Swipe right to protect: Trov launches world-first on demand insurance
Trōv, a company that is reinventing insurance for the mobile generation, and leading insurer Suncorp Group, today announced the limited launch of on-demand insurance in Australia, beginning with coverage for common electronics. For the first time ever, people can now turn insurance on – or off – for individual items entirely from their mobile device. The claims process is facilitated by an automated bot and live chat, which means making a claim is as simple as sending a few texts. Trōv Protection is only available via the Trōv app and is a first for the Australian market. “Trōv was built to empower the mobile generation to protect the items that […]
Robo-adviser Six Park launches with Brian Watson, Lindsay Tanner and Paul Costello on Advisory Board
Australia’s pre-eminent financial experts have joined the next generation of automated financial advice providers with the launch of robo-adviser Six Park. Six Park’s team includes former Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, founding chief of the Future Fund Paul Costello and Six Park co-founder and former J.P. Morgan Australia Chairman Brian Watson on the company’s Advisory Board. Six Park has raised $1.4 million in seed funding pre-launch and combines the use of cutting edge technology with more than 100 years of investment expertise and wisdom led by co-founders Patrick Garrett (CEO) and Mr Watson (Chairman of Advisory Board). Independently-owned and operating in beta-mode for over a year to […]
Ripoll joins robo-advice board
Former Federal Labor MP, Bernie Ripoll has been appointed as a director of robo-advice focused group, Map My Plan. Ripoll, who was integral to a number of Parliamentary Committee inquiries into the financial planning industry, departed the Parliament this year and described his decision to become a director as reflecting his desire to continue to be involved in the advice sector. “FinTech is clearly having a transformative effect on financial services and the way the industry meets customer needs,” Ripoll said. Joining Map My Plan gives me the opportunity to help bring great advice to the majority of Australians currently missing out and to do something positive with my years […]
Stone & Chalk hopes interstate foray can spread innovation
In the intensely competitive world of fintech, it’s hard to overstate the benefit for Brand NSW from the ultra-low-cost Stone & Chalk hub, which aims to spread its tentacles to Melbourne before the end of the year. Sydney is already jostling for attention with global fintech destinations such as Silicon Valley, London, Tel Aviv, Singapore and Hong Kong — a status it’s achieved with the paltry investment of $2 million raised from the state government and industry. This column, however, has always advocated a national approach, which is why it’s so important that the rubber is starting to hit the road in Victoria. By the end of September, funding will […]
Australian FinTech company BankVault selected in the Top 3 Fintech startups world wide
Australian FinTech company BankVault have been selected in the Top 3 Fintech startups world wide, and Top 24 overall. Next week BankVault competes for the World Cup Tech Challenge in Silicon Valley at the Microsoft Campus. Currently they are the front runner in the Fintech category and they’re trying to get as many votes as possible as these are added to the judges’ final score. BankVault are the only Australian startup to make the finals. Support an Australian FinTech company and vote for BankVault. Here’s the link to the challenge: http://www.worldcuptech.com/categories-2016/fintech/
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 […]
Banking faces massive disruption by fintech says IBM
A new study argues that as the traditional functions of banks become commoditised, value is moving from transactions to relationships. Unfortunately for banks, they face competition from small start-ups and enormous, cashed-up tech giants inserting themselves directly into the relationship with their customers. IBM’s Institute for Business Value has released a fintech report called “Banking at the Brink”, which identifies the finance industry as sitting square in the centre of a perfect disruptive storm. The Institute calls out three challenges. Banks are still struggling with sluggish profits in the aftermath of the Great Recession. A new type of customer, easily dissatisfied and disillusioned, has ever-growing expectations of engagement and improved […]
