Pin Payments is happily perched in Perth
Nearly every day someone will tell Grant Bissett that he should move his startup away from Perth. All-in one multicurrency payment platform Pin Payments has been based in the Western Australian capital since its inception while running business development out of Melbourne, and co-founder and CEO Bissett has remained steadfast in staying put in his hometown. “We get opinions all day in every direction, and we get recommendations on moving to Melbourne or Sydney or London or San Francisco for a variety of reasons,” Bissett tells StartupSmart. “That’s all great – we just smile politely and then get on with our job.” After closing a $3.1 million series A round, […]
The need to be shrewd in the property boom
It’s said that buying a property is one of the most stressful life events. Further, mortgage lender incompetence, bank and finance problems are in the top 20 most stressful aspects of selling a property. For two people, those frustrations spawned the next big idea to hit the FinTech industry. Mandeep Sodhi, a loyal customer to his bank, thought he had secured the best rate on his home loan. Atul Narang on the other hand secured a better rate on his loan through a broker – but it wasn’t that easy, having already experienced two bad brokers. With this experience, the pair joined forces to bring clarity and simplicity to the […]
What You Really Need To Know About Working In Fintech
This is a great article to read if you’re thinking of working for or an Australian FinTech company From the outside, the tech industry can look like a homogenous sector, populated either by entrepreneurial whiz kids or bearded computer ‘geeks’. However, as with most industries, once you get beneath the surface, it becomes clear that the people who inhabit the tech industry are a varied bunch, utilising different skill sets and working in sub-sectors that have little in common. One of these sub-sectors, financial technology (or fintech), is attracting a range of talent, particularly workers who, in the past, may have been attracted to investment funds, law firms, or accountancy […]
Turnbull promises national digital identity, fintech committee
The federal government has adopted the majority of recommendations made in last year’s financial systems inquiry report, promising to deliver a national federated digital identity framework and a public-private sector innovation committee for the financial sector. In its long-awaited response to the December 2014 report, tabled today, the federal government also said it would ask the Productivity Commission to review options to improve data-sharing within the sector, and remove regulatory impediments to modern product information disclosure. By the end of next year, the government also intends to consider how to amend priority areas of regulation to make it technology neutral. Digital identity The FSI report, led by David Murray, highlighted […]
Fintech marriage spawns next-gen platform
Advisers can now automatically track their clients’ bank, superannuation and investment account balances, determine the optimal way to invest funds and monitor a client’s financial progress with a new integrated money management, debt recycling and strategic advice platform made possible by the collaboration of two leading fintech companies. Cloud-based technology providers Moneysoft and Prospera have teamed up to integrate Moneysoft’s budgeting and cashflow management tool with Prospera’s financial modelling and real-time portfolio tracking service, following strong adviser demand for an efficient, end-to-end solution. Prospera co-founder and head of development, David Dye said the streamlined solution eliminated the need for advisory firms to manually gather and enter client account balances every […]
Why these giant Chinese companies could destroy Australia’s fintech ambitions
Fintech companies are some of the hottest startups around right now. Incredibly, more than 20 are now valued over $US1 billion. Australian credit reference fintech, Veda, might get bought for $2.2 billion. The possibilities offered by fintech are enormous. Mobile payments, payment terminals, smart contracts, smart bonds, P2P lending and crowdsourcing are all examples of new technologies that pose a risk to core services provided by the financial establishment. This is why they want in. According to some, Australia has the potential to be a leader in the sector. Australian super funds are investing heavily, with First State Super launching its own venture capital platform just weeks after putting $110 […]
What happened at Wyatt Roy’s policy hack
There were Post-its, buzzwords and diagrams galore at the first ever technology industry and government policy hack, and even the occasional “but I love Australia” protest as teams faced the many regulatory disadvantages to building a tech company in Australia. The collaboration between federal Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy, accelerator program BlueChilli and peak lobby group StartupAUS brought almost 300 public servants, entrepreneurs, investors, scientists and educators together in Sydney. They were split into 10 teams to debate and identify solutions for a challenge that holds back Australia from having a booming tech industry to rival Israel, Singapore, London and even the United States. “Don’t get caught up with […]
NAB joins with Xero to speed up business loan approvals
National Australia Bank and cloud accounting software firm Xero have linked their technology platforms to allow Xero clients to receive faster approvals for business loans once they allow NAB to tap their live, balance-sheet data. As online business lenders such as Spotcap, Prospa, OnDeck, Kikka, Moula and ThinCats threaten to win over small-business customers by offering risk-based pricing and quicker credit, NAB’s deal with Xero illustrates how the big banks are using technology to become more nimble. NAB and Xero customers are now able to file online loan inquiries to NAB straight from their Xero accounting package, after a secure connection between NAB internet banking and Xero’s accounting dashboard was […]
