Fintech Startups Prospa and Credi take out the top spots in the Inaugural Australian National Techboard Awards
Australia’s top trending companies were celebrated at the Techboard 2017 National Awards on 30 November 2017. Over the course of 2017, Techboard has been tracking metrics on Australian Startups and publishing monthly rankings that rank companies on the extent to which the metrics indicate they are trending or gaining mindshare. The Techboard 2017 National awards are a culmination of those monthly rankings and comprised two company categories, the highest trending company overall and the highest trending up and coming company. Techboard held the event in conjunction with StartCon, Australia’s largest startup and growth conference with the backing of leading sponsors MYOB. In this, its first National Awards, the winners […]
Peppermint tech trials a winner with Filipinos
Real-time testing of Peppermint Innovation’s mobile-phone bill payment technology is delivering significant customer insights that will assist the ASX-listed fin-tech company to fully commercialise its unique APP. During the past few months, almost 500 representative agents of Filipino businesses MyWeps, Metro Gas and SUNMar Express have been conducting ‘live’ pilot programs with their customers to help improve Peppermint’s mobile platform.At present, 70 per cent of Filipinos do not operate a bank account and millions of Filipinos receive their weekly wage in cash. They are forced to physically pay their bills in cash, causing them to travel great distances across town to ensure all of their household bills are paid. Peppermint’s […]
A Focus on the Digital Currency
When the Internet was invented, everyone began to look for ways to make money online. Most of these ways involved using the power and connectivity of the Internet to improve upon old industries. Advertising, retail, communications – everything was being disrupted. The banking industry was the last to be disrupted because of all the regulatory restrictions that are in place with respect to the management of money. Options like PayPal began to emerge as early as 1998, but these systems were mostly just centralized online managers of fiat currency rather than completely new digital currencies. The first true digital currency that has ever received mainstream attention is Bitcoin. It was […]
The changing landscape of crowdfunding in Australia
When Aussie start-up, Nura, wanted to raise funds to help launch its hi-tech, self-adjusting headphones onto the global market, it turned to crowd-funding platform Kickstarter. The groundbreaking Nuraphones attracted the support of over 7,000 ‘backers’ who pledged money in return for early access to the product, netting Nura over US$1.8 million and breaking records for an Australian crowd-funding campaign. Recent decisions by the Australian Government to expand the use of crowd-funding for equity raising, initially by public companies and now potentially by SMEs and start-ups, could make a huge difference for companies seeking capital for growth and expansion. The first round of legislation came into force last month, allowing licensed […]
Are fintech companies changing the industry for the better?
FinTech is most commonly known as the abbreviation for the term “financial technology” and the name given to an emerging and rapidly growing financial services sector. Financial technology is often used to describe any technological innovations within the financial industry, ranging from banking and investments, all the way through to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. With new technologies come new businesses, and so financial technology companies were born. The question is, however, whether these businesses and the technologies on offer through them are changing the industry for the better, or are they simply a disruption to an already functioning economy? How are fintech companies changing the financial industry? One of the […]
Fintech saves British businesses £4.6 billion
The UK fintech market is booming, leading the way for the rest of world as investment continues to strengthen. Fintech is making an entrance into a majority of UK businesses, with 65 per cent found to be bringing on board at least one service, and 77 per cent aware of opportunities. A significant number of firms are going further than just testing the fintech water, with 19 per cent now leveraging four solutions from the emerging market. This information has been collected and presented by MarketInvoice, from which it has estimated that UK businesses have saved £4.6 billion by adopting fintech. Savings are a driving factor for businesses looking to […]
TruePillars secures $5m in Series A capital raise
TruePillars, the online marketplace lender allowing everyday Australians to fund loans to small businesses, today announced it has raised a total of $5 million in a Series A funding round. The funding round was led by a long-term Melbourne-based private investor, and includes both equity and commitments by shareholders to fund loans to Australian businesses on the TruePillars platform. Further commitments from additional investors are expected to be finalised by 30 September. The business will now commence a recruitment drive to more than double its number of employees over the next 12 months. “This investment will give us the means to further innovate and build on our service, including our […]
Australia Post signs on its first businesses with its Digital ID
Online job marketplace Airtasker, credit union CUA, foreign exchange company Travelex, and Queensland Police are among the first adopters of Australia Post’s new digital identity service as it seeks to corner the local market in proving credentials when the online and physical worlds collide. The Digital ID has been under development since early 2016 and will allow people to rapidly verify their identity via their smartphone using stored biometric data and other information. The technology will allow individuals to apply for passports or mortgage by mobile and Australia Post’s executive general manager of trusted e-commerce services Andrew Walduck said it was now entering commercial use and would become a growth […]
