Australia’s first accredited blockchain courses have arrived
Australia now has a formal, accredited and nationally recognised way of identifying blockchain people. The Advanced Diploma of Applied Blockchain (10747NAT) consists of eight modules, including six core modules and two electives. Developed by Blockchain Collective, it’s the first blockchain course to be accredited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), making it Australia’s first formal, nationally recognised, accredited blockchain course. What you’ll find The course is a deep dive into the technology and is intended to prepare students for experiences such as transitioning an operation to a blockchain network, assessing the performance of a business model deployed on blockchain and more. The course is delivered through registered training organisations, […]
Bankwest accelerates shift to digital cards
Australian retail banks are accelerating their push towards deploying virtualised payment cards to replace vulnerable legacy plastic, as the pace and scale of breaches intensifies sharply. Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Bankwest revealed on Monday it has gone live with a ‘digital card’ feature that can activate a credit card in a digital wallet via the Bankwest Mobile app within 24 hours rather than having to wait for embossed plastic to arrive via snail mail. It’s a small but significant move because it signals the transition by banks to a truly digital-first payments footing as major card schemes American Express, Mastercard and Visa all heavily push tokenisation efforts that remove the need […]
Lakeba achieves $20M startup sales record for Paid By Coins
Australian technology innovator Lakeba, who has launched over ten new ventures in the Australian market since 2016, today announced the $20M sale of their Paid by Coins venture to Mobecom (ASX:MOB) only seven months after launching the platform in early 2018. “Lakeba built, deployed and exited the Paid By Coins business in less than seven months, achieving what few startups have before them. This accelerated acquisition timeline demonstrates the rigour and depth of Australian innovation and sets a new benchmark for the rapid commercialisation and sale of market-relevant, high demand emerging technology solutions,” said Giuseppe Porcelli, CEO and Founder of Lakeba. Paid by Coins is a secure payment solution for consumers, enabling […]
Fintech drops interest rates
A fintech has announced rate cuts across its investor home loans, including a 32 basis point reduction to its variable interest only product. Tic:Toc said the decision comes at a time of falling investor lending. The group has noticed a 33% drop in investment lending in the last quarter to November 2018. According to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the value of investment loans has also dropped by more than 20% over the last year and investment housing commitments fell by 0.9%. Tic:Toc founder and CEO, Anthony Baum, said now may be the opportune time for investors to secure a competitive rate via Tic:Toc’s digital platform. He said, […]
Xinja to launch second equity crowdfunding
Xinja, which is building a 100% digital bank or ‘neobank’ designed for mobile, is inviting potential investors to register their interest in its second equity crowdfunding, which will get underway early in 2019. The offer, through Equitise (with whom they partnered for the first round), is targeting a raise between $500,000 and $5 million. Shares will be priced at $2.04. Xinja is an independent, Australian-owned start-up that aims to give bricks and mortar, old-style banking a serious shakeout. It won’t have bank branches and it has been built with feedback from customers about how they want to bank. Xinja launched Australia’s first equity crowdfunding, which closed in March this year, […]
APAC Alternative Finance report shows impressive growth
Australia is second only to China in market volume. The alternative finance industry continues to thrive according to the 3rd Asia Pacific Region Alternative Finance Industry Report by KPMG and the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) released this week. The global fintech sector has seen $117 billion invested in the last year, with $28 billion invested in Asia Pacific alone. Across the region, over 100,000 small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) used alternative finance in 2017 and SMEs accounted for 61% of all alternative finance volume. The Australian market was 2nd only to China for the 3rd year running, raising over $1.14 billion in 2017, an increase of 88% on […]
The Fourth Industrial Revolution built on blockchain and advanced with AI
Blockchain technology is so synonymous with cryptocurrencies, and especially Bitcoin that it is almost like the financial sector has usurped its potential. In times like these, where an investing bear market has befallen the cryptocurrency space, it is easy to get down on the revolutionary possibilities of blockchain technology. Since the original Blockchain, that is Bitcoin, emerged, there has been a considerable focus on transactional blockchains which have been at the forefront of the mainstream understanding of the technology. Bitcoin is often the layman’s first point of call with the stories of investing success stories obscuring the view of other possibilities. However, blockchain technology is moving along in an undercurrent […]
Nod closes $2m funding round to support platform growth
The multi-award-winning artificial intelligence platform, known simply as Nod, has confirmed it has successfully closed its over-subscribed pre-Series A round of AUD$2m. Nod was recently awarded a coveted spot on the KPMG H2 Ventures Fintech100 and has developed a patent pending algorithm that utilises artificial intelligence to create real-time Statements of Advice for Financial Advisers and Accountants. Whilst this is the space where they have chosen to first apply their technology, Co-Founder and CEO, Joel Robbie, says the platform has been developed to be industry agnostic: “We are really excited about the impact we are having on document completion times in the Financial Advice industry! The platform is having genuine […]
