Winklies, Dorsey Hunt Oz Biz
New York’s Winklevoss twins, the ex-Olympic rowers who famously – and unsuccessfully – sued Facebook for a fortune in 2011, claiming founder Mark Zuckerberg had stolen their idea, have confirmed plans to bring their bitcoin technology to Australia. The twins – Tyler and Cameron – who have since successfully set up a well-regarded bitcoin exchange in New York – have reportedly been negotiating with Melbourne-based Trimantium to help bring their blockchain technology Down Under. Their presence might well be welcomed here, given the problems the local industry has been experiencing, with one outfit, Bitcoin Group, recently refused entry to the ASX for want of an acceptable financial report (CDN, Feb. […]
Shares in fintech Mint Payments are soaring on a Singapore deal
Shares in Mint Payments jumped when the fintech came out of a trading halt to announce a deal with Singapore’s NETS (Network for Electronic Transfers). A short time ago, the shares were up 9% to $0.12. The company went into a trading halt on Friday after being queried by the ASX on the reason for a sharp rise in the company’s share price. NETS is an electronic payments started in 1985 and owned by Singapore banks, DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and UOB. One in three Singaporeans use NETS everyday to make payments. Mint now has a five year-agreement with NETS covering Mint’s payment solutions.Under the deal, Mint will work on […]
US giant buys Canberra online transaction business eWAY for $US50m
Canberra multimillionaire Matt Bullock has sold his online transaction company for more than a thousand times the money in his bank when he started it. When the Pearce man developed eWAY 18 years ago, he had $50,000 to his name. On Friday, he sold it to American payment technology services giant Global Payments for $US50 million. Understandably, Mr Bullock feels a great sense of achievement from his brainchild that grew to doing 5.8 billion online purchases last year, or about a quarter of all internet transactions in Australia. “What this shows is that you can do anything in Canberra,” he said. “It is a beautiful place and there are a […]
New finance platform Skippr to boost innovation and growth with fresh perspective on cash flow management
New finance platform, Skippr, signifies a new direction for the fintech space. Helping businesses understand cash flow better and providing them with simple and accessible tools to optimise that flow, the new start-up connects both invoice finance and cash flow forecasting through one platform. Pat Crivelli, Founder of Skippr said, “SMEs are the backbone of our economy, but nearly half will fail as a result of poor cash flow. Empowering SMEs to take control of their finances means more competition, innovation, productivity and growth for Australian businesses. “Skippr’s platform helps SMEs not just access finance, but understand how to better manage it. Our technology provides more transparency and, […]
Facebook wants to partner with Aussie banks on mobile strategy
Social media behemoth Facebook is looking to partner with Australian banks to explore opportunities in mobile banking, in a move that could radically change the face of retail banks. Paul McCrory, head of financial services Australia at Facebook, said the $428 billion tech giant has built “huge mobile platforms” that see 11 million Australians a day. Facebook sees opportunities in leveraging that scale to do business with Australian banks.”Banks are mobile businesses as well, except they also have legacy [systems] that sit behind them. How do we help partner with this vast scale we’ve got, to help a bank, for example, drive digital options?” Mr McCrory told The Australian Financial […]
Payment solution: corporates embrace virtual credit cards
For some time now, the dominant theme in digital payments for retail customers has been: “build it and they will come”. It’s a different story for corporates, where the rate of mobile payments innovation and adoption has been much slower, apart from some key emerging niches including virtual credit cards. A virtual card is exactly what the name implies: instead of the traditional plastic, a random card number is generated by software provided to the corporate customer. The 16-digit number can be accessed through an app on a mobile device, or directly by the company for a business-to-business purchase online. In most cases the number is used only once, it […]
Moroku releases Australia’s first device agnostic, mobile business and payments platform
Moroku has released Australia’s first device agnostic, mobile business and payments platform. Designed to allow small businesses to manage their customers, products and sales, the Marrakash android app not only creates and stores orders, when installed on an NFC enabled phone the app can take “Tap and Go” credit card payments. Until Marrakash, merchants need to pay up to $80 per month to rent a card terminal from one of the banks. That’s a sizeable monthly outlay especially if you have multiple sellers out and about. The app is multi user, so if an electrical contractor has 4 or 5 electricians driving around the country taking payments for installations, each […]
Fintech start-up Afterpay plans ASX listing
Fintech start-up Afterpay — backed by legendary corporate raider Ron Brierley and a host of alumni from his former Guinness Peat Group — plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange to supercharge growth plans after signing up more than 100 retailers to its online e-commerce product in the past nine months. Afterpay, whose backers include Mr Brierley’s ASX-listed Mercantile Investment Company, LinkedIn Southeast Asia managing director Cliff Rosenberg and Melbourne IVF founder John McBain, plans to raise $25 million in a float that will value the company at about $150m. Mr Brierley’s Mercantile last year bankrolled an $8m capital raising by the company. Mercantile is expected to emerge with […]
