Aussie-founded fintech Banked secures $2.7 million in seed funding, to launch open banking data solution
An Aussie-founded fintech, based in London, has secured £1.5 million ($2.66 million) in seed funding, while it’s still pre-product, pre-revenue, and less than a year old. Founded in early-2018 by Australian native and chief executive Brad Goodall, along with co-founders Neil Ambler, Patrick Cox and Ellen Fernandes, Banked aims to open up the possibilities of financial data by providing a trustworthy channel of communication between banks, businesses and individuals. The entirety of the seed funding has come from London-based venture capital firm Backed VC, although Goodall tells StartupSmart he is in talks with other investors regarding a potential secondary seed raise. Open banking came into effect in the UK earlier […]
Home loan fintech raises $25m
A fintech start-up is celebrating a $25million raise as it continues on its pathway to becoming Australia’s “most innovative home loan provider”. Athena Home Loans, which is still in its pilot phase, has closed its most recent Series B raise led by Square Peg Capital. Industry super fund Hostplus and venture firm AirTree also joined the round, taking the group’s total capital raised to date to $45m. The Series B raise comes six months after the company announced a Series A fund raise led by Macquarie Bank and Square Peg Capital and three months after announcing a strategic partnership with Resimac Group. Powered by Australia’s first cloud native digital mortgage […]
Lumi raises $31.5m to improve small business lending
Australian fintech company and alternative lender Lumi has announced it has raised $31.5 million in Series A funding as part of its plans to give small- and medium-sized enterprises easier access to finance. As a result of the funding, Lumi will become the first pre-revenue fintech business lender to offer a warehouse securitisation program in Australia. By combining its application programming interface (API) with traditional credit data and the applicant’s social impact, Lumi aims to streamline the loan application process for small business owners. Yanir Yakutiel, founder and CEO of Lumi, says the company is trying to solve the key issues of alternative lending for small businesses. “We saw a […]
How Westpac is investing in fintechs and spending $1 billion on digital transformation
Westpac’s annual results show how far the bank has gone to transform itself into a digital showcase and how it has been heavily investing in the rise of disrupting fintechs. Out of a total investment of $1.4 billion, the bank spent more than $800 million in system upgrades, digital transformation, and innovation. CEO Brian Hartzer says the focus has been on delivering technology platforms, while simplifying and automating processes to make banking easier. “We have already migrated 100 applications onto our cloud infrastructure platforms which are now largely complete,” he says. “Additionally we have over 120 APIs in production and another 180 in development.” Among digital initiatives are Siri for […]
AI, VR and fintech in focus as Microsoft takes on its first Aussie start-ups
Artificial intelligence and financial services based start-ups provide the majority of the first cohort of global tech giant Microsoft’s first Australian accelerator program. The program, known as ScaleUp, was announced in February and targets start-ups that have typically received initial funding and are looking to expand. It promises to help fast-track their growth by linking them with potential customers, Microsoft partners and technical guidance, without giving up any equity. The Australian start-ups selected are Auror, Daisee, FreightExchange, Hyper Anna, InDebted, Kapiche, Karbon, Makers Empire, Teamgage, SimpleKYC, Start VR, VendorPanel and Winimy AI. Many have secured funding in recent times, including virtual data scientist Hyper Anna, which raised $16 million from […]
Arctic Intelligence reels in $2.8m to fuel global expansion
Arctic Intelligence, a provider of cloud-based audit, risk and compliance platforms, has raised $2.8m in fresh funding. The capital came from high-profile angel investors, comprising of experienced leaders in their field and includes entrepreneurs, career bankers, professional investors, venture capitalists and two ex-CEOs from publicly listed companies. It will allow the RegTech to fast-track its global expansion plans, starting with acquiring full control of AML Accelerate from its former joint venture partner, Initialism. Founder and CEO, Anthony Quinn, said, “Following our capital raise, it was a logical move to acquire Initialism’s stake in AML Accelerate to take full ownership and control, an important step in achieving our future growth plans. […]
First Growth Funds secures $15m from HCASH
First Growth Funds Limited (ASX:FGF) will assist blockchain group HCash, investing up to $15m in some of the most innovative companies on the ASX. HCash possesses its own unique blockchain tech similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum, possessing a market cap of $150m. Subject to regulatory approval, HCash will invest $15m of HCash digital currency in ASX listed companies Under the terms of the placement there is no dilution or direct investment in FGF, instead the company will act as a broker and receive 6% or up to $900k in fees for facilitating the investments (FGF may also invest its own capital). On 17 July 2018, FGF successfully facilitated the investment […]
NAB Ventures secures another $50 million to invest in fintech startups: Here’s what the fund is looking for
Australian big-four bank NAB has allocated another $50 million to its corporate venture capital fund NAB Ventures, doubling the funds available to bring the total to $100 million. The fund was launched in 2016 with an initial $50 million to invest over three years. It has backed 12 businesses to date, including property investment startup BrickX, real estate communications platform ActivePipe, and data sharing startup Data Republic. It has also made investments overseas into startups in San Francisco and Toronto. NAB Ventures general partner Melissa Widner tells StartupSmart the doubling up of the funds represents an endorsement of the program from the bank. “The board liked the innovation it was […]
