Who invented Blockchain?
Contrary to popular belief, shadowy inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, did not invent blockchain. So who did? In 1991, Dr W. Scott Stornetta and his co-author Dr Stuart Harber published a whitepaper introducing ‘blockchain’, a decentralised, cryptic database where digital transactions are secured. The cryptographers’ research focused on creating a digital hierarchy system which time-stamped and chronologically secured transactions in a chain of blocks. Together, they co-authored several publications in the cryptography field to pioneer a system that was transparent and verifiable. The first major blockchain innovation came in 2008, when the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper. Bitcoin is a digital currency which can be bought and transferred […]
Prospa appoints Non-Executive Directors and Chairman
Prospa, Australia’s #1 online lender to small business, has today announced the appointment of Gail Pemberton AO and Fiona Trafford-Walker as Independent Non-Executive Directors to the Prospa Board. In addition, current Non-Executive Director Greg Ruddock has been appointed to the role of Chairman of the Board, having recently stepped down from the Board of Eclipx Group Limited to focus on Prospa. The new Board members will join existing Non-Executive Directors Avi Eyal from Entrée Capital, James Cameron from AirTree Ventures, and Executive Directors and Co-Founders Greg Moshal & Beau Bertoli. Joint CEO Greg Moshal commented: “Prospa’s success has been the result of a group of smart, talented and passionate people […]
Moneycatcha appoints industry veteran John Heaton as Chief Technology Officer
Moneycatcha, one of Australia’s leading fintech startups, has appointed technology veteran John Heaton to the newly created role of Chief Technology Officer. Mr Heaton joins the multiple award-winning company from Queensland’s Heritage Bank where he oversaw strategy and technology architecture. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the IT, resources and banking sectors, having served in various senior positions at Oracle Corp and Xstrata Copper. Moneycatcha CEO and founder, Ruth Hatherley, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled and privileged to have John join our fast-growing team. “His experience in technology, coupled with insights in banking and finance, is second to none. “John is instrumental in ensuring our products are compatible across […]
Fintech and Property: What You Need to Know
Using Fintech in the property industry Australians embrace technology in everyday life and they expect it to be part of everything they do. For the last three years, Fintech has been one of the fastest growing industries in Australia, with the number of registered companies growing from around 100 in 2015 to 600 in 2018. With the rapid growth of the industry in Australia, the door is open for the property industry to benefit. What Fintech products will the property industry gain the most benefit from? Data Analytics: Using information and data from Fintech platforms will help advisors and agents to make informed decisions for their clients. They will be […]
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, […]
SMEs trading banks for fintechs, poll suggests
Fintech and other non-bank lenders are set to overtake banks as the preferred source of growth funds for Australian SMEs, the latest Scottish Pacific SME Growth Index suggest. The twice-yearly poll was informed by interviews with more than 1250 SMEs with annual revenues of up to $5 million. Scottish Pacific found that between 2014 and 2018, the proportion of SMEs intending to use banks for funding dropped from 38% to 24%. Meanwhile, 22% of SMEs identified non-bank lenders as their preferred source of growth funds, up from 11% in 2014. In addition, it was revealed that amongst SMEs that have not used non-banking lending options in the past 12 months, […]
Novatti Group (ASX:NOV) 1H18 results & outlook
Novatti Group Limited (ASX:NOV) CEO, Peter Cook talks about the company’s 1H18 results, the launch of its Australian remittance service, the integration of basis2 and progress towards its goal of becoming an ADI (authorised deposit-taking institution). Rachael Jones: Hello I’m Rachael Jones for the Finance News Network. Joining me from the Novatti Group (ASX:NOV) is CEO, Peter Cook. Peter, welcome to the Network. Peter Cook: Rachael good afternoon. Rachael Jones: Firstly could we just start with an introduction to your company? Peter Cook: Novatti listed two years ago, January 2016. Our market capitalisation is about $40 million at the moment and actually, our top 20 shareholders have about 80 per […]
1 in 4 are financially stressed, but Australia just got Wisr
Wisr (formerly DirectMoney) launches new brand with new financial wellness focus. ASX-listed Wisr today launched a major rebrand of the personal lending company, following its official name change from DirectMoney. Wisr is Australia’s only ASX listed marketplace/p2p lender and is one of the very first to emerge in Australia. Now entering its fifth year, the company is going through a phase of rapid growth and expansion, and the new brand reflects the company’s repositioning into a technology-led, customer-focused company with a vision to “bring financial wellness to the world”. Research has shown that 1 in 4 Australians are financially stressed, and the number one cause is high interest debt (typically […]
