Venture capital tax incentives extended to fintech
The federal government has released exposure draft legislation that will remove restrictions for venture capital investors to access tax concessions when investing in fintech. Treasurer Scott Morrison has announced the government will seek to reform Treasury laws in order to make it easier for fintech firms to receive early stage investment. In the 2016-17 federal budget, Mr Morrison announced a number of new tax incentives for venture capital and angel investors aimed at boosting innovation in the economy. The fintech sector, however, was exempted from those incentives – a decision the government is now looking to reverse with its draft legislation. “The proposed amendments highlight the Turnbull government’s commitment to […]
Finch raises $2.25m for Gen Y finance app after ‘proving it can rival’ Silicon Valley fintechs
The changing landscape of crowdfunding in Australia
When Aussie start-up, Nura, wanted to raise funds to help launch its hi-tech, self-adjusting headphones onto the global market, it turned to crowd-funding platform Kickstarter. The groundbreaking Nuraphones attracted the support of over 7,000 ‘backers’ who pledged money in return for early access to the product, netting Nura over US$1.8 million and breaking records for an Australian crowd-funding campaign. Recent decisions by the Australian Government to expand the use of crowd-funding for equity raising, initially by public companies and now potentially by SMEs and start-ups, could make a huge difference for companies seeking capital for growth and expansion. The first round of legislation came into force last month, allowing licensed […]
New advice fintech WealthO2 doubles FUA in 3 months
WealthO2, the fintech for financial advisers, has doubled in funds under administration between June 2017 and October 2017.
Investment platform Stake opens the US floodgates for self-managed super accounts
Stake, the fintech platform redesigning investing for Australians, today announced the beta launch of Stake Premium, which gives self-managed superannuation funds direct access to commission-free US share trading for the first time. Stake has also appointed Matthew Rady, a global financial markets expert and former IRESS executive, as Head of Business Development to help expand Stake into new services and offerings for investors and prospective partners. Stake Premium takes the features already available to Stake members — zero brokerage, paperless sign-up and a powerful dashboard to discover and buy US shares at any amount — and makes it available to the $700 billion SMSF market in Australia to help diversify […]
Treasurer rules out further super changes
Future reforms to superannuation appear to be off the table, as the Treasurer sets his eyes on the fintech scene. Speaking at the FSC BT Political Series, Treasurer Scott Morrison said revisiting changes to superannuation was not the way he preferred to “do business”. “I hope people will pick up one thing from the way I like to do business,” said Mr Morrison. “Once I go into a particular area and seek to make change, I seek to do it once and for all. I tend not to go and revisit it. “We made some major changes to superannuation, I’ve made some major changes in previous portfolios on pensions, made […]
GROW Super reduces its fees
The move comes just three weeks after rival super fund Spaceship dropped its fees. New super fund GROW Super has today announced it’s lowering its fees and introducing new features to the way its members can select their insurance cover. Since launching in May, the new fund which has been initially targeting Australian millennials has successfully attracted over 12,000 members. Until now the boutique fund has charged a fee of 1.85% p.a. on your investment; quite high compared to many other funds, and especially for a new player. From today GROW Super will charge a much more competitive fee of 0.95% plus $1.65 per week. The move comes just three […]
GPS robo-adviser launches
Plenty Wealth, a robo-adviser that combines human advice has officially launched. Co-founders Josh Golombick and Greg Einfeld said Plenty Wealth provides a financial roadmap and acts like a “GPS service” in terms of financial goals, covering automated advice from budgeting and cash flows, to insurance, property and investments. One of the biggest advantages of an algorithm is that the results are transparent and cannot be swayed by human bias and conflicts, said Einfeld, who helped develop the algorithms based on his 20 years of working in the superannuation and wealth management industries. “What’s more, they allow us to produce quality advice on demand and bring the cost down to nothing,” […]
