Fintech start-up QPay gets $1M in funding from Angels and Sharks
Student marketplace and payments app, QPay, has secured a $1 million cash injection after funding from the Sydney Angels Sidecar Fund 2 was supplemented by a $380,000 combined investment by Steve Baxter and Naomi Simson in exchange for 8.4 per cent of the firm’s equity during last night’s episode of Shark Tank. Funds were also received from American Express, and from the Chairman of the Australian British FinTech Cyber Catalyst, Andrew Chick, to make up the total $1 million. The funds will primarily be used to extend the reach of QPay’s recently launched student-targeted MasterCard to the 4,000-plus students on its waiting list, as well as to build a sales […]
Finder co-founder Fred Schebesta plans to create Australia’s first crypto-bank
He became one of the country’s youngest self-made millionaires at the age of 26 — and now he’s revealed his next “multibillion-dollar” idea. The co-founder of one of Australia’s biggest tech success stories has revealed his next “multibillion-dollar” idea — to create the “first crypto bank of Australia”. Fred Schebesta, who became one of country’s youngest self-made millionaires at the age of 26 with the sale of his first business before founding comparison website finder.com.au, describes himself as a “time traveller” who looks into the future in order to make it a reality. His bet on the online comparison space paid off. From a simple credit card blog called Creditcardfinder.com.au, […]
Grounds, Paradice dive into blockchain software float Identitii
The big end of town is piling into a small payments security firm’s initial public offering in the expectation they may have unearthed the next big thing. Street Talk understands UBS Australia chief executive Matthew Grounds, veteran fund manager David Paradice and Sydney-based institutional investors KIS Capital, Terra Capital and KTM Ventures are among the names lining up for a piece of ASX-hopeful Identitii. Identitii is a blockchain software company founded by Australians Nick Armstrong and Eric Knight. Its software is aimed at helping banks and other international payments providers comply with anti money laundering policies by attaching messages to each transfer saying exactly who is making the payment and why. Identitii is an add-on to the SWIFT payments […]
Strip banks, credit cards of digital payment powers: Productivity Commission report
Australia’s biggest banks and global payments schemes must have self-regulatory powers covering digital payments and infrastructure access forcibly removed to dismantle a harmful oligopoly. That’s the radical call from the Productivity Commission’s inquiry report into Competition in the Australian Financial System. Released Friday, the in-your-face tome has left institutions and regulators reeling from the depth of criticism levelled at them. Describing Australia as having “an oligopolistic banking system” it’s a blueprint for an earthquake rather than a shake-up. $1.0 trillion restructure If implemented, the reforms would drastically restructure how payment flows of $1.0 trillion – yes trillion – would be regulated. It would also redefine the landscape for how tens […]
Buy Bundy by bitcoin: Cryptocurrency coming to QLD attractions
Queensland’s gearing up to become Australia’s most crypto-friendly state. It’s a match made in heaven. Australian state governments are looking for ways to bolster tourism, and these bitcoin and cryptocurrency things have recently gotten quite popular. TravelbyBit is an Australian company, based in Queensland, that emerged to take advantage of both, with cryptocurrency point of sale systems that accept bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Ether and XEM. From there, it’s inked deals around Australia. For tourists, cryptocurrencies have especially clear utility. There’s no chance of it falling through a hole in your pocket; there’s no need to mess around with expensive exchange rates or travel cards; there’s no need to fret overseas […]
Apple is becoming a formidable financial technology company
A growing anxiety for bank executives is how and when big tech companies will encroach on their turf. During its quarterly earnings call yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave some insight into the company’s progress in becoming something of a fintech player: Apple Pay transactions tripled from a year earlier, to more than 1 billion. Cook said that was more than Square and exceeded mobile transactions via PayPal. The worry for finance executives is that payments are just the beginning. Alibaba affiliate and fintech giant Ant Financial expanded from payments and into wealth management. According to analysts at research firm Bernstein, the Chinese company now runs a robo-advisory service that […]
Stripe launches Partner Program in response to demand from millions-strong user base
Stripe, the technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet, has today announced the launch of its first-ever Partner Program to help its global user base—now numbering in the millions—discover new, reliable partners to work with. Stripe’s ecosystem is already comprised of thousands of informal tech partners, drawn to Stripe by its world-class technology and APIs, and access to its rapidly growing user base. Today, for every $1 Stripe makes, partners can expect to make $1.26. Stripe’s Partner Program formalises this ecosystem, giving partners access to new benefits, such as: A new partner portal with educational materials and best practices for building secure, reliable integrations to Stripe. A […]
Apple Pay predicted to be half of all mobile wallet users as contactless payments hit $2 trillion by 2020
Digital wallets are gaining momentum and Apple Pay looks set to be the most popular platform as contactless payments are projected to hit $2 trillion within two years. As spotted by TechCrunch, Juniper Research put out a new report today with the prediction that Apple Pay will account for 50% of global mobile wallet users by 2020. The data took into account competition from Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Huawei Pay, and Fitbit Pay. The firm believes 2020 will see 450 million users taking advantage of mobile wallets with Apple making up for 225 million of those users. Specifically, Juniper predicts mobile wallets will make up for 15% of the $2 […]
