Crowd-sourced equity funding to open up for DIY funds
DIY super funds and other investors will soon be able to invest in start-ups and small companies through “crowd-sourced” equity funding platforms. These are the minnow unlisted companies of which some, at least, if only they had access to capital, could go on to great things. From September 29, this year, crowd-sourced platforms will be able to apply for a licence that will enable small investors to invest up to $10,000 per company per year through the platforms. These platforms must perform some basic checks on companies and their directors, as well as on offer documents. Public unlisted companies that are limited by shares with less than $25 million in […]
Perth’s Power Ledger readies first Australia’s first Bitcoin IPO
Power Ledger, the Perth-based peer-to-peer energy trading company, is preparing to launch Australia’s first virtual currency IPO – an “initial coin offering” or ICO. The company, which is trialling community trading of solar energy over a custom private blockchain platform in Western Australia and New Zealand, aims to host a “token generation event” in early September. The amount they are seeking is uncapped and will be determined by demand for Power Ledger’s “POWRS” tokens. Chief executive Dave Martin said that, while they would be satisfied with $5 million, they could raise $10 million or $20 million if demand is strong. POWRs will be tradable on the Ethereum public blockchain platform […]
TruePillars secures $5m in Series A capital raise
TruePillars, the online marketplace lender allowing everyday Australians to fund loans to small businesses, today announced it has raised a total of $5 million in a Series A funding round. The funding round was led by a long-term Melbourne-based private investor, and includes both equity and commitments by shareholders to fund loans to Australian businesses on the TruePillars platform. Further commitments from additional investors are expected to be finalised by 30 September. The business will now commence a recruitment drive to more than double its number of employees over the next 12 months. “This investment will give us the means to further innovate and build on our service, including our […]
ClearView selects Prime for scaled advice
IRESS today announced that ASX-listed wealth management, financial advice and insurance group, ClearView, has selected XPLAN Prime as its objectives-based, scaled-advice solution. XPLAN Prime allows financial advisers to deliver objectives-based scalable advice to meet a range of client needs and save significant time, by leveraging the advice capabilities of the XPLAN platform. IRESS Managing Director for Wealth Management, Tizzy Vigilante, said: “We are delighted to be delivering Prime for ClearView. XPLAN Prime is available and suitable for all businesses providing financial advice. “We know consumers everywhere are increasingly seeking more options in what financial advice they receive and how advice is accessed for specific or comprehensive needs. […]
You can use Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin to BPAY your bills
Yes, this will be old hat to some, but you can definitely do more with cryptocurrency than letting it sit in a digital wallet. And you don’t even have to use a chain of different websites to do so. Online, local services exist that let you spend Bitcoin and its progeny directly, including playing bills. The strangely-named Living Room of Satoshi is one service that allows you to pay your bills via BPAY using various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Amounts are limited to $1000, though you can issue multiple payments for bills greater than the limit. What’s interesting (or disturbing, depending on your point of view) is that LROS […]
What directors need to know about fintech
Since all organisations rely on financial services in some way, directors will need to be cognisant of the changes fintech is bringing as it enters the mainstream. Until relatively recently fintech had been perceived as the esoteric domain of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but two stories in Australian markets this week highlighted the increasing prominence and mainstreaming of the industry. Big four bank Westpac invested $40m in ASX-listed zipMoney, according to a stock exchange announcement on Monday (7 August). As part of the investment in the Fintech small cap, the bank committed to exploring the rollout of zipMoney’s ‘buy now, pay later’ services across its payments network. On the same day The […]
Microsoft to release open source blockchain framework
Coco Framework promises confidentiality, scalability, and governance.Microsoft has launched the open source Coco Framework for blockchain networks, promising to address key drawbacks for enterprise use of the distributed transaction ledger technology. Blockchain was originally part of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and was designed for public use with anonymous, untrusted actors and full transaction transparency. This means every participant in the blockchain network would execute all transactions added to it, making them visible to everyone with no confidentiality and unsuitable for enterprise use. Existing blockchain protocols also employ computationally intensive consensus algorithms, leading to poor scalability, with performance as slow as 10 to 20 transactions per second. Microsoft said the Coco Framework […]
Bitcoin hits new record, bitcoin cash fades
Experts say the rally in bitcoin still has a long way to go, after the cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high of $US3525 this week. The latest price surge has been driven by the rise and fall of bitcoin cash – a secondary cryptocurrency – and an update in the underlying bitcoin software, which paves the way for an evolution of the bitcoin blockchain. The update – called SegWit – is the product of months of internal debate within the cryptocurrency community around how to handle the rapid increase in transaction demands. A byproduct of this debate was the creation of bitcoin cash, another coin, duplicated from the original, that […]
