Simply Wall St buys US rival
Australian sharemarket visualisation fintech Simply Wall St (simplywall.st) has acquired Capp.io, its main rival in the United States, for an undisclosed amount. Simply Wall St is a stock-picking tool using software that creates visual representations of users’ stock portfolios to help them quickly work out whether they are investing their money wisely. Founder and CEO Al Bentley said Atlanta based Capp.io – started by two university students – does something similar. It has about 5000 customers in the US which will be added to Simply Wall St’s 30,000. “The acquisition allows us to strengthen our presence on the US market, where we already have majority of our customers,” Mr Bentley […]
iSignthis & Coinify deliver AML regulatory compliance via Blockchain
Media Release: APRIL 4TH, 2016; MONEY 20/20 EUROPE, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK – The strategic partnership between fintech industry’s innovative KYC compliance service provider, iSignthis Ltd (ASX : ISX) (‘iSignthis’), and the leading blockchain payments provider, Coinify ApS (Coinify), delivers service commencement of a new global product connecting blockchain payments, KYC identity & credit cards. Enabled by ‘top of class’ AML/CTF KYC services by iSignthis, the new payment product will allow instant bitcoin purchases on the Coinify platform. This development will support majority of the credit card types and will open the option to use Coinify Trade platform internationally. The Coinify trade platform acts as a processor of up to 17 blockchain currencies, as well as […]
Standardisation of data access crucial to development of Australian fintech industry
Media Release: Sydney, 4 April 2016 – One of the major challenges facing the emerging Australian fintech sector is the lack of a standardised format for accessing financial data. The complexities of accessing sufficient institutional and client data will be a major limiting factor for many of the fintech companies now trying to establish themselves in the Australian and international markets. Earlier this month, in its statement on the fintech sector, the Government highlighted the need to increase data availability across the financial service sector, to allow new products and services to be developed and support new offerings made available to the market. While supporting the Government’s initiative, InvestmentLink Chief […]
Aggregator announces fintech partnership
Liberty Network Services (LNS), the branded distribution arm of non-bank lender Liberty, has partnered with online lender Moula to better service small business clients. Through the partnership with Moula, in which Liberty acquired a part stake in last year, LNS brokers will be able to refer any small business customer directly to the fintech lender through an online portal. LNS managing director, Brendan O’Donnell, said the partnership was formed to meet the growing needs of small businesses that struggle to secure short term finance with the major banks – while also helping brokers to diversify their business. Liberty supplied Moula with $30 million in funding last year to finance its […]
Aussie fintech company AstuteWheel expands to South Africa
Fintech company AstuteWheel has launched its client engagement platform in South Africa, as the overseas advice market prepares to undergo similar regulatory reforms to Australia. Speaking at a media briefing in Sydney yesterday, AstuteWheel co-founder and managing director Hans Egger said the South African financial advice industry was beginning to move away from commissions, presenting an opportunity for a product that helps clients understand the value of advice. “It is a sophisticated financial advice market looking to grow and our solution really fills a gap for many of these practices, which are already providing good advice but need a more efficient and better client engagement process to demonstrate to clients […]
BlackRock mulling Aussie robo-advice launch
BlackRock acquired FutureAdvisor in August 2015 and rolled out the platform to financial institutions as a business-to-business service. BlackRock Australia’s head of iShares Jon Howie told InvestorDaily he believes Australia needs FutureAdvisor now. “As always with a large organisation we have to be conscious about how thinly we spread ourselves and so at the moment the focus is on getting the US application of that opportunity right,” Mr Howie said. “I can tell you that internally everyone around the world is putting their hand up and saying, ‘We can make this work in our market’. “BlackRock Australia needs the platform immediately, because it will take some time to tweak the […]
NAB enlists venture capitalists to invest in start-ups
National Australia Bank is turning to the venture capital sector to run its $50 million fund that will invest in fintech start-ups, a plan aimed at boosting innovation across the lender. The bank has appointed Todd Forest, an entrepreneur, angel investor and digital media executive, to run NAB Ventures, which expects to make its first investment in the next month or so. Alongside Mr Forest, NAB has hired Melissa Widner, one of the most senior women in Australian venture capital, who has also worked in the United States, as general partner. A co-founder of leading Australian fund Blackbird Ventures, Bill Bartee, will also work with the NAB fund as an […]
Decimal to roll out robo-advice for instos
Decimal has announced today it will launch two robo-advice packages designed to help big businesses break into the emerging automated advice market sooner. In a statement, the company said Eqilize is a solution geared towards superannuation and financial institutions that want to offer clients robo-advice but do not have the resources to build their own. At the same time Decimal introduced Tentalon, a “fully customisable technology stack” that allows businesses to create purpose-built solutions. Eqilize will be presented to the industry at an event on 28 April, while Tentalon will be rolled out for major banks in early May, the statement said. Decimal chief executive Nic Pollock said the two […]
