Fintech start-up Douugh scores partnership with US mutual bank Choice
Sydney-based fintech start-up Douugh has scored a partnership with US mutual bank Choice Financial, as it readies to launch its smart banking personal assistant, Sophie. As part of the open banking partnership, Douugh will launch an integrated bank account and debit card with the bank, giving it the ability to accept deposits. Choice Financial has also invested in Douugh, as part of a $2.5 million seed round. Founder and chief executive Andy Taylor, who was also a co-founder of successful peer-to-peer lending platform SocietyOne, told The Australian Financial Review he wanted to reduce society’s reliance on credit cards and help people save money. “I’ve always been quite passionate about the […]
ANZ and CUA among first to offer eftpos on Android Pay
ANZ and Cuscal-sponsored credit unions including CUA today announced their eftpos cardholders can now make payments using Android Pay. The nine institutions, including People’s Choice Credit Union, Sydney Credit Union, Woolworths Employee’s Credit Union, Nexus Mutual and FCCS, are the first in Australia to officially offer this payment method to eftpos cardholders, enabling almost two million people to pay using their Android mobile devices. This follows the announcement Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and NAB are collaborating to launch a mobile payments platform, Beem, to make instant contactless payments with eftpos cards. Canstar’s Group Manager of Research and Ratings Mitch Watson said the new offering meant ANZ customers would have access to […]
We auction our home, clothes, art, cars – so why not auction our own money?
Fintech startup Lodex is a new competitive, auction-style loans and deposits marketplace that puts the power into the hands of the consumer. The world’s first auction-style platform allows the consumer to choose the winning lender or broker. Lodex is set to disrupt the way Australians borrow and save money by having lenders and brokers compete for their business. The auction-style platform allows consumers to anonymously share their Credit Score and the Australian-first, optional Social Score, to the marketplace and set up an auction from their smartphone in 10 minutes & watch ‘bids’ come in. This is a paradigm shift putting the consumers in the driver’s seat. Lodex, free for consumers, […]
Why SpotJobs co-founder Lewis Romano has switched into fintech and is looking to raise $10 million for Credit Clear
An Aussie fintech company co-founded by Lewis Romano of SpotJobs fame has launched a $10 million Series A fundraising round to help expand the business overseas. Credit Clear was founded in 18 months ago by Romano and prominent property developer Mark Casey to act as an online, on-demand debt payment service for individuals and businesses. The company has not raised a seed round and to date has been largely funded initially by Casey. Romano co-founded SpotJobs — one of Australia’s largest job board websites — in 2012 with Jake Williams, before exiting the business in October last year. A switch into fintech from the recruitment industry might not seem intuitive […]
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 […]
Jacaranda Incubator Program – Backing Australian Fintech
Jacaranda Finance is on the hunt for Australia’s most exciting, high growth potential Fintech startup, establishing the Jacaranda Incubator Program. Background Jacaranda Finance is one of the fastest growing financial technology start-ups in Australia. With the recent launch of the new and improved Jacaranda decisioning engine, the young startup analyses vast quantities of data from numerous data sources within seconds. This allows the company to make smarter credit decisions and expand the availability of fair, affordable, responsible and more transparent credit solutions for consumers. “It’s no longer hard, expensive or impossible to acquire and process large volumes of data relating to our applicants”, says Daniel Wessels, CEO of Jacaranda. […]
CommBank, Westpac, NAB to launch new mobile payment app Beem
Three giants of the Australian banking sector are collaborating to create a new mobile payments platform for consumers and businesses. The application is called Beem and will allow users to store their debit card information and make instant contactless payments using the same technology as applications like Apple Pay and Android Pay. Beem will also allow users to request payments and split bills, making it useful for both personal use and for businesses. Although being created by Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and NAB, the app will be open for use by all Australians regardless of which bank they use. Like regular online transfers, Beem will include built-in encryption of payment details […]
Hashkloud Australia’s Blockchain integrated PaySHA digital payments platform goes LIVE
PaySHA promises cashless and cardless digital payments that uses Blockchain & QR code technologies to deliver real time payment solutions for the customers Hashkloud Pty Ltd (HKAU), a Blockchain focused Fintech company based in Sydney, Australia announced that United Commercial Bank Ltd (UCB), a full service commercial bank based in Dhaka, Bangladesh have launched Upay, a digital payments platform on Oct 17th, 2017. Upay is based on HKAU’s PaySHA Digital Payments Platform, a universal digital payments platform that uses Blockchain technology where transactional data during payments processing are cryptographically hashed and verified using Blockchain. PaySHA supports a cashless and cardless digital wallet that uses QR (Quick Response) code to deliver […]
