Australian fintech Airwallex confirmed as latest fintech unicorn following Series C fundraising
Airwallex confirms unicorn status following a successful Series C fundraising round of $100m USD, valuing the company at over $1bn USD. Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Australian fintech Airwallex has grown from an emerging start-up to a global challenger in the crossborder payment space, supporting a client base of internet titans including JD.com, Tencent and Ctrip, and large financial service companies including MasterCard. Top-tier investor DST Global led the Series C fundraising round, which closed at $100m USD. DST Global has been a primary investor across a number of global technology success stories, including Facebook, Airbnb and Spotify, and other fintech leaders, such as Robinhood. Alongside new investor DST Global, […]
Future of advice: boutiques for some, robo-plans for the rest
Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer says the growing cost of providing personal financial advice, including sky-rocketing regulatory costs, is creating a bifurcated financial advice market, with specialist boutiques serving customers willing to pay more for bespoke plans, while banks – sensitive about their reputations following the Hayne inquiry – shift to an automated model supplying general advice to the masses. After Westpac announced it would no longer provide personal advice, leading wealth advisers also said the traditional model of major banks seeking to provide cheap, personalised advice funded by cross-selling products was now dead, following the royal commission, and agreed “robo advice” would emerge as the way of delivering financial […]
Do start-ups stand a chance in the face of ‘crypto winter’?
Cryptocurrencies have lost more than $400 billion from their global market cap over the past 12 months, but despite this Australian start-ups remain determined to weather the fallout from “crypto winter”. “The best time to build something is where there’s a lull in the market,” says co-founder of cryptocurrency investment app Amber, Aleks Svetski. Market tracker CoinMarketCap says the past year of volatility sliced the global value of cryptocurrencies from $610 billion to $190 billion. In the US and Europe, entrepreneurs are questioning whether they can make start-ups in the space work long-term and the phrase “crypto winter”, to describe the freezing up of both growth and enthusiasm, was born. The […]
Super funds look to AI to improve member engagement
Tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are driving members’ expectations of customer experiences which presents a major headache for superannuation funds. Georgie Obst, HESTA’s general manager – campaigns and customer growth – told CFSM delegates on Friday that funds need to do whatever they can to exploit new technologies to help cement their position as their members’ most trusted financial services brand. “That’s a very good role for the super funds to play particularly in the current environment,” she says, What’s shifting she went on to say is that members now expect funds to leverage personal data to the members advantage. Mario Garrido, head of brand behaviour change […]
Aussie ETF industry breaks another record
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have continued on their growth trajectory as the Australian ETF industry broke new records last month, with a monthly funds under management (FUM) increase of $2.3 billion, BetaShares’ February Australian ETF Review has said. This figure eclipsed the previous record set in November 2017, and the industry now stands at $44.8 billion. “Similar to January, market rebounds meant that the substantial industry growth primarily came from price increases, accounting for 80 per cent of the total, with the other 20 per cent due to net inflows amounting to $524 million,” the report said. According to BetaShares, investor appetite for global exposures continued to grow, with international equities […]
Use apps to target young investors: GlobalData
Utilizing technology to provide simple, easy-to-use, and accessible apps is paramount to appeal to young investors, according to data and analytics company GlobalData. GlobalData’s ‘2018 Mass Affluent Investors Survey’ found that 53.3 per cent of mass affluent investors between the ages of 18–34 agree they are easily flustered when things are complicated. The company sees this as proof that products should be kept simple in order to reach the young mass affluent population and encourage them to begin investing. “It is important to remember that while these apps may seem easy to use to the well-informed, tech-savvy crowd, it is just as important to ensure the same is true for […]
What’ll Waddle do with $4m injection?
Small business lender fintech start-up Waddle will step up its efforts to crack overseas markets and take a larger share of the big four bank’s local market share after closing a $4 million series A funding round. The funds, sourced from tech venture capital firm Allectus Capital, will be used to grow the fintech’s footprint in Australasia and push forward with its plans to integrate with overseas banks. “We are seeing strong demand from banks looking to digitise their working capital product offerings by partnering with fintechs with proven models,” said Simon Creighton, co-founder of Waddle. While it is the first major external venture-style funding round, co-founder Simon Creighton is […]
Wisr sees strong support for new debt reduction app
Wisr (ASX: WZR) announced more than 4,000 Australians have downloaded the new Wisr App during its testing phase, which automatically ‘rounds-up’ digital spare change to pay off debt faster. The app is the newest financial wellness product to be offered by neo-lender Wisr and is the first in Australia to ‘round-up’ spare change with a focus on credit card or mortgage debt reduction. Wisr App can be used by customers of most Australian banks. Wisr App links a user’s everyday transaction account, rounding-up purchases to the nearest dollar and automatically paying the funds off a nominated debt – including credit card debt or mortgage debt with any financial institution, or […]
