FinTech

Jul
06

Bitcoin seen surging to $US50,000 in decade

Ronnie Moas, who for the past 13 years has made more than 900 stock recommendations via his one-man show at Standpoint Research, is now venturing into cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin will double to $US5000 next year, and reach $US25,000 to $US50,000 in the next decade, the Miami Beach, Florida-based Moas said in a note to clients overnight, where he also disclosed he bought “a little bit” of litecoin, bitcoin and ethereum in a Coinbase.com account. It’s a testament to the exuberance around bitcoin, ethereum and other blockchain assets that equity investors who hadn’t been involved in cryptocurrencies are now starting to analyse and make bets on the sector along with established bitcoin […]

DETAIL
Jul
06

440,000 transactions per second with Red Belly Blockchain

The University of Sydney has recently announced that it has developed a new Blockchain-based system that can perform more than 440,000 transactions per second. Researchers from the School of Information Technologies at the University of Sydney, who developed the new Blockchain, named this system after one of Australia’s most deadly snakes – Red Belly Blockchain, and claim that it has a game-changing potential for the financial transfers industry. Moreover, according to them, the Red Belly Blockchain allows for the exchange to occur in a peer-to-peer fashion, as well as in a commercial environment restricted to certain users, which makes it the first blockchain being built to work both in public […]

DETAIL
Jul
06

What Monopoly? Blockchain startup Setl sets sights beyond Australia

Setl founder Peter Randall isn’t waiting for permission to build the first competing platform in an Australian post-trade system long dominated by a monopoly. While the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) enjoys exclusive rights to clear and settle transactions for the nation’s financial institutions, Randall’s startup has already built a service he believes can process the load more quickly and at lower cost than ASX’s proprietary CHESS platform. Ironically, ASX’s exploration of distributed ledger tech with partner Digital Asset Holdings has boosted the blockchain industry in Australia, yet its monopoly means less competition in bringing solutions to market. Nevertheless, Randall isn’t waiting for the nation’s regulators to begin loosening older, monopolistic […]

DETAIL
Jul
05

Pitch@Palace – a chance for FinTech Startups

What is Pitch@Palace? The Duke of York founded Pitch@Palace in 2014 to provide a platform to amplify and accelerate the work of Entrepreneurs. In 2016, HRH founded Pitch@Palace Global to help Entrepreneurs build connectivity around the world.  Pitch@Palace Global helps Entrepreneurs seek new markets and find partners and investors building prosperity and creating jobs.  Developing this connectivity supports the growth of all Pitch@Palace Alumni.  In 2016, Pitch@Palace Global events took place in Estonia, Malaysia and Mexico.  In 2017, Pitch@Palace Global hosted Pitch@Palace Africa, in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering, and Pitch@Palace China took place in May, 2017.  Later this year further events will take place in Australia, the […]

DETAIL
Jul
05

The new crowdfunding? Ethereum ICOs raise close to $1 billion in June alone

In just 19 days, Ethereum initial coin offerings have raised close to $1 billion dollars, according to estimates, with speculations this could be the biggest decentralised venture funding event in history. Tech news site Trust Nodes has crunched the numbers and estimates $US642 million has been raised by prominent initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the first three weeks of June, with another estimated $US60 million raised from smaller events. An ICO involves investors buying a cryptocurrency, which has a value in relation to another currency like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Bancor raised $US150 million on June 13, making it the biggest crowdfunding in history, at least for a few days. Trust […]

DETAIL

Cross-border digital payments company InstaReM receives US$13m investment

The latest round of investment brings the total amount raised to over US$18M from a consortium of some of the largest funds in the region. InstaReM, one of the leading digital cross-border payments companies, has received a US$13 million investment led by GSR Ventures, with participation from SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund (SBI-FMO Fund), Vertex Ventures, Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), and Global Founders Capital (GFC). To date, InstaReM has raised over US$18 million in the last 18 months. InstaReM, who lists Australia as its biggest market, will use the investment to build its global payment infrastructure, which has grown eight times in volume since its March 2016 funding. The […]

DETAIL
Jul
04

Opportunities being lost as crowdfunding debate rumbles on

The ongoing debate regarding the introduction of crowd-sourced funding legislation appears to have lost sight of the essential point. Start-ups, investors and the economy continue to miss out on valuable opportunities while people argue. While other countries, including New Zealand and the US, already permit companies to raise capital under a crowd-sourced offer, the Australian legislation allowing public companies to do so has not yet come into effect. The government is now proposing to also allow proprietary companies to raise capital by means of a crowd-sourced offer, with draft legislation currently under consideration. Once implemented, these new measures will expand the scope of the legislation and allow more start-ups to […]

DETAIL
Jul
04

Prospa named as finalist in Telstra Business Awards for third year in a row

For the third year running, Prospa, Australia’s leading online lender to small business, is proud to have been named as a finalist in the Telstra Business Awards. Prospa is a finalist in the NSW Medium Business category, having grown significantly since 2015 when the company was first shortlisted for the Small Business Award. Over the past five years, Prospa has transformed the way small business owners experience finance, injecting more than $350m into the Australian small business economy through over 10,000 loans to small business owners. Alongside this growth, Prospa has maintained extremely high customer satisfaction of over 90%, as well as forming strategic partnerships with Westpac, Reckon and IAG, […]

DETAIL