zipMoney to partner with a Big 4 Australian Bank in a $200m financing arrangement
zipMoney Limited is pleased to announce that it has agreed key terms with a ‘Big 4’ Australian bank for the provision of a $200 million asset-backed securitisation warehouse program for its consumer receivables. CEO and Managing Director Larry Diamond said: “This is a transformative step forward for the Company. As well as creating capacity to fund the growing demand for our services, it will approximately halve the weighted average cost of capital of our loan book, which directly contributes to our bottom line. We are very pleased to be partnering with this ‘Big 4’ Australian bank and look forward to releasing further details in due course.” COO and Executive Director […]
Fintech Business Awards winners revealed
The winners of Momentum Media’s Fintech Business Awards 2017 have been announced, acknowledging the achievements of the industry’s leading lights. The premier awards night for the fintech industry, the Fintech Business Awards is dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of the disruptive businesses and innovators reshaping the way Australians access financial services. This year, Daniel Foggo of RateSetter Australia was recognised with the Fintech Business Excellence Award for individuals, beating out the other individual winners awarded at the event, with financial planning software firm Midwinter taking out the Fintech Business Excellence Award for companies. Over 300 nominations were received for the 18 awards, with the winners selected by a panel of […]
Touchcorp, Afterpay merger worth $500m
Melbourne-based fintech start-up Afterpay has announced a proposed merger with Touchcorp, in a deal set to create a new ASX-listed software and payments firm valued at $500 million. Afterpay MD Nick Molnar said the two companies had been working together, and the proposed merger would help the combined entity rapidly scale into new markets and grow faster than otherwise possible. Founded in 2014, Afterpay is a retail payments outfit that facilitates commerce between retail merchants and end customers, offering a “buy now, receive now, pay later” service that does not require end customers to enter into traditional loan arrangements or pay upfront fees to the group. It landed on the […]
It’s Apple Pay day for ING Direct
ING Direct signed up more than 20,000 customers to Apple Pay within 24 hours of going live with the digital wallet, claiming banks must partner and embrace a broader digital “ecosystem” or risk falling by the wayside. After going live with Apple Pay on Tuesday morning, ING chief Uday Sareen yesterday said 21,500 customers had activated the payments functionality on their iPhones, surpassing expectations of about 10,000. He said the bank’s account acquisition numbers were 25 per cent higher on Tuesday than the rolling average of the prior 30 days. ING has 517,000 customers who could activate Apple Pay, but only about 70 per cent use iPhones and only the […]
Dart aims for a United States of Fintech
Australian tech entrepreneurs have launched a new digital home for the global fintech community, providing an agnostic platform that founders hope will one day become the seat for an inclusive and encyclopaedic fintech commonwealth. Founder and CEO, Cameron Dart, told AB+F that the International FinTech platform, combines a web portal and directory to meet growing demand from the global community to have a dedicated, online and natively fintech presence for a sector that transcends borders. “We like to think of it as the beginnings of a LinkedIn for fintech,” Dart said. This week’s launch, built on the back of the original Australian FinTech, already encompasses more than 1,000 global fintech companies […]
Fintech start-up PromisePay becomes Assembly Payments, signs key Gumtree deal
Well-backed Melbourne-based fintech start-up PromisePay has taken the bold move to change its name at the same time as announcing one of its most important deals to date, with eBay-owned online marketplace Gumtree. The company, which last year closed a $14 million Series A funding round with Australian tech VC fund rampersand, Westpac’s Reinventure, 99Designs co-founder Mark Harbottle and former Hitwise CEO Andrew Walsh, will now be known as Assembly Payments. PromisePay had already picked up a strong roster of more than 100 Australian and international clients including Airtasker, hipages, Flippa and Carsales.com.au for its online marketplace payments platform. It enables payments to be held in escrow, so a customer […]
Banks stake out Apple Pay battleground in ACCC submission
The concept of the big banks arguing for change in order to increase competition tells you something about Apple’s apparent domination of the mobile phone market and its willingness to exploit this market power. In a submission released today, the banks have responded to the ACCC’s draft denial of the right to collectively negotiate with Apple by dropping their proposed claim to seek the right to fight for the ability to pass on the Apple fee and to cut the period for authorisation in half to 18 months. The latter is designed to show the big banks are not just simply trying to delay Apple and the former is to […]
Fintech disruptors hurting established players
As trends go, financial technology is a beauty. The prospect of nimble “fintech” ventures disrupting financial-service incumbents has whet investor appetites. An Australian fintech sector is rapidly emerging. Fintech has been a boom sector in the United States and United Kingdom as technology-based companies, with their capital-light business models, nibble at the market share of large firms. It happened in print media, publishing, music and education. Now the same trend, where new firms offer financial products and services using online platforms, is disrupting parts of banking, wealth management, insurance, payments, accounting and foreign exchange. There is, of course, much hype about fintech. But the financial-services sector looks a prime target […]
