What Every Investor Should Know Before Buying Cryptocurrency
by Mary Ann Callahan If you are here, then you have probably grown curious enough to find out more about the next big investment opportunity everyone has been screaming about. Techies call cryptocurrency the money of the future or digital gold, and skeptics refer to it as a bubble that will burst anytime soon or the biggest digital scam ever. Needless to say, beyond the initial noise that surrounded the global rise of cryptocurrencies, there seems to be a growing interest and increasing curiosity about the potentials of these digital coins. New investors are attracted by the fact that cryptocurrency has managed to turn many who have been bold enough […]
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. […]
Alex Waislitz’s Thorney Investments, Regal back Credit Clear ahead of IPO
Rich lister Alex Waislitz’s Thorney Investments has taken a significant stake in debt payment fintech start-up Credit Clear, ahead of a potential float in mid 2019. The investment from Thorney was part of an $8.5 million capital raise, which was also supported by Regal Funds Management and some high net worth individuals. The raise was lower than its original target of $10 million, but co-founder Lewis Romano said the round was actually over-subscribed, with the company having made the decision to scale back the raise to $6 million and go after just one international market, the US, rather than expanding to the US, UK and Asia at once. “The lead […]
Australian fintech success Optal seeks new global investor
Forget Prospa, SocietyOne and the like; a new fintech has popped on to dealmakers’ radars and it is one with more than a decade’s history and a significant amount of earnings. Street Talk understands there is at least a stake up for grabs in Australian-based but globally focused business to business payments company Optal Ltd, which is the liquidity event some of its early backers have been waiting for. Optal CEO Rob Bishop and his team have hired a boutique adviser in the United States, FT, to market the stake to potentially interested parties and set up a sale process. Optal is known in fintech and payments circles worldwide, and has had no shortage […]
FinTech Australia calls for comprehensive credit reporting legislation to progress
FinTech Australia, the peak industry body for the financial services, technology and innovation industry today expressed growing concern that further delays in securing the passage of the comprehensive credit reporting bill would hurt consumers and small businesses. Despite a proposed 1 July 2018 implementation date, the legislation is still in the House of Representatives, with recent reports that lobbying by an unlikely partnership of consumer advocates and the banking industry is encouraging delays and calling for more time. FinTech Australia CEO Brad Kitschke said that Australia had fallen behind other established markets in passing the bill and was surprised that consumer advocates would seek to delay something that would benefit […]
How the bank can beat fintechs
According to the Millennial Disruption Index, 71 per cent of young people would prefer go to the dentist than listen to their bank. Perhaps even more worrying for the banks is that 75 per cent would prefer to access their financial services from start-ups. It is not just the younger generation that feels this way. According to research from TransferWise’s Future of Finance Report 2017, Australians of all ages are among the most likely to seek alternatives to the mainstream banks. We’re also early adopters of fintech solutions. The same report revealed that 53 per cent of Australians already use an alternative financial service provider (one that’s not part of […]
Artificial intelligence to become commonplace at instos
About 60% of Northern Trust’s Australian-based institutional investment clients believe meaningful adoption of artificial intelligence will occur within the respective businesses over the next two years. Local instos are more bullish on AI than Singapore and Hong Kong-based clients, the global custodian notes, saying the Asia Pacific counterparts anticipate adoption happening in two to five years. Half of Australian clients surveyed also noted high-level stakeholder engagement and counter-party co-operation as vital to financial services’ adoption of blockchain. The findings come from surveys conducted at Northern Trust client events in the first quarter of 2018. Northern Trust head of market advocacy and innovation research, Asia Pacific, Danielle Henderson said as the […]
HashChing puts its hand out to go it alone
Online mortgage marketplace HashChing is looking to raise up to $5 million by the end of June through the power of crowd-funding, in a bid to ensure that it is immunised from the influence of any big bank, says CEO Mandeep Sodhi. Instead, HashChing has partnered with equity crowd-funding platform Equitise to issue its first round of shares to interested investors. According to Mr Sodhi, the crowd-funding route will help HashChing remain an independent voice in the mortgage market. “Unlike many other online mortgage platforms who are backed by a lender, we are and will continue to stand separate from the banks,” he said. “We want our customers to become […]
