Investing

Aug
17

Barry Lambert backs robo-adviser Ignition Wealth

Financial planning pioneer and Australia’s 167th richest person Barry Lambert has taken another leap into the future, pairing his chairmanship of cloud-based self-managed super administrator Class with a $1 million stake in digitally led adviser Ignition Wealth. Class, which Lambert has chaired for eight years, on Tuesday announced a 71 per cent rise in net profit for the year ended June 30 to $5.83 million. Its Class Super product now administers more than 19 per cent of Australia’s 576,000 self-managed super funds. Ignition Wealth, launched in 2008 as a pure robo-adviser called Advice Connect, is also gaining traction since in February 2015 becoming the first digitally led adviser to be […]

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Aug
15

Money for nothing, cheques for free in the sharing economy

THE bank of mum and dad is receiving a welcome cash injection as a growing number of households put a price on the things they previously gave away for free. More households are renting out a spare room, car sharing, selling goods and services and even lending to each other as the “sharing economy’’ expands, research shows. According to polling by RateSetter, some households are earning up to $120 a month. On the downside, however, all those people who benefited from the “free economy” are now having to wait their turn, or pay for it. Free rides, spare rooms, and even the kids’ old books and toys are increasingly thin […]

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Aug
12

BPS Technology acquires Entertainment Publications

Leading channel enablement and payments platform provider BPS Technology Limited (“BPS”, “BPS Technology” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce the successful completion of its underwritten $27.5 million institutional placement.   Net proceeds of the capital raising will be used to fund the transformative acquisition of Entertainment Publications Australia and New Zealand (“Entertainment” or “Entertainment Publications”), a leading B2C deals platform with 12,000 SMEs, 18,000 NFPs and 550,000 members, and for additional growth/working capital. The consideration for the Entertainment Publications acquisition is $22.5 million in cash and 2,659,574 in BPS shares. The combination of BPS and Entertainment brings together two proven, profitable and scalable businesses with significant growth potential.   […]

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Aug
12

SelfWealth take out Australian Business Award for Software Innovation

SelfWealth has been recognised as an ABA100 Winner in The Australian Business Awards 2016 for Software Innovation. The award recognises SelfWealth’s achievements in the Financial Technology (fintech) industry through the research and development of SelfWealth INTELLIGENCE & TRADING. Andrew Ward Founder and Managing Director of SelfWealth says the award recognises the transformative nature of SelfWealth INTELLIGENCE & TRADING. “Winning the ABA100 award for Software Innovation in the Australian Business Awards means a great deal to us, we are passionate about providing financial technology to help investors achieve greater returns.  Our team have worked tirelessly over the last few years building a solution that fits all investor’s needs.  Winning this award […]

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Aug
11

CoAssets to crowdfund small and medium developers

Crowdfunding platform CoAssets plans to help financing small and medium-sized property developers who have been hit by tightening lending conditions, as it prepares to list on the Australian Securities Exchange this month. Founded in Singapore three years ago, CoAssets has grown to be the biggest crowdfunding player in Southeast Asia with more than 50,000 users. The company acts as an online platform to connect lenders to companies seeking alternative financing. The company, with its Australian base in Perth, sees a gap in the market with major banks tightening lending to developers, particularly smaller ones, executive director Dan Smith told The Australian. “We are starting to see numerous inquiries on a […]

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Aug
09

VentureCrowd stakes its claim as alternative investment option

Local equity-based crowd-funding platform VentureCrowd and residential property developer Clearstate have closed a second funding round, giving more than 50 investors 49 per cent equity of a development site in western Sydney. VentureCrowd’s crowd-funding platform allows investors to buy equity of a property development before it’s subdivided and sold, and former Credit Suisse ­adviser Mitchell Hopwood said he invested through his self-­managed superannuation portfolio as an alternative to a listed property fund. “The Austral opportunity provided a relatively high, short-term return in a bite-size, easily understandable transaction that is fairly de-risked from an investment perspective,” he said. Mr Hopwood said the crowd-funding platform, believed to be the first of its […]

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Aug
08

Westpac puts another $50 million into Reinventure

Westpac Banking Corp has doubled its exposure to venture capital, investing a further $50 million into a second fund to be managed by Reinventure Group to invest in fintech start-ups including those which could potentially disrupt the bank. The closure of Reinventure’s $50 million Fund 2 reflects Westpac’s belief that technology is reshaping financial markets and that the bank should hold equity stakes in a selection of potential disrupters as a defence mechanism to potential disintermediation. It also shows how Westpac wants to improve the experiences of its customers by developing relationships with start-ups. The second fund will be managed by Simon Cant and Danny Gilligan, the co-founders of Reinventure […]

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Aug
08

FINCAST has secured a pilot programme with OCBC

Australian headquartered Fintech start-up, FINCAST, has secured a pilot programme with Singaporean headquartered Asian bank OCBC as its first deal.   Managing Director and Co-Founder, Andrew Connors, commented, “the appetite for and commitment to innovation by Asian banks means the Australian big four banks are being left behind. Major Asian banks like OCBC aren’t just kicking the tyres on new technologies that will advance their business, they are firmly focussed on having a first-mover advantage by utilising technology”. “We are still hopeful that early adopters of our technology will include an Australian bank or corporate partner of our home, the Stone & Chalk Fintech hub”.   The pilot between FINCAST […]

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