Practifi: How a successful Fintech company was created from a few glasses of wine
Adrian Johnstone, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-founder of Practifi, recently spoke to the Entrepreneur Podcast Network (EPN), where he went into depth about his company, what inspired its inception, and what the future holds for the financial advice and services industry as Practifi expands into the US market. Practifi is the business management platform for the financial advice industry. It is an exciting alternative to traditional CRM systems and offers an end-to-end solution that revolutionises financial services businesses by enabling them to reach their full growth potential. With you can run your business on the cloud, automate your workflows, integrate the best tools and build the advice business you’ve always […]
UK Tech Rocketship Awards take off in Australia and New Zealand
The UK’s Tech Rocketship Awards offer Australian and New Zealand technology scale-ups a new launch-pad for their expansion to the UK. On the hunt for successful Australasian technology scale-ups, the UK Department for International Trade (DIT) has launched its Tech Rocketship Awards in Australia and New Zealand. The Tech Rocketship Awards are open to established Australian and New Zealand scale-ups who deliver innovative, technology-led solutions across a wide spectrum of industries and are ready to internationalise. The Awards will help 8 winners gain exposure, expand their global networks and expedite the set-up of their UK operations through a paid-for, personalised trip to the UK in early 2019. So far, over […]
Financial business management platform PractiFI raises $3 million to establish North American headquarters and take on US
PractiFI, a revolutionary business growth management platform for forward-thinking financial advice firm announced a AUD$3 million investment led by Microequities Venture Capital Fund. The financing will be used to rapidly accelerate PractiFI’s global strategy, establishing a North American headquarters in Chicago, expanding the US customer success team and building a range of new product integrations with other financial apps and tools. Since winning its first US client earlier this year, the Sydney-based company has gone from strength to strength and this international investment marks a significant milestone in its exponential growth. Following the investment, Howard Leibman of Microequities and Equity Venture Partners will join the PractiFI board. Mr Leibman says, […]
Stone & Chalk founded startup SkyBuys to launch duty free project with Heinemann Australia
SkyBuys is pleased to announce Heinemann Australia (HEINEMANN Tax & Duty Free) has signed an agreement to trial the SkyBuys App and technology platform for duty free shopping. Announced today at the Airbus BizLab DemoDay in Hamburg, the SkyBuys-Heinemann Australia project is scheduled to commence in early Q3 2018 at Sydney Airport, Australia’s major international airport. Founded at the Stone & Chalk fintech hub in Sydney, mobile commerce startup SkyBuys developed the SkyBuys App for international passengers to shop for duty free at any stage of their journey, including in-flight. The App allows passengers to search and purchase duty free inventory in-app from the time they receive their ticket through […]
Bitcoin Trading: Where to Start?
Bitcoin divides opinion. Some think it’s the most revolutionary development in global finance ever, whilst others are all too eager to demonize it as “fraud” or Ponzi Scheme. Whatever your opinion of the world’s first truly decentralized money, one thing is certain: the price is incredibly volatile. It’s not uncommon for Bitcoin to see 20% moves in just 24 hours. In fact, the largest swing ever in the price of Bitcoin was in 2013. It dropped from $233 to $67 in a single night. For investors, a crash of 71% such as the one experienced that April will have been heart-wrenching to endure. However, not all would have lost money […]
Putting the service back into ‘Financial Services’
Founded in 1998, well before Fintech had emerged as a moniker for disruptors in the finance industry, OFX (formerly OzForex) has been at the forefront of international money transfer services for nearly 20 years. From humble beginnings in a garage in Dee Why, the company has grown from an information only facility, providing up to the minute insights to the best available foreign exchange rates, to a global organisation, handling over $100B in transactions. Fuelled by a desire to ‘give Australians a fair go’ when it came to foreign exchange, the Company has consistently stuck to its ‘fair go’ and ‘great service’ roots. Developing partnership networks with a panel of […]
Partnerships driving the local fintech sector
Financial technology startups are growing in Australia, from less than 100 in 2014 to approximately 579 companies today. Many financial businesses see this as a direct threat, but if our country is to have any hope of building a world-class financial services technology industry, the future lies not in competition, but in collaboration. We are already seeing the local attitude change, with a recent PwC report finding that over 82% of financial institutions expect to increase fintech partnerships in the next three to five years. By partnering and collaborating with smaller fintech startups, established companies can accelerate industry growth and push the capabilities of both parties forward. Australia has a […]
Fear and loathing from Silicon Valley
By Jacqui Henderson, Founder & CEO – Advice Intelligence An all-pervasive feature of modern life is the speed of technological change, and of our collective capacity to adapt to the multiple impacts of change. It is natural to question the benefits: does the constant challenge to keep up and adapt simplify my life or make it ever more complex? Would a fully-automated advice capability drive better service standards and outcomes for my advice business and my clients, or does it simply make my job redundant? Is all the talk of technological revolution that ricochets around the world out of Silicon Valley, the advent of artificial intelligence and robotics, and the […]
