Samsung Pay takes on Apple over tap and go
In an approach that distinguishes it from Apple in the contactless payment market, Samsung says banks are welcome to join its digital wallet and it doesn’t want any of their interchange fees or data. Samsung launched Samsung Pay in Australia on Wednesday. The service is live in South Korea, the United States, China and Spain. In Australia, it is available only for holders of Citi and American Express-issued cards. But Prasad Gokhale, vice-president of the mobile division for Samsung in Australia, is confident that each of the big four banks will embrace the platform in the coming months. He said the world’s largest consumer electronics company did “not want to […]
Bitcoin hits two-year high
The price of the digital currency bitcoin hit a two-year high yesterday, trading above $US700 for the first time since 2014, after it jumped 21 per cent over the weekend. The surge came days before an unusual event called the “halving”, an adjustment to bitcoin’s protocol designed to control the creation of new coins. The last time the currency traded at this level — as high as $US719 yesterday, according to data provider CoinDesk — was February 2014, when it was coming down from its December 2013 high of $US1147. Bitcoin, launched in 2009, is a digital currency that runs on a decentralised network of computers and isn’t backed or […]
Australian FinTech marketplace Valiant announces capital raise
Valiant, member of fintech hub Stone & Chalk announced today that the company has completed their seed round capital raising subscription. The $800,000 capital raise was led by fintech venture capital firm Reinventure, supported by H2 Ventures and a selection of prominent angel investors including Mitchel Harad and Vincent Turner. Co-Founders Alex Molloy and Richard Cotton launched the Valiant business loan marketplace in November 2015, with the aim to minimise the angst associated with sourcing, comparing, and securing business loans. Valiant partners with over 26 lenders from across the lending spectrum with more lenders being added monthly. Alex Molloy: “We built the Valiant marketplace to solve a very particular need. Until now, it has been difficult for time poor business owners to quickly […]
Brisbane Is Playing Host To Australia’s First Cashless Cafe
Do you use your credit card or your phone to pay for your morning coffee, or are you still holding on to that pocketful of coins? Sydney-based coffee roastery and cafe chain Pablo & Rusty’s is opening Australia’s first cashless cafe in Brisbane, ditching the notes and coins in favour of credit cards, phone-based payments and even smart coffee cups. With a number of successful locations already opened across Sydney (which do indeed take cash), Pablo & Rusty’s was planning the opening of their Brisbane store when they had the idea to make it entirely cashless. “We were just thinking through some of the logistics of how to manage cash […]
Sydney FinTech Valiant announces major partnership with Vow Financial
Valiant, member of FINTECH incubator Stone & Chalk will announce today an official partnership with the Yellow Brick Road Group (Yellow Brick Road and Vow Financial) at the Commercial Conference at The Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast. The partnership grants the Group exclusive partnership access to Valiant’s business loan marketplace platform and its range of non-bank small business lending solutions. Immediately, the Valiant marketplace solves the broker network’s concerns with sourcing, comparing, and securing funding for traditionally hard to finance SMB customers. Alex Molloy, Managing Director of Valiant: “The challenge for brokers is that serving customers in the short term funding space takes an unbalanced amount of time – and for hard to fund customers, […]
Australian FinTech Company Profile – RateSetter
COMPANY: RateSetter FINTECH SECTOR: Peer-to-Peer Lending WEBSITE: www.RateSetter.com.au CONTACT: [email protected] PHONE: 1300 768 710 FOUNDED: 2012 FOUNDER(S) / CEO: Daniel Foggo – CEO DESCRIPTION: RateSetter provide a transparent peer-to-peer marketplace where lenders and borrowers, empowered by technology, can transact together and share the benefits. KEY STATISTICS: Value of loans Funded: $43,807,549 Number of Loans facilitated: 2,578 Average Loan Value: $16,993 Average Loan Term: 38 months Average Borrower Age: 39 Average Borrower Income: $90,513 Male – Female: 69% – 31% Number of People registered: 61,215 Applications under consideration: $4,186,959 Enquiries in past 30 days: […]
The Invoice Market appoints Head of National Sales and Referral Partnerships
Peer-to-peer alternative financier The Invoice Market (tim) has strengthened its senior executive team with the strategic appointment of Bernie Kelly as Head of National Sales and Referral Partnerships. Kelly comes to tim with an impressive track record of establishing financial services businesses and designing financial product solutions around the globe. Most recently he was Managing Director, International Operations for PolicyLink. In this position, Kelly grew the business, captured significant market share, and successfully negotiated exclusive strategic alliances with international asset managers, investment banks and global life companies. In commenting on the appointment, tim CEO, Angus Sedgwick said “I’ve known and worked with Bernie over the past 25 years. […]
ASIC to build fintech start-ups a ‘regulatory sandbox’ to test ideas
The corporate regulator will allow fintech start-ups to test their ideas with real customers for a period of six months without having to hold a financial services licence, under a new “regulatory sandbox” proposed by Treasurer Scott Morrison in the May budget. In a consultation paper released on Wednesday morning, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said the creation of the sandbox will allow financial services start-ups to attract investment and get to market faster by providing “limited testing and concept validation to occur without businesses needing to comply with all the usual regulatory obligations”. The sandbox was proposed by the federal government as part of its plan to create […]
