Co-working boom, but no room
Nearly three-quarters of start-ups are now based in co-working spaces, up from half a year ago, according to a major survey of founders, and the sites are running out of room. The 2016 Startup Muster survey released on Wednesday shows the NSW government’s plan for a 15,000 square metre start-up hub in or near the Sydney CBD is desperately needed. Co-working spaces were home for 72.3 per cent of the 685 verified start-ups that responded to the survey, up from 49 per cent in the 2015 Startup Muster. The arrival of international co-working brands such as Rocketspace and WeWork have helped popularise the concept, according to Brad Delamare, general manager […]
Mint Payments expands travel portfolio with new partner agreement
Payments processing technology provider, Mint Payments (ASX: MNW) has partnered with one of Australia’s most affordable and adaptable travel agency software solution providers TravelPartner (Aust) Pty Ltd, signing a two-year licence and distribution agreement to deliver its fully integrated online payments processing service to its growing network of travel agents. TravelPartner has integrated Mint’s card payment module into its core SaaS product offering VTO Ultimate to enable seamless and easy credit card payment acceptance by travel agents for all travel and service fee transactions. This partnership removes the current manual effort required by the agent as the software seamlessly creates an invoice, takes payment, generates a receipt and reconciles it […]
Banks pay lip service to fintech collaboration
Banks need to become “platforms” that deliver financial services alongside various start-up partners, but many banks are paying lip service to collaboration and remain reluctant to engage with the local fintech ecosystem, according to Alex Scandurra, chief executive of fintech hub Stone & Chalk. The notion that a bank can merely innovate internally “is such outdated thinking,” he told the 1300 delegates to the Reimagination’16 summit in Sydney on Thursday. Banks needed to shift from thinking they sell a mortgage, deposit or loan to being “a platform of services [that] deliver a whole range of things to customers, some of which are built and delivered by [the bank], some of […]
Stone & Chalk says the new paradigm is outside-in innovation
It should come as no surprise that Alex Scandurra, chief executive officer Stone & Chalk, is a passionate advocate of collaboration: the raison d’être, justification, objective and mission statement of Stone & Chalk is to help foster and accelerate the development of world-leading fintech start-ups, by leveraging greater collaboration between stakeholders in the fintech eco-system. Stone & Chalk itself is a collaborative effort between fintech entrepreneurs, venture capital (VC) firms, companies, academia and government, to incubate and nurture financial services-focused tech start-ups in ways not seen in Australia before. “Collaboration is at the core of what we do, and it’s one of the main reasons why we’ve been able to […]
DASH integrates with Living Room of Satoshi bill pay service
Dash, the “better bitcoin,” has been integrated into one of Australia’s most promising cryptocurrency companies, Living Room of Satoshi, a business that has already revolutionized the way people pay their bills online. Founded only two years ago, Living Room of Satoshi was named 2015 Australian Startup of the Year award by StartupSmart for the innovative way the company allows Australians to pay their everyday bills with cryptocurrency, including rent, utilities, insurance bills, phone bills, speeding fines, credit card debt, and government tax bills. The service is linked to BPAY, an online bill payment mechanism accepted by over 45,000 companies across Australia. Today, Dash joined Bitcoin as the only alternative currency […]
Quantifeed makes key hires from leading banks as expansion in Asia Pacific continues
Quantifeed, a leading provider of digital wealth management solutions in Asia Pacific, today announced the appointment of Audrey Wong in the combined role of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, alongside several other key senior hires in Hong Kong and Australia. The Hong Kong based company is moving ahead with regional expansion after announcing successful completion of a US$4.5 million Series A round in July. Audrey Wong brings strong financial and operational experience, coming from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she was COO of Asia Pacific Equities in Hong Kong. Her career spans more than 15 years in the investment banking sector, including roles as CFO and COO. […]
The coolest 100 people in Australian tech
Business Insider Australia’s Tech 100 is a comprehensive list of the coolest people in Australian tech. It highlights achievements in the sector over the past 12 months. Congratulations to those cool people from the world of FinTech, FinTech Startups and FinTech Hubs & Accelerators, FinTech VC’s and Investors in Australia…. 12. & 13. Dan Petre and Craig Blair, co-founders, AirTree Ventures 15. Jason Yetton, MD and CEO, SocietyOne 20. Stuart Richardson, founder and managing partner, Adventure Capital; co-founder, York Butter Factory 21. Paul Bassat, co-founder, Square Peg Capital 23. Maile Carnegie, group executive digital banking, ANZ 24. Jost Stollmann, CEO, Tyro Payments 25. Niki Scevak, managing director, Blackbird Ventures […]
Valiant announces partnership with Octomedia to launch Inside Small Business LoanConnect
Leading fintech business loan marketplace, Valiant and Inside Small Business publisher Octomedia, announced the official launch of an exclusive partnership to bring business loan solutions to Australia’s small business community. The partnership is a major Australian publishing first which delivers an exclusive business loan search and application portal as a co-branded offer: Inside Small Business LoanConnect. By dynamically accessing Valiant’s panel of 35+ leading lenders, Inside Small Business LoanConnect compares small business owner’s loan requests to the lender’s credit criteria. Matching works instantaneously through Valiant’s proprietary marketplace technology – saving business owner’s time and stress. Valiant Co-founders, Alex Molloy and Richard Cotton expressed excitement for the new […]
