Impact startup ArtsPay has backed several arts organisations and artists through its new charitable wing, The ArtsPay Foundation, with a series of small grants. In a sign of the need and demand from the cash-starved sector, there were more than 1,200 applications for the grants program with two small arts organisations and seven artists receiving… Read more »
Personal lending fintech Driva has landed a multi-year partnership with leading vehicle marketplace Carsales.com. The Carsales (ASX:CAR) partnership will see Driva offer personalised finance options next to all privately sold vehicles, with options to pre-qualify, apply and get pre-approved for finance. Carsales executive GM Matt Earle said the deal will mean around 45% of the automobile… Read more »
Paypa Plane cofounder and CEO Simone Joyce is heading to the US with her family to put her fintech front and centre of banking and payments reforms in North America. Joyce, who is also chair of industry group Fintech Australia, has been at the forefront of Australia’s shift to real time payments and the introduction… Read more »
Early stage investment company Antler Australia recently backed a new cohort of startups as part of its ongoing program to build great local tech companies. Startup Daily is sharing the details of each venture in the “Antler Investor Memos” series, which is designed to give you a quick, sharp understanding of the startups and people… Read more »
Small business alternative lender, Lumi, has raised $15 million with Harel Insurance and Finance Group signing on as the fintech’s newest investor. Harel is Israel’s largest insurance group and listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Existing backers, including the private investment arm of Perennial as well as Melbourne’s Josh Liberman Investment Group, Arbel, and… Read more »
Women focused superannuation fintech Verve has raised $3 million in a pre-Series A as it looks to expand its financial services offerings. Verve cofounder and CEO Christina Hobbs said the round, led by impact-focused family office Alberts, closed early. “Two years ago, we were asking investors to believe that there is a problem in financial… Read more »
South Australian customer retention fintech Sherlok has raised $3.4 million to help mortgage brokers get better home loan deals for their clients. The round was led by VC Rampersand, with participation from Investible and its Club Investible syndicate, supported by Paloma and Common Sense Ventures. A pioneering use case of open banking from the three-year-old… Read more »
Waave has recruited former Qantas exec and eBay Australia chair Belinda Jonovska as payments fintech’s Chief Operations Officer (COO) to oversee risk, governance and commercialisation. Jonovska joins the startup after the open banking payments fintech raised $4.7 million in a Seed round in April. Cofounders Ben Zyl, Mark Connolly and Peter Traianou launched Waaveearier this… Read more »
Buoyed by dramatic changes in the way consumers pay for goods and services, Australia’s payments processing ecosystem will be overhauled based on a new strategic plan that includes the phasing out of cheques and full transition to the New Payments Platform (NPP). The newly launched Strategic Plan for Australia’s Payments System – developed through consultation with regulators,… Read more »
Australia’s godfather of open banking, Scott Farrell, has been added to FinTech Australia’s Hall of Fame at the annual Finnie Awards. For the second year in a row, the awards have been shared widely, with small business lender Lumi the only company to receive more than one award, taking home Best Workplace Diversity and Emerging… Read more »
FinTech Australia has updated and relaunched one of its key resources for the fintech industry: the interactive ecosystem map it first released in February last year. The sector’s peak body is also calling for local fintechs to check and update their business details on the map to ensure that they fully capitalise off the resource.… Read more »
More than 6 million Australians have used the “buy now, pay later” lending services offered by Afterpay, Zip and more than a dozen other companies. Buy now, pay later offers an easy and convenient alternative to credit card services. You can sign up and have your loan approved almost immediately. One reason for this is… Read more »
The government is moving to regulate buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services under the Credit Act and force companies like AfterPay, to follow a set of responsible lending obligations. Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones on Monday that he wanted to maintain innovation and competition in the market but stop the “harmful effects of poor marketing practices and poor… Read more »
Australia is the third country in the world to offer Apple’s Tap to Pay, which lets small businesses accept payments via in-person contactless payments on the iPhone. Retailers, restaurants and other merchants can now use an iPhone to accept Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets with no extra hardware or… Read more »
Chalk up another $32 million to the investment tally in 2022 with belated news emerging this week that software fintech Constantinople banked a US$23 million (A$32m) Seed round in May last year. If two’s enough to be a trend, then late funding announcement are the new black after meal ordering platform Me&u revealed last month… Read more »
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