Homeloans to fund and use Athena’s new home loan platform
Homeloans Ltd will provide debt funding to Athena Home Loans and has joined Macquarie and SquarePeg as a shareholder of the new home loan platform, which is preparing to launch later this year with technology to link mortgage borrowers directly with super funds and non-bank lenders. Athena, founded by two former National Australia Bank executives, is targeting $1 billion of lending in its first year, a drop in the ocean compared to the $1.7 trillion mortgage market. However, the strategic partnership announced by ASX-listed Homeloans on Monday morning shows major banks, which are grappling with a loss of customer trust due to the banking royal commission, are under growing pressure […]
Bendigo Adelaide launches “all-in-app” digital bank
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has become the latest institution to launch a new pure play digital bank. Dubbed ‘Up’, the separately branded neo play will come in the form of a dedicated and separately branded app, as Bendigo attempts to snatch younger customers disillusioned with the offerings of the Big Four. Australia’s fifth largest retail institution claims the the new mobile-centric service, now in beta, will be Australia’s first fully licenced “all-in-app” mobile banking platform. It will come with native phone payment and mobile wallet functionality in what is essentially a plastic-free play. Global payments scheme mastercard has come along for the ride and gets to bolt its mobile debit […]
Apple is becoming a formidable financial technology company
A growing anxiety for bank executives is how and when big tech companies will encroach on their turf. During its quarterly earnings call yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave some insight into the company’s progress in becoming something of a fintech player: Apple Pay transactions tripled from a year earlier, to more than 1 billion. Cook said that was more than Square and exceeded mobile transactions via PayPal. The worry for finance executives is that payments are just the beginning. Alibaba affiliate and fintech giant Ant Financial expanded from payments and into wealth management. According to analysts at research firm Bernstein, the Chinese company now runs a robo-advisory service that […]
Prodigal Prospa returns to investors for equity
Online small business lender Prospa has gone back to the drawing board following a dramatic false start to its mooted ASX listing. Following the 11th-hour shelving of its initial public offering last month, Street Talk understands the company is considering a range of options including a private raising The company’s co-founders and joint chief executives Beau Bertoli and Greg Moshal are working through how an additional pre-IPO raising would look and the quantum of funds required to fund Prospa’s near-term growth ambitions. The deal size is expected to be at least $40 million, correlating with the amount Prospa’s existing investors were originally looking to inject into the IPO. The private raise is one of several options being canvassed by Prospa. […]
More jobs for Australians as Silicon Valley Fintech opens APAC headquarters in Victoria
An announcement made by the Victoria Government focused on Melbourne being the new Asia-Pacific Headquarters of a Silicon Valley fintech innovator. Victoria’s growing fintech sector will be boosted as Nomis Solutions, a Silicon Valley fintech innovator, has announced that Melbourne will be the location of their Asia-Pacific Headquarters. This move will be creating 50 jobs in over five years. Nomis Solutions’ cutting-edge approach to big data as well as its personalised customer solutions and market analysis are being used by more than 10,000 bankers worldwide. The support of the Andrews Labor Government has secured Nomis Solutions’ base of operations in Melbourne. The Victoria Government is growing the state’s reputation as […]
Airwallex in the money with $108m raise
Melbourne-based fintech start-up Airwallex has closed the second-largest fundraising round in Australian start-up history, taking in $US80 million ($108 million) for a Series B round led by Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings, alongside Sequoia Capital China and Melbourne’s Square Peg Capital. The company, which was founded by five Chinese-Australian 30-somethings, has built a system to enable cross-border payments by combining payments and foreign exchange transfers into a single transaction. In 2017 it raised $US19 million ($26 million) from the same investors, but it has now also added two more backers from China’s booming venture capital scene in Hillhouse Capital and Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures, as well as Indonesia’s Central Capital Ventura. […]
