Venture capital investment in FinTech reaches record US$27.4 billion high
Global investment in FinTechs by venture capital grew to a record $27.4 billion in 2017, spurred on by high deal value in the US, UK and India. Digital payments and lending services attracted the most investment capital. FinTech (financial technology) startups continue to draw the interest of venture capital around the world. Venture capital firms and funds continue to see great potential in the disruptive FinTech firms which are providing user-friendly financial services and products through modern and innovative technology: digital payments services and online lending platforms the foremost among them. Confidence in FinTech has accelerated venture capital financing in the industry to a record level of $27.4 billion in […]
Initial coin offerings challenge traditional venture capital
Satoshi Nakamoto, whoever he or she is, probably didn’t consider the effect blockchain would have on the innovation ecosystem when they launched the first usable blockchain in 2009. Regardless, amid all the cryptocurrency hype, it’s clear a new pathway for start-ups is emerging. With a growing number of technology projects turning to initial coin offerings (ICOs) for fundraising, it seems the whole “idea-to-market” process has been turned on its head – revolutionising the lean start-up methodology: Decades ago it used to be the case of “build something, get funded, market it”. The lean method tried to lower the founder’s risk by decreasing the costs to market and introducing the idea […]
Private Equity and Venture Capital technology investments key for investors
Chief Executive Officer of Crestone Wealth Management Michael Chisholm says investor access to the quickly growing technology sector is an important investment and social consideration in the current market cycle. Mr Chisholm said access to private equity or venture capital funds, which are uncorrelated to traditional asset classes, can help cushion portolios against any equity market downturn. Crestone recently invited a group of Australia’s leading venture capital (VC) investors to provide their views on technology. The panel included Paul Bassat, Co-Founder and Partner from Square Peg Capital, Daniel Petre, Co-Founder and Partner from AirTree Ventures, Niki Scevak, Managing Director and Founder from Blackbird Ventures, Emma Weston, Co-Founder and CEO from […]
Westpac strikes deal with Assembly Payments
Westpac Banking Corp has bought an equity stake in Assembly Payments and will work with the Melbourne-based fintech to integrate the bank’s merchant terminals with customers’ point-of-sale (POS) software, removing the need for transaction amounts to be entered into retailers’ systems twice. For workers in the nation’s restaurants and coffee shops, entering the dollar amount of a transaction into a banking terminal to complete a sale might be a small frustration, but the extra process can add up to real dollars for business owners. Westpac estimates that for a typical Sydney CBD cafe – which completes between 1000 and 1500 transactions a day – the three to five seconds 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, […]
Scale Investors and VentureCrowd introduce new female board members
Female-focused angel investor network, Scale Investors today announced a strategic partnership with alternative assets crowdfunding platform VentureCrowd, as well as the appointment of three new members to the Scale Investors board – Catherine Robson, Judith Smith and Lynda Coker who have joined the board, effective from 1 March. The Scale Investors and VentureCrowd collaboration has two main components. VentureCrowd will ease syndication of an investment for Scale Investors by handling the administration, such as collecting investment funds, setting up a unit trust and all required documentation. It also includes facilitating on long-term relationships between startups and a syndicate by managing investor updates and communications. Secondly, companies that Scale Investors invest […]
NAB Ventures invests in BRICKX
2018 has kicked off with a bang! NAB Ventures, National Australia Bank’s corporate venture capital arm, has invested in BRICKX. BRICKX is a revolutionary new and affordable way for Australians to invest in residential property by buying ‘Bricks’ in a BRICKX property. This unique approach, called fractional property investment, means people can invest in quality residential properties for as little as a few hundred dollars. Learn more about how BRICKX works. NAB Ventures and BRICKX alignment NAB Ventures – which supports businesses and entrepreneurs in their quest to build leading technology companies – saw the investment potential in democratising property ownership in the Australian market. Housing affordability continues to be […]
Matt Heine and Steve Tucker back fintech start-up
Artificial intelligence-enabled fintech start-up Nod has received a private capital injection from industry luminaries including Netwealth joint MD Matt Heine and Koda Capital chair Steve Tucker. In a statement, Nod announced it has raised $750,000 in capital as part of a funding round to support the its plans for expansion. The start-up, which “generates documents in real-time for finance professionals” using artificial intelligence, said it received the backing of a number of “key investors” including Mr Heine, Mr Tucker, Padua Financial Group executive chair Matt Esler, and venture capital firm H2 Ventures. Mr Heine said compliance-driven document generation had the potential to “save advice firms significant time, effort and expense” […]
