Melbourne fintech Thrives, a banking, accounting, tax and lending platform for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), is putting together a customer advisory board (CAB) and plans to pay the people taking part in company shares in return for a 12-month commitment. CEO Michael Nuciforo said they looking for a range of business owners, who’ll meet monthly and… Read more »
Zip Co. (ASX: Z1P) has raised another A$400 million via a seven-year unsecured convertible notes to fund its international expansion plans. The not-yet profitable BNPL’s latest raise follows a similar $1.5 billion raise by Afterpay (ASX: APT) via convertible notes due in 2026. Co-founder and COO Peter Gray said they were “very pleased with the… Read more »
The journey for Melbourne fintech Assembly Payments is set to end with the company being merged into Ireland-based cross-border payments platform CurrencyFair by one of the company’s key backers Standard Chartered. The British banking multinational launched a Singapore-based joint venture digital payments company with Assembly Payments in early 2020. Standard Chartered said the merger was… 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 »
Entries for Fintech Australia’s annual Finnie Awards are closing in less than two weeks on March 30. There are now 20 categories in total, including the Excellence in Open Data award, for how companies are managing and controlling their data, and a Hall of Fame award to commemorate a company that has made a lasting… Read more »
Australia’s biggest bank will take on fintech powerhouses such as Afterpay, Zip and Sezzle by launching its own Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) product within months. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) will offer its own BNPL product to CBA customers from mid-2021 to use anywhere Mastercard payments are accepted. The move will be CBA’s… Read more »
Sydney regtech startup Adatree has been approved to take part in Australia’s open banking system as Accredited Data Recipient (ADR) for the Consumer Data Right (CDR). It’s the first early-stage startup accredited and the first ADR with a female CEO, Jill Berry. Adatree helps fintechs gain access to open banking, offering of a scalable technology… Read more »
Commonwealth Bank-backed Swedish bank and payments fintech Klarna has raised US$1 billion (A$1.3bn) in a fresh equity round from new and existing investors that gives values the business at an astonishing US$31 billion (A$40bn). That new valuation is a 200% jump on just six months ago, and a rise of nearly 500% on the US$5.5bn… Read more »
Xinja is no longer a neobank. Despite last minute efforts by a group of the company’s shareholders pushing for the fintech to keep its banking licence, after it was the startup’s most valuable asset, the financial regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) revoked Xinja’s licence as an authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) on Friday. The… Read more »
One of Australia’s original fintechs, SocietyOne, the peer-to-peer lending marketplace, has joined Afterpay on Westpac’s new digital banking services platform, 10X. Westpac’s digital banking services will be available to SocietyOne customers in the second half of 2021, and the bank has been backing the fintech since 2014 through its VC fund, Reinventure. In October last… Read more »
Thrive, a Melbourne-based fintech using artificial intelligence to automate banking, accounting, tax and lending for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), has closed its crowdfunding campaign after just 3 days, having raised a record $3 million. Thrive’s campaign launched on Birchal on broke multiple records when it went live last week, hitting $1 million towards the $3m target… Read more »
A group of shareholders with more than 20% of the issued capital in failed neobank Xinja are pushing the company to keep its banking license. Xinja announced in December that it was handing back its backing licence and has since returned more than $250 million in deposits to customers Investors have been presented with two… Read more »
FinTech Australia has added two new awards to the annual Finnies, which are now open for entries. The new Excellence in Open Data award will examine how companies are managing and controlling their data, a issue that’s come to the fore with the launch of the consumer data right and open banking in July last… Read more »
Big four bank NAB is taking control of neobank 86 400, just 18 months after the fintech launched. The proposed deal ends the “challenger bank” dream of British banking pioneer Anthony Thomson, co-founder of the UK’s Metro Bank and publicly-listed digital bank Atom, and CEO Robert Bell, a former ANZ Japan boss. It was only… 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 »
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