it was born in the United States, marketplace lending is now mainstream. In the past […]

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Waddle Integration With Xero Transforms Invoice Financing

Media Release Waddle Loans Pty Ltd (Waddle) has today announced a first-of-its-kind invoice financing product that integrates with Xero’s cloud accounting software. The solution is available through Xero’s Australian add-on marketplace giving small business owners a simple way to fix their cash flow by establishing a revolving line of credit based on the businesses unpaid invoices within Xero. This new financing solution enables small businesses to use their Xero data to boost cash flow by drawing funds against unpaid invoices the instant they are created, automating every aspect of the financing through a two-way real-time data exchange made possible by the connection. The new offering transforms the traditional “factoring” system, whereby small businesses sell outstanding invoices to a third party financier in […]

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SocietyOne’s Yetton: loans soar as banks struggle

New SocietyOne chief Jason Yetton says its loan book is healthy despite mixed economic conditions and record loan growth that pushed the nation’s biggest marketplace lender through the $100 million barrier. Mirroring similar trends by other new “fintech” companies, SocietyOne yesterday revealed $30m of new personal loans and agribusiness finance had been written in the first quarter, pushing total lending since August 2012 past $100m. Rival online “peer-to-peer” or “marketplace” lenders, which directly match borrowers with investors, include RateSetter and DirectMoney, which have also been posting record growth. Meanwhile, the banks’ bad debt charges have risen because of the mining slowdown and lending to sectors facing structural challenges, such as […]

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