New partnership sets out to educate the SMSF community in cryptocurrency investments
Cointree one of Australia’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges has partnered up with My SMSF, a specialist provider for property and niche assets. The partnership aims to deliver clarity for people wanting to invest their super in cryptocurrencies. Cointree is one of Australia’s fastest growing digital currency exchanges with now over 60,000 members. Through their community, affiliates and partners, Cointree continues to see a growing interest in investment opportunities in cryptocurrency using a members Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF). “Since our announcement of entering the SMSF space, we have gained a lot of interest from our members and the general public wanting to invest into cryptocurrency using their super,” says Shane Stevenson, […]
Irish fintech Priviti launches in Sydney as Australia prepares for Open Banking and the Consumer Data Right
As Australia prepares for its new Open Banking standards and the Consumer Data Right, Priviti, the global fintech company, is helping banks get ready to comply with new legislation and empower consumers with greater control over how their personal data is shared. Its extensive experience with global data protection laws such as PSD2 and GDPR means Priviti has seen the paradigm shift in the way financial organisations and individuals view their data, and how their systems need to change, explains Dermot McCann, Priviti’s Head of APAC. “Every day a bank is potentially engaging in new activities that could impair their compliance, particularly now in this new era of Australian Open […]
What’s the difference between a private and public blockchain?
Blockchain has potential applications in many industries, from accounting to agriculture. It’s essentially a distributed ledger, which records transactions between every user in the chain. There are different types of blockchain: some are open and public and some are private and only accessible to people who are given permission to use them. A public blockchain is an open network. Anyone can download the protocol and read, write or participate in the network. A public blockchain is distributed and decentralised. Transactions are recorded as blocks and linked together to form a chain. Each new block must be timestamped and validated by all the computers connected to the network, known as nodes, […]
Peppermint signs agreement with Philippines’ electronic payment service provider, ECPay
ASX-listed Peppermint Innovation Limited announced it had signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Electronic Commerce Payments, Inc. (“ECPay”), a leading electronic payment service provider in the Philippines. Under the agreement, customers can use Peppermint’s Bizmoto website (www.bizmoto.com.au) to directly pay a variety of bills for their family and friends living in the Philippines, such as power and water, mobile phones and the internet. They can also directly top-up credit cards and debit cards for their family and friends, as well as paying insurance premiums or loan and finance repayments. The direct payment of bills and purchase of e-Loads is viewed favourably by some payees who are reluctant to transfer cash […]
Xero State of Lending Report: Funding gap is stifling small business growth in Australia
Research unveiled today by Xero suggests Australia’s small businesses could borrow as much as $80 billion over the next 12 months, if they could get the funding. Instead, small businesses are struggling to access the capital they require, in large part due to the complexity of the loan process. This is creating a funding gap and holding back significant jobs and growth opportunities for the Australian economy. According to the Xero State of Lending Report, one in five small business owners (22%) say access to capital is the greatest pain point or perceived threat to their long-term growth aspirations, and a quarter of small business are not very confident in […]
NAB Ventures secures another $50 million to invest in fintech startups: Here’s what the fund is looking for
Australian big-four bank NAB has allocated another $50 million to its corporate venture capital fund NAB Ventures, doubling the funds available to bring the total to $100 million. The fund was launched in 2016 with an initial $50 million to invest over three years. It has backed 12 businesses to date, including property investment startup BrickX, real estate communications platform ActivePipe, and data sharing startup Data Republic. It has also made investments overseas into startups in San Francisco and Toronto. NAB Ventures general partner Melissa Widner tells StartupSmart the doubling up of the funds represents an endorsement of the program from the bank. “The board liked the innovation it was […]
CoinJar exchange lists Zcash (ZEC) offering world first ZEC/AUD order book
CoinJar has expanded its offering by listing Zcash (ZEC) in its portfolio, meaning that for the first time in Australia, cryptocurrency traders and investors will have access to a ZEC/AUD trading pair using an order-book through CoinJar Exchange. Zcash (ZEC) is a leading privacy coin and will be listed alongside Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP). Traders and investors can hedge their ZEC holdings against major fiat pairings including Australian Dollars (AUD), Great British Pounds (GBP), Euros (EUR) and US Dollars (USD) to temporarily protect their portfolio from price fluctuations. CoinJar customers will now be able to send and receive Zcash with their CoinJar wallet, pay bills […]
“It takes an army”: Co-founder of pocket money app Spriggy Alex Badran on growth, getting some perspective, and securing backing from Mike Cannon-Brookes
Pocket money app startup Spriggy has seen a 380% increase in its customer base, quadrupled its headcount, and secured funding from Atlassian co-founder and Australian startup legend Mike Cannon-Brookes — and that’s all in the past 12 months. Founded in 2015 by Alex Badran and Mario Hasanakos with an initial $300,000 investment, Spriggy provides a mobile app that allows parents to give their children pocket money digitally, by loading cash onto a prepaid card for the children to use. The app also allows kids to monitor their spending, in a bid to teach them good money management skills. The startup was named as an emerging fintech star in the KPMG Fintech […]
