‘I’m not a silly investor’: SMEs accepting cryptocurrency as payment
When Robert Tadros was asked by a client last year if he would accept cryptocurrency as payment, he was “quite taken aback”. Being a believer in blockchain technology and a crypto-investor himself, the founder of search and social agency Impress!ve Digital was open to the request. “It’s an online store that the client operates. He was paying for his stock in cryptocurrency. So I embraced the idea.” Cryptocurrency client base increases In 12 months, Impress!ve, has grown 500 per cent from $600,000 to $3.5 million in annual revenue. Tadros attributes this growth to pivoting from a being a generalist agency to specialising in SEO, SEM and Facebook advertising. Three of […]
Sydney Angels funds QPay $570k to steal millennial students from banks
Australia’s first ever student marketplace app, QPay, has raised $570,000 from a series of high profile investors, including Sydney Angels and the Sydney Angels Sidecar Fund 2, to break into student banking through the release of a student-targeted QPay MasterCard. QPay aims to use the QPay MasterCard to capture the largest cluster of millennial consumers at the point when they’re most likely to begin making serious financial decisions – when enrolled in tertiary education. “University is the time when life decisions start to become quite future-focussed, especially regarding our finances,” said Andrew Clapham, Co-Founder of QPay. “We might be weighing up the amount of student debt we can responsibly accrue, […]
Peppermint to access over 1m Filipinos in tech deal
ASX listed fintech, Peppermint Innovation, has signed a potentially transformational service provider agreement with the largest cooperative federation in the Philippines. The deal brings more than one million potential Filipino customers into play for the Perth based financial payments APP provider. In a recent market update, Peppermint said it will develop a mobile financial services app and web tool for “MASS-SPECC”, the oldest cooperative federation in the Philippines, encompassing more than 300 affiliated cooperatives and one million individual members. MASS-SPECC is shorthand for the Mindanao Alliance of Self-Help Societies -Southern Philippines Educational Cooperative Centre, Peppermint said the app, to be known as the ‘Peppermint Conditional Cash Transfer Management System’, will […]
Samsung Pay locks up the “big four” after new partnership with National Australia Bank
Samsung Pay has become the first mobile wallet provider to lock up the “big four” banks after today announcing a partnership with the last of the major institutions – the National Australian Bank. NAB customers now join those from Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ to use Samsung Pay to make payments with compatible Samsung smartphones, Samsung smartwatches and other wearables. Customers can load their Visa credit and/or debit card and pay securely anywhere credit cards are accepted. Apart from the big four banks, Samsung Pay works with more than 45 other financial institutions around Australia. Samsung has made good on its promise to provide its customers with a simple and […]
Blockchain: A catalyst for new business models
The concept of blockchain technology is all but synonymous with cryptocurrency. It’s through pioneers such as bitcoin that everyday consumers have come to recognise this revolutionary and instantaneous mechanism for executing and recording financial transactions. But in business, curiosity is turning into innovation and experimentation. The use of blockchain to complete financial transactions is one of the more rudimentary applications of this technology. Blockchain means we now have a way to handle information without relying on a single trusted ledger, such as banks in the context of cryptocurrencies. Across all industries, how we verify, audit, enter, record, and update data has been left to a patchwork of different technologies and […]
The 2018 Fintech Business Awards winners
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2018 Fintech Business Awards: Crowdfunding Innovator of the Year OnMarket Lending Innovator of the Year SocietyOne Personal Finance Innovator of the Year Pocketbook Insurance Innovator of the Year Cover Genius Payments Innovator of the Year Afterpay Australia Compliance Innovator of the Year Moneycatcha Software Innovator of the Year BGL Corporate Solutions Fintech Mentor of the Year Peta Tilse, Sophisticated Access Fintech Entrepreneur of the Year Philip Copeland, Avoka Investment Innovator of the Year Acorns Australia Fintech Thought leader of the Year Jonathon Wilkinson, Equitise Accounting Innovator of the Year Class Limited Financial Advice Innovator of the Year myprosperity Lending Platform Innovator of the […]
Stone & Chalk founded startup SkyBuys to launch duty free project with Heinemann Australia
SkyBuys is pleased to announce Heinemann Australia (HEINEMANN Tax & Duty Free) has signed an agreement to trial the SkyBuys App and technology platform for duty free shopping. Announced today at the Airbus BizLab DemoDay in Hamburg, the SkyBuys-Heinemann Australia project is scheduled to commence in early Q3 2018 at Sydney Airport, Australia’s major international airport. Founded at the Stone & Chalk fintech hub in Sydney, mobile commerce startup SkyBuys developed the SkyBuys App for international passengers to shop for duty free at any stage of their journey, including in-flight. The App allows passengers to search and purchase duty free inventory in-app from the time they receive their ticket through […]
Twitter CEO: Bitcoin will be the world’s ‘single currency’ in 10 years
Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey apparently has big visions for bitcoin, commenting in a recent interview with The Times that he believes that the cryptocurrency will become the world’s single currency within 10 years. According to Dorsey, “The world ultimately will have a single currency, the internet will have a single currency. I personally believe that it will be bitcoin.” Dorsey went on to say that the transition would happen “probably over ten years, but it could go faster,” which seems like an extremely unrealistic projection, even considering cryptocurrency’s meteoric rise in popularity over the past few months. That Dorsey is a fan of bitcoin isn’t too surprising, though. […]
