finder.com.au launches inaugural Innovation Awards
finder.com.au launches national awards to celebrate excellence in innovation Entry deadline is Friday 7 October 2016 Winners to be announced at event in Sydney on Thursday 10 November 2016 Australia’s most visited comparison website, finder.com.au, is inviting Australian businesses to celebrate their groundbreaking achievements of 2016 by entering the inaugural Finder Innovation Awards. Featuring seven categories, the Awards are designed to celebrate excellence, creativity and revolution in the technology, retail, insurance and financial markets, with winners to be revealed at a Sydney ceremony in November. Fred Schebesta, co-founder and director of finder.com.au, says the Awards are about providing industry recognition and raising awareness of the achievements of technological and financial innovators in Australia. “It […]
HotCopper lists on ASX
Australia’s most popular stock market and investment forum, HotCopper, today announced its successful listing on the ASX. Chairman Steve James said the business was already performing strongly with significant potential upside due to its large subscriber base of self-directed investors. “We have around 550,000 unique visitors per month, and 250,000 members who are predominantly retail, sophisticated and SMSF investors,” he said. “Our membership base represents a big percentage of the 605,000 Australians who invest through an online broker[1], and numbers are growing every month. We plan to maximise this growth opportunity and make HotCopper an indispensable part of investing in Australia.” Mr James said plans for new revenue streams included […]
Challenging the big banks
Atlassian’s co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes jokes that he loves the famous quote from Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos: “Your margin is my opportunity.” Bezos has created one of the world’s biggest and most successful retail giants using that approach. Atlassian’s spectacular global growth as a start-up software company from Australia shows that Cannon-Brookes has been able to adopt a similarly disruptive style. But one of Cannon-Brookes’ key targets in terms of taking advantage of margin and opportunity remains Australia’s big banks. It also made him an early supporter of Tyro Payments and now of chief executive Jost Stollman’s determination to challenge the power of the banks with Tyro’s new banking licence. To Cannon-Brookes, […]
Former MFAA CEO joins HashChing
A finance and logistics executive and former MFAA chief executive officer has joined the advisory board of mortgage marketplace and home loan deal gateway HashChing. Siobhan Hayden, who resigned as chief executive of the MFAA in June this year, has joined the advisory board of online home loans trader HashChing. It’s the third top executive the emerging fintech has secured in recent weeks. Financial services regulatory lawyer Claire Wivell Plater and financial service senior executive Helen Lorigan also joined the fintech’s advisory board recently. Ms Hayden commented that HashChing has the potential to significantly change the home loan market in Australia. “HashChing sits at the intersection of customers, brokers and lenders — […]
New FinTech Uno Home Loans lands a $16.5 million investment from Westpac
New Australian FinTech company ‘Uno’ has landed a $16.5 million investment from Westpac after its success in the digital mortgage service in the past few months. The major bank investment is set to expand the company even further as customers are discovering the benefits of having a greater power in the home loan search process. Chief Strategy Officer at Westpac, Gary Thursby, said “uno’s success has been impressive and we’re seeing its potential to become a serious player in the home loan market”. Westpac has been involved with uno since the concept phase and Mr Thursby is pleased to announce the investment where Westpac will be a strategic investor at […]
zipMoney has grabbed fintech Pocketbook in a $7.5 million deal
Digital retail finance and payment industry player zipMoney has bought personal finance management app maker Pocketbook. The deal includes $6 million upfront and another $1.5 million, depending on a set of milestones. The acquisition strengthens zipMoney’s position in Australia’s fintech sector. A short time ago, zipMoney shares were up 5.7% to $0.74. All Pocketbook staff will be retained including the founders, Alvin Singh and Bosco Tan. zipMoney will gain valuable data analytics on consumer behavior from Pocketbook’s large and growing user base, further enhancing its proprietary credit and fraud decision technology. Click link below to read more Source: zipMoney has grabbed fintech Pocketbook in a $7.5 million deal | […]
This $55 million ASX fintech fund is Australia’s first listed venture company
Seed funding venture capital specialists Ben and Tony Heap today launched H2Ocean, an ASX-listed vehicle to raise up to $55 million for the fintech startup market. The prospectus, offering $1.10 shares to raise between $27.5 million and $55 million, is now live and is being led by Ord Minnett and Shaw and Partners. The float, due to list around October 19, was launched by treasurer Scott Morrison. Joining the brothers on the board are financial journalist David Koch, former federal MP Wyatt Roy and Anne O’Donnell, a former CEO of Australian Ethical Investment. Ben, the chairman, told Business Insider the company is a first to list on the ASX. “This is […]
RateSetter announces partnership with Purplebricks
This week we were very pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with disruptive real-estate agency Purplebricks. Having launched in Australia this week, Purplebricks lets homeowners sell their property for a flat fee of just $4,500, including professional photography, marketing costs and the services of a Local Property Expert to guide them through the sale process. Purplebricks is now the the fastest-growing real estate agency in the UK and their low-cost offering is expected to similarly shake up the Australian real-estate market and put end to three decades of commission-based remuneration for real estate agents. As part of its innovative offering, Purplebricks has partnered with RateSetter to offer customers the opportunity […]
