2020 has been a big year for the start-up industry in Australia. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported more than 340,000 new business entries in Australia between 2019-20, and KPMG reported startup investment rising despite COVID. Generally, companies take two different routes when kicking off a new business – seeking external investment or bootstrapping. I… Read more »
Shares in Australian fintech EML Payments (ASX: EML) jumped 5.8% today on news that it would acquire Irish open-banking platform Sentenial for €70 million (A$108.6m), plus an earn-out component of up to €40 million (A$62.1m). Sentenial, and its Open Banking brand Nuapay, operate in Europe via more than 1,750 banks, processing €45 billion in payments… Read more »
Australian marketing company Sensis, publisher of the Yellow and White Pages, has been sold for A$260 million to US Nasdaq-listed Thryv Holdings. Thryv is a supplier of small business software in the US and owner of the Yellow Pages brand in the states. The price represents a significant haircut for US private equity firm Platinum… Read more »
Online design platform Canva is bolstering its capacity in the artificial intelligence (AI) and automation space with the acquisition of two European design startups. The Australian unicorn has bought Austrian AI platform Kaleido.ai, which built the popular background removal tool remove.bg and Unscreen, as well as Czech-based product mockup generator Smartmockups. The acquisition costs were not disclosed.… Read more »
The Commonwealth Bank venture scaling entity, x15ventures, has made its fifth acquisition in the 12 months since launching, adding hospitality platform Doshii to its portfolio. The cloud-based startup connects food apps with a venue’s point of sale system. The acquisition was announced at CBA’s 2021 technology update at the bank’s new tech hub at South Eveleigh,… Read more »
Debit payments platform eftpos is hoping to crack the digital wallet market by acquiring payments app Beem It. Beem It is free app that allows people to pay in real time, downloaded more than 1.4 million times. The joint-venture fintech owned by CBA, NAB and Westpac and other banks as well as major retailers such… Read more »
ASX-listed buy-now-pay-later stocks continue to be catnip for investors with shares in Afterpay and Zip Co. both soaring to fresh highs on Monday following performance updates ahead of both companies releasing their FY2020 results on Thursday. Afterpay (ASX: APT) shares rose 4.79% on Monday to close a new record of $82.73 after announcing plans to… Read more »
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