SocietyOne shifts from edgy start-up to $100m lender
The nation’s biggest peer-to-peer lender, SocietyOne, is growing up fast, and not in the same way as its renegade US cousin Lending Club. An ASIC search has revealed the stranglehold of the so-called media consortium (News Corp, Kerry Stokes and James Packer’s media-free Consolidated Press Holdings) over SocOne after the recent $25 million Series C capital raising. The consortium, through its vehicle S. One Holding, holds a commanding 37 per cent stake, with the News and Stokes interests believed to be dominant in the S. One Holding structure. Not only that, but Westpac’s in-house venture capital fund, Reinventure, speaks for a further 17 per cent of SocOne. Put the two […]
How banks are running the economy
Alan Kohler, The Australian Two quite innocuous things happened on Tuesday: the federal budget and an RBA rate cut. Neither of these events will do much good, but nor will they do much harm, which is about as much can be hoped from both politics and monetary policy these days. Even RBA Governor Glenn Stevens has been constantly talking about impotence of monetary policy, so it’s likely to be true. Why won’t the budget or the rate cut have much impact? Because the RBA and the government don’t run the economy — the banks do, and there is something much more significant going on in banking land. There is always […]
Fintech a $US1 trillion fight
Consultants Oliver Wyman has been talking to banking clients all around the world over the past few months about the concept of “modular financial services”. It’s the coverline adorning one of the firm’s latest research pieces on the impact of information technology on the future of banking. Even as the equity prices of US fintech poster children like Lending Club and OnDeck are pummelled as capital markets reassess valuations, incumbent banks around the world show no sign of losing interest in fintech. Indeed, if the interim results of three of Australia’s big four banks last week were any guide, thinking about fintech in the C-suite is only accelerating. The earnings […]
P2P lender SocietyOne eyes growth in market share
SocietyOne, the nation’s biggest marketplace lender, has forecast it will be cash-flow positive within two years, confirming it had raised an extra $25 million to support its growth plans. Completion of the Series C raising, revealed by The Australian last month, came as new chief executive Jason Yetton committed to a five-year goal to build a 2-3 per cent share of the $105 billion consumer finance market. “The opportunities that lie ahead of us are immense,” said Mr Yetton, a former senior Westpac executive. SocOne’s raising had a number of notable features, including a powerful consortium of billionaire shareholders taking a tighter grip on the company. Mr Yetton said Kerry […]
New fintech player CreditSME is helping both banks and borrowers in SME lending space
CreditSME has recently launched in the Australian market and is working with both lenders and borrowers to create a streamlined process for small and medium sized businesses to obtain finance. CreditSME has developed a new credit scoring system for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) based on the financial and operating position of the company. This credit score, along with the financing requirements of the company, are then used to match the company to the most suitable financier. “There have been a number of new lenders entering the SME space over recent times which provides more options for borrowers, however it’s important for borrowers to understand what is being offered […]
Budget 2016: fintechs; MoneyPlace, OzForex hail recognition
The Turnbull government’s maiden budget may have lacked the necessary fireworks for the local innovation sector but fintech start-ups are not complaining. Melbourne-based peer-to-peer lender MoneyPlace’s founder and CEO Stuart Stoyan is pleased to see the Australian fintech ecosystem singled out in a budget that didn’t dole out many handouts to start-ups. “It’s an election budget so they had to balance a few things but the fact that fintech got attention is a big win,” he said. The government overnight unveiled measures designed to boost the fintech industry that Mr Stoyan said is a reflection of the sector’s growing prominence. “What we have is a number of factors coming together […]
Meet eight fintechs changing financial services
When you have just seven minutes to sell your idea as the next big thing to change banking and investment, every moment counts. Thirty of the country’s best fintechs are pitching to a room full of 160-plus bankers, brokers and venture capitalists at the Grand Hyatt ballroom in Melbourne, where their story, business plan and even looks are all being judged. From payments to wealth management, peer-to-peer lending and crowd funding, fintech start-ups are taking aim at the heart of the financial services industry and a pot of revenues that Goldman Sachs estimates at $4.7 trillion. The banks are all vying for a stake in these disrupters before they join […]
Fintech challenges Veda, Dun & Bradstreet
CreditSME – founded by Adam Welsh, a former M&A and debt at Origin Capital Group and Goldman Sachs – is offering a sort of broker role, giving them a credit rating and then advising them on which lenders would be the best for them – be it traditional bank or online unsecured lenders. CreditSME, launching on Wednesday, is the latest in an explosion of ex investment banker-led fintechs targeting the small businesses traditionally treated with disdain by the banks. But it’s not lending them money, rather it wants to give SMEs (and their lenders) easy access to a credit rating, just like a big business. There are various operators that […]
