FlexiGroup now funding Kikka’s business loans
FlexiGroup will become the sole funder of Kikka Capital’s business loans as emerging fintech players continue to reshape Australia’s shadow credit markets. FlexiGroup told the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday it had invested $2 million of equity into Perth-based Kikka Capital and provided it with a funding line. FlexiGroup will also use a “white label” version of Kikka’s platform to trial unsecured lending as a complementary offering to its secured asset financing operations. The deal comes less than a week after RateSetter Australia said it would start matching retail investors with business loans over its peer-to-peer platform. Meanwhile, loans by Moula are being funded by low doc lender Liberty Financial, […]
Fintech lender Spotcap provides $11 million of finance to small businesses in first year
In just one year online lender Spotcap has issued more than $11 million of credit lines to micro, small and medium-sized businesses in Australia. Spotcap exists to address the financing needs of small businesses which often struggle to secure funding from traditional financial institutions because of their size or lack of credit history. Since launching in Australia one year ago, the business has shown an average monthly growth rate of 30 per cent. Spotcap has rapidly expanded its local presence, growing from one to 10 staff members, to meet increasing demand for alternative finance. Lachlan Heussler, Managing Director of Spotcap Australia: “Since we launched we’ve gone from strength to strength […]
Crowd-funder CoAssets seeking ASX listing and raising
Perth and Singapore-based fintech player CoAssets has announced plans to list on the ASX in July alongside a capital raise of between $5 million and $10m. CoAssets, which describes itself as the biggest crowd-funding player in Southeast Asia, listed on the National Stock Exchange in July last year and is now seeking an ASX listing to push further into Australia and Asia. CEO Getty Goh said his company focused on the “sweet spot” of funding, addressing the $100,000-$5m range, a gap that was too small for banks to look at. “Unlike Kickstarter, the projects that we do are business projects, they’re not products or trinkets,” Mr Goh said. Mr Goh […]
DirectMoney unable to fully fund loan demand
Australia’s only listed P2P lender, DirectMoney, says it is unable to fully fund its loans and is asking borrowers if it can refer them to another lender. Chairman Stephen Porges said it is still looking for institutional funders beyond the one it has – Macquarie Bank – to fund the loan demand it has.Until it gets more institutional money he said it does not have enough cash to lend to all the borrowers applying for loans via its website. “The company remains intensely focused on progressing loan sales to institutions and development of a funding warehouse. At the same time we are rolling out a strong marketing program for [its […]
SocietyOne shifts from edgy start-up to $100m lender
The nation’s biggest peer-to-peer lender, SocietyOne, is growing up fast, and not in the same way as its renegade US cousin Lending Club. An ASIC search has revealed the stranglehold of the so-called media consortium (News Corp, Kerry Stokes and James Packer’s media-free Consolidated Press Holdings) over SocOne after the recent $25 million Series C capital raising. The consortium, through its vehicle S. One Holding, holds a commanding 37 per cent stake, with the News and Stokes interests believed to be dominant in the S. One Holding structure. Not only that, but Westpac’s in-house venture capital fund, Reinventure, speaks for a further 17 per cent of SocOne. Put the two […]
How banks are running the economy
Alan Kohler, The Australian Two quite innocuous things happened on Tuesday: the federal budget and an RBA rate cut. Neither of these events will do much good, but nor will they do much harm, which is about as much can be hoped from both politics and monetary policy these days. Even RBA Governor Glenn Stevens has been constantly talking about impotence of monetary policy, so it’s likely to be true. Why won’t the budget or the rate cut have much impact? Because the RBA and the government don’t run the economy — the banks do, and there is something much more significant going on in banking land. There is always […]
Fintech a $US1 trillion fight
Consultants Oliver Wyman has been talking to banking clients all around the world over the past few months about the concept of “modular financial services”. It’s the coverline adorning one of the firm’s latest research pieces on the impact of information technology on the future of banking. Even as the equity prices of US fintech poster children like Lending Club and OnDeck are pummelled as capital markets reassess valuations, incumbent banks around the world show no sign of losing interest in fintech. Indeed, if the interim results of three of Australia’s big four banks last week were any guide, thinking about fintech in the C-suite is only accelerating. The earnings […]
New fintech player CreditSME is helping both banks and borrowers in SME lending space
CreditSME has recently launched in the Australian market and is working with both lenders and borrowers to create a streamlined process for small and medium sized businesses to obtain finance. CreditSME has developed a new credit scoring system for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) based on the financial and operating position of the company. This credit score, along with the financing requirements of the company, are then used to match the company to the most suitable financier. “There have been a number of new lenders entering the SME space over recent times which provides more options for borrowers, however it’s important for borrowers to understand what is being offered […]
