Andrew Bassat’s Seek Investments has led a $40 million series A for online disability services platform, Hireup. Hireup helps people with disabilities find, hire and manage their own support workers. The strategic backing by Seek Investments for a minority stake, along with support from existing shareholders, will help the six-year-old business scale nationally. The Myer… Read more »
ASX-listed consumer lender Latitude Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: LFS) is planning to buy three-year old Melbourne fintech Symple Loans for $200 million. The shares and cash deal – 38.46 million Latitude shares at $2.60 per share and $100 million in cash – will see Symple become the lending platform for all Latitude personal and auto… Read more »
ASX-listed business accounting platform Xero is taking on Google and Apple at their own game, launching an app store selling Xero-connected apps. The Xero App Store lets small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers purchase apps to help run their companies, and went live last week. Xero app partners in Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand now… Read more »
The founders of Wisr, Sythetix and Zip are among the backers in a $2.3 million raise for investment technology startup Fresh Equities. The round was led by Archangel Ventures, and includes Flying Fox Ventures. Zip co-founders Larry Diamond and Adam Finger, Wisr CEO and founder Anthony Nantes, and Synthetix Coin founder Kain Warwick, are now… Read more »
The A$39 billion (US$29 billion) that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s digital payments company Square is paying to acquire Australian upstart payments outfit Afterpay is the biggest takeover deal in Australian corporate history. It surpasses the A$32 billion European commercial real estate giant Unibail-Rodamco agreed to pay for Frank Lowy’s Westfield Corporation in 2017. The deal… Read more »
Jack Dorsey’s payments platform Square is buying ASX-listed Australian fintech Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) in a deal worth US$29 billion (A$39bn). Anthony Eisen and Mick Molnar, co-founders of the buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform will join Square when the deal goes through early in 2022. They will help lead Afterpay’s respective merchant and consumer… Read more »
Sales at ASX-listed buy now pay later (BNPL) fintech Afterpay passed $20 billion a year ahead of schedule. The company’s (ASX: APT) continued astonishing growth, revealed in the 2021 financial year figures today, comes as the fintech announced a proposed sale and merger with US-listed payments company Square for A$39 billion. Afterpay posted FY21 underlying… Read more »
Shares in BNPL Zip crashed nearly 8% today after the company released its Q4 trading update. The fintech (ASX: Z1P) painted a rosy growth picture, but analyst nemesis UBS said the 4Q volumes “were below expectations” resulting in a “significant volume miss” compared to forecasts, with US momentum starting to slow. Zip closed at $6.99,… Read more »
PayPal’s AfterPay-copycat product launched in Australia today and the expected, yet sudden news sent the value of ASX-listed buy now, pay later shares plunging. The US payments giant’s ‘Pay in 4’ option is a direct copy of the AfterPay model, but with a crucial difference to the Australian fintech’s version: PayPal won’t charge late fees.… Read more »
There’s some relief for investors in Youfoodz Holdings Ltd today following a takeover bid by German-owned meal kit delivery rival HelloFresh. Youfoodz (ASX: YFZ) shares have jumped 77% to $0.902 cents following the offer at $0.93 per share in cash by way of a scheme of arrangement. The company said it has entered into a… Read more »
A takeover bid for ASX-listed online car sales venture iCar Asia by rival Singaporean car e-commerce platform Carsome has pushed the shares up more than 41% in early trade today. The non-binding acquisition proposal from Carhome at $0.55 cents a share pips a previous offer last year at $0.50 cents from China’s Autohome. iCar Asia… Read more »
Australian investors bought the rumour today, with shares in buy-now-pay-later company Zip jumping 13.7% on media reports that Klarna, the 1000lb Swedish gorilla in the BNPL space, had taken a holding in the Aussie fintech. Zip (ASX:Z1P) shares closed Thursday trade at $8.78, having startup the day at $7.70, giving the company a market capitalisation… Read more »
Small business transaction financing fintech Butn (ASX:BTN) went nowhere for investors on its ASX debut today with around 2% – 2.5 million – of the company’s shares traded before it, unusually, closing its first day of trade at the IPO price. Having raised $20 million at $0.50 a share for an indicative market capitalisation of… Read more »
Caravan rental platform Camplify listed on the ASX on Monday after raising $11.5 million in an Initial Public Offer. But despite starting the day with good news, upgrading its prospectus forecasts for gross transaction volume (GTV) and revenue, and seeing its listing price of $1.42 rise to $1.50 in intraday trade, shares in the Newcastle-based business… Read more »
Gina Rinehart’s mining business, Hancock Prospecting, has tipped $15 million into a $27.2 million capital raise by local medicinal cannabis venture Little Green Pharma. The raise comes as the five-year-old Western Australian ASX venture, which produce medical grade CBD and THC cannabis products for Australia, the UK and Germany, announced the acquisition of medicinal cannabis… Read more »
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