Apr
17
Aussie blockchain investor goes global
Australian digital assets investment firm TCM Global Asset Management (formerly Token Capital Management) is making its first international foray. TCM is chaired by former ANZ managing director of global markets, Steve Bellotti, and its chief executive is former JP Morgan managing director of Asia Pacific commodities trading, Jon Deane. The firm has acquired a controlling stake, alongside high profile blockchain investor Frank Amato, in Cleveland-based Grasshopper Capital. Grasshopper Capital's first fund, launched in 2017 and closed in 2018, returned 29.28%. The fund was long only and focused on infrastructure opportunities in the blockchain ecosystem. Grasshopper has now announced it will be launching a new fund, Grasshopper Capital Fund II LP, […]
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Apr
17
Big cards, personal loans player takes a look at Zip Co
Payments company Zip Co's shareholders have more than doubled their money this year, but the strong run may have crippled their chance of a buyout. Street Talk understands local credit cards and personal loans company Latitude Financial Services - which is owned by global heavyweights KKR, Varde Partners and Deutsche Bank - has been watching the ASX-listed payments provider. Sources said Latitude's new management team, spearheaded by former Australia Post boss and investment banker Ahmed Fahour, has spent some time considering ways to get into the buy now pay later sector, which looks like disrupting part of its more traditional banking book. And as small cap managers know - and […]
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Apr
16
WP Hosting Customer Spotlight: Amber
WP Hosting spoke to Ryan Neale of Amber, a startup helping people prepare for a world where assets and currencies have become digital. Amber is an app that lets you swap your spare change for Bitcoin and other digital assets. It doesn’t have to be a big investment either as you can commit as little as 50c a day. As Amber describe it; “the spare change from each of your transactions is automatically converted into Bitcoin and Ethereum — like a digital piggy bank.” Amber was founded exactly a year ago by Aleksandar Svetski and Chantelle de la Rey and are headquartered in Brisbane. A quick intro: who are you […]
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Apr
16
Key benefits of robo-advisors in Fintech
When you are investing and strive for a higher ROI, whom do you address? As a rule, you reach out to a team of wealth advisors. That means meeting regularly with those financial consultants to discuss your ventures and make adjustments to your investment portfolio. This process is time and money consuming and can be frustrating, as well. This does not need to be the case. We know how to change it with a revolutionary new approach to wealth management. A new service called robo advising makes it a thing of the past. These digital assistants provide automated algorithm-based portfolio management analysis with accurate figures and efficient risk assessment. Robo-advisors […]
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Apr
15
Coming of age: Australian crowdfunding platforms raised $8.7m in the March quarter
Investing results for the March quarter suggest that when it comes to investing, Australians don’t appear to be too afraid of crowds.Among the major crowd-sourced funding (CSF) platform, Birchal led the way raising a total of $4,780,700 across four companies, from a total of 3,294 investors (another two closed successfully in April). It was a similar story at Equitise, which raised just shy of $3.9 million from 2099 investors. More broadly, $8.7m worth of crowd-funded capital raises were closed off in Q1 across the sector as a whole. Of that amount, two funding rounds stood out; Birchal’s $3m raise for Shebah’s all-female ridesharing platform which set the record for an […]
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Apr
15
P2P borrowing up 45% year on year
Recent surveys conducted by ASIC have made it clear that the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending marketplace is continuing to grow in conjunction with the increasing demand for alternative funding sources. During the 2017-18 financial year, new P2P borrowing increased 45% to $433m, and outstanding loans were up 59% to $518m. While these numbers have “increased significantly” from the 2016-17 figures, the data did indicate a slight slowing in the rate of investor and borrower growth, according to ASIC. Respondents reported a total of 13,446 investors and 31,421 borrowers in the P2P space as of June 2018. In 2017-18, a total of $352m was invested in the platforms surveyed. To read […]
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Apr
12
Bravura circles competitor
The wealth management software firm has made a proposal to acquire another ASX-listed fintech that could value the latter at up to $170 million. Bravura Solutions submitted a non-binding indicative proposal to acquire all shares of GBST Holdings for a $2.50 per share in cash minus a special dividend of 0.35 per share subject to approval. GBST provides administration services to life insurers, stock brokers, wealth management businesses and institutions. Its clients include the big four banks, Baillieu Holst, Bell Porter and Morgans. The $1.1 billion Bravura is more than eight times GBST's market cap. Bravura's offer of $2.50 per share represents a 30% premium to GBST's 30-day volume-weighted average […]
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Apr
12
HashChing outlines new funding plans
The COO of digital mortgage marketplace HashChing has revealed the company is repeating last year’s fundraising exercise after failing to achieve its $5m target. Last May, HashChing attempted to use equity crowdfunding space Equitise to raise $5m in a month and a half. Interested investors could back the fintech for as little as $250. However, according to COO and board advisor Siobhan Hayden, the funding round was not successful. “We believe it was a demographic issue,” she said, explaining that the younger crowds that inhabit online crowdfunding spaces are drawn to more glamorous investing opportunities than those in the mortgage industry. The funds were intended to be used for new […]
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