Neobank Volt has had its public launch and IPO scuttled by Australia’s shutdown, but CEO Steve Weston says the future is ‘far brighter’ because of it
2020 had been slated to be a big year for digital banks, but the spread of COVID-19 quickly put a pin in that ambition.
Take Volt, which had been readying to finally unveil itself to the public, was looking to close a major offshore funding round, and launch itself on the sharemarket all in the same 12 months.
Halfway through the calendar year and the dust is starting to gather on all three. Founder and CEO Steve Weston is trying to look on bight side.
“It’s been frustrating because I would have really loved to have been in market right now and lending, but then I look on the other side and there are some positives to be had because we waited,” he told Business Insider Australia.
While it put a major $50 million offshore capital raise on hold, and pushed back Volt’s IPO until at least next year, Weston says there are benefits to restricting operation to its waitlist during COVID.
“One is having a clean balance sheet and not having to work through those problems existing lenders are going to have to work through.”
As the Australian economy heads into a recession, the souring of debts is going to rank as a major concern for lenders nationwide.
“Even if your credit record is unblemished right now, you still might lose your job due to no fault of your own. So we’ve decided to push back going into lending until later in the year when things have normalised,” Weston said.
“As long as [Australia] doesn’t have to revert back to restrictions, then I can see us commencing lending in maybe September or October, but not much before that,” he said, noting a public launch would coincide with that prospective date range.
While 86 400 has lent out $30 million, and Up can lend via its partnership with Bendigo Bank, Volt and Xinja have been left stuck operating at a loss in the deposit market.
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