Australian fintech Airwallex confirmed as latest fintech unicorn following Series C fundraising
Airwallex confirms unicorn status following a successful Series C fundraising round of $100m USD, valuing the company at over $1bn USD. Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Australian fintech Airwallex has grown from an emerging start-up to a global challenger in the crossborder payment space, supporting a client base of internet titans including JD.com, Tencent and Ctrip, and large financial service companies including MasterCard. Top-tier investor DST Global led the Series C fundraising round, which closed at $100m USD. DST Global has been a primary investor across a number of global technology success stories, including Facebook, Airbnb and Spotify, and other fintech leaders, such as Robinhood. Alongside new investor DST Global, […]
Why more Aussies are turning to peer-to-peer loans
The Royal Commission into the banks and financial services unveiled a series of disturbing, infuriating and unsurprising truths. Australia’s response to the findings could send tremors through the financial services sector as the search for alternatives to the incumbent providers becomes more urgent. It means peer-to-peer loans – which have already seen significant gains – could become even more prominent in the lending landscape, the CEO of peer-to-peer loan provider SocietyOne, Mark Jones believes. SocietyOne is an online peer-to-peer loan platform, connecting investors’ funds with borrowers’ needs. The majority of loans SocietyOne writes are personal loans. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Jones said Australians have been resigned to accessing credit from […]
Australian house to go under the hammer in world-first cryptocurrency auction
In a world first, Australia will host a live auction in which bidders are being asked to pay not in cash, but in cryptocurrency. The “Jetsons house”, a futuristic-style beachfront home in northern NSW, will be auctioned on April 8, with interested bidders able to buy the luxury property using either Bitcoin or Binance Coin cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a decentralised digital cash system – the technology behind it lets users, in this case bidders, to send currency directly to others without going via a third party like a bank. The futuristic home is expected to fetch 700-800 bitcoins, or $3.5 million, when it goes under the hammer. Bidding will be […]
Novatti joins IBM World Wire network as a foundation member
Novatti Group Limited (ASX: NOV) announces it will join IBM Blockchain World Wire1, a real-time global payments network for regulated financial institutions such as Novatti’s subsidiary Flexewallet Pty Ltd. IBM World Wire is designed to optimize and accelerate foreign exchange and remittance services through a New Cross-Border Payments Network Supporting Real Time Payments and Foreign Exchange on the Stellar Protocol. By connecting to the World Wire network, Novatti now has access to a single unified network for foreign exchange and cross-border payments clearing and settlement built on blockchain technology and the Stellar public protocol. This will allow Novatti to offer clients the ability to conduct transactions across additional currencies and […]
A fintech wanting to be ‘Australia’s leading migrant bank’ has launched a $4 million placement
There are plenty of fintechs and plenty of small caps seeking money from Chinese consumers, but few companies that are both. Novatti (ASX: NOV) is one of them. The ASX-listed small cap is a holding company for half a dozen fintech platforms. One of these is chinapayments.com which allows Chinese people in Australia to pay Australian utilities bills through AliPay. They receive fees on a per-transaction basis for payments through the platform. In December, the volume was around $200,000 a month but in January this rose to $460,000. For those with loved ones back home, they can send money overseas through TransferBridge or MoniSend, or alternatively pay bills on their behalf. […]
Why to accept Bitcoin as a payment method
By Josh Lehman, Co-Founder of Digital Surge It has been more than a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto published the original Bitcoin whitepaper and single-handedly disrupted our financial landscape, changing the way we send and receive money. Today, Bitcoin is no longer a niche interest of a handful of early adopters but a legitimate payment method that’s accepted by some of the largest companies in the world, including Overstock, Microsoft, Namecheap, ExpressVPN, Shopify, and Newegg, just to name a few. Even though Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency space may seem confusing and difficult to get into, the fact is that you don’t need to be an expert to start accepting Bitcoin […]
Are Bitcoin wallets anonymous?
Compared to traditional bank accounts and transactions, cryptocurrency wallets can at least provide you with a very significant degree of privacy, rather than displaying transactions with a name, the blockchain’s unchangeable ledger keeps sender and recipient information like an address, protecting your data. You yourself play a role in keeping your Bitcoin Wallets Anonymous In addition to choosing an anonymous portfolio, there are a few other steps you should take when buying, maintaining, using and selling Bitcoin to further protect your anonymity. There are several reasons to choose an anonymous Bitcoin portfolio, including protecting your privacy and protecting your funds. Keeping your Bitcoin wallet anonymous will ensure that your data […]
50 person Facebook team plans cryptocurrency payment tech, report says
The purported coin is geared for ordinary money transfers and not investment speculation, according to The New York Times. Ready to send some virtual money to your Facebook friends or WhatsApp contacts so you can split the restaurant bill? Maybe someday you’ll be using a cryptocurrency to do so. Many people in the tech world have soured on cryptocurrencies and their accounting underpinnings, called blockchain. But Facebook remains interested, with a 50 person project underway to build a technology that’ll let members send each other digital money, The New York Times reported Thursday. Cryptocurrencies initially excited fans who wanted a new digital-era payment mechanism, but as the hype increased, investors […]
