Fintech set to reshape financial services despite slump
Global fintech investment’s boom year of 2015, when all the planets aligned and the hype factor reached its peak, was always going to make activity levels in subsequent years look feeble by comparison. Even so, the 47 per cent slump in funds invested in 2016 to $24.7bn, revealed yesterday in KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech publication, is eye-opening. Both macro and micro forces are at play. With the former, the uncertainty created by the Brexit vote, the schism between new US president Donald Trump and the tech community, a perceived economic slowdown in China and significant fluctuations in exchange rates all conspired to make investors more cautious. At a more micro […]
Australia weathers fintech slump
Global investment in fintech companies almost halved last year as “froth” comes out of the burgeoning industry and investors wait to see if they can successfully disrupt incumbents such as banks and insurers, according to a new report. Fintech investment funding declined to $US24.7 billion ($32.17bn) last year from a bumper $US46.7bn in 2015, driven by fewer merger and acquisitions, and private equity investments, KPMG found. However, the less mature Australian fintech industry bucked the trend as investment soared to a record high of $626 million last year, up from $185m in 2015 and $461m in 2014. The increase was powered by Champ Private Equity’s acquisition of Pepperstone, Stirling Products’ […]
Crowd-sourced equity funding bill to pass Senate
Retail investors will soon be able to buy up to $10,000 of equity in their favourite business ideas, with “crowd-sourced funding” legislation set to pass the Senate with Greens support. The legislation will allow unlisted public companies with annual turnover or gross assets of up to $25 million to advertise their business plans on licensed crowdfunding portals, and raise up to $5 million a year to carry them out. Investors can put up to $10,000 a year each into an unlimited number of ideas, with a 48-hour cooling off period applying. “Crowd-sourced equity funding will offer a new funding option for small businesses,” said Treasurer Scott Morrison while introducing the […]
Lender invests $100k in fintech start-up
A leading specialist lender has partnered with a fintech incubator to back a start-up in a program aimed at “re-inventing the financial services sector in Australia”. After hosting a two-day hackathon in December, which saw 20 entrepreneurs from different sectors come up with solutions to “revolutionise” the industry, Pepper Money and Pollenizer have chosen fintech start-up SmallStash to receive 12 weeks of training and financial support to further progress its ideas. The group’s focus is financial education for children, assisting parents to better educate them regarding money and savings. Pepper Money has invested almost $100,000 in the 12-week incubator program, with the funds contributing to supporting the start-up, including 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 […]
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 […]
Mint Payments successfully completes $6m placement
Payments technology solutions provider Mint Payments (ASX: MNW) has successfully completed a placement of new shares to drive its aggressive expansion into South East Asia’s evolving payments landscape. The placement will be made pursuant to s708 (11) of the Corporations Act 2001, to raise $6.0M. Priced at $0.079 per share, the Placement represents a 3.7% discount to the last traded price of $0.082 per share. The capital raising will be undertaken in two tranches: a) Tranche 1 – comprising 50.6M shares, raising $4.0M pursuant to the Company’s existing 15% capital issue limit under ASX Listing Rule 7.1 ; and b) Tranche 2 – comprising 25.3M shares, raising $2.0M. […]
