ASX-listed Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech Openpay has been placed in the hands of receivers after it failed to bank working capital from its key funder. The payments platform has been shut down, effectively sealing the company’s fate. The collapse comes a week after the company’s quarterly results on January 31, which flagged delays in receiving the… Read more »
Fintech Zeller is taking on the big four banks to offer financial services to the small business sector, launching a new transaction account, debit card, and app. It’s a major shift in strategy for the Melbourne startup, founded by former Square exec Ben Pfisterer and Dominic Yap. The three-year-old venture launched in 2021 with a… Read more »
New Zealand-founded accounting fintech Hnry has raised A$35 million in a Series B as it looks to go global. The round was led by local VC AirTree Ventures, supported by existing New York-based backer Left Lane Capital, Akshay Kothari, cofounder of California software company Notion, and Athletic Ventures, the sports star investment syndicate that includes AFL… Read more »
Former Goldman Sachs executive director Laura Mineo has joined Byron Bay-based merchant payments fintech Zepto as Chief Financial Officer. Her C-suite role follows the appointment of Julia Bearzatto as Chief Product Officer in November last year. Mineo was most recently in New York as CFO at locally-founded, US-based Rokt, Australia’s third most-valuable private tech company behind… Read more »
Brisbane fintech Bloom Impact Investing has raised $525,000 in seed round co-led by Up bank cofounder Dom Pym, with the founders of Envato, Collis and Cyan Ta’eed, doubling down on the investment app. In a sign of the realigned times, the funding is less than Bloom’s $675,000 pre-seed raise in October 2021. That round was… Read more »
Queensland software startup Alii has raised $2.5 million in a self-described pre-Series A round that values the business at $10.25 million. The round was led by Brisbane private wealth fund Maranello Capital, which previously invested in the seed round in 2021. The subscription software platform straddles fintech, edtech and regtech to deal with accounts payments… Read more »
Financial contagions can be triggered easily, if conditions are right. First one financial institution falls and then others follow, like a chain of falling dominoes. The cinder that sparked the global financial crisis in 2007 is considered by many to have been a March 14 briefing by executives of the Lehman Brothers’ investment bank. Under… Read more »
Digital challenger bank Alex has been granted its full banking license by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). The approval authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) comes 18 months after the fintech, founded in 2018 by CEO Simon Beitz, a former Suncorp exec, and Chief Financial Officer Craig Fenwick, was granted its Restricted ADI licence amid a… Read more »
Dear financial industry, I don’t know how to put this any more simply than; screen scraping for banking data is dead. It’s time to move over to Open Banking. This has been a long time coming, and for the fintech industry, this should not come as a surprise. Screen scraping, web connectivity, Digital Data Capture… 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 »
FinTech Australia and talent platform Upplft have launched a new tool to help fintechs find and retain talent. Called “The Big Match” it aims to connect fintech industry jobseekers with new roles, which the companies involved can use it to help fill roles faster with candidates who have prior experience working in an early stage… Read more »
UK software startup TrueLayer has halted Australian operations just 18 months after its arrival. TrueLayer’s software is an intermediary for other startups looking to use the data available under the the Consumer Data Right (CDR) and open banking regime to develop new fintech products. While the British fintech unicorn’s API platform currently processes more than… Read more »
Ethic Adviser, a sustainable investing solution for financial advisers, investment brokers and accountants, is looking to raise $1 million in Seed funding to expand the globally. The fintech was developed by Tom Culver last year, before launching in March, to give advisers a SAAS solution offering specialist sustainable investing tools and information. “With the acceleration… Read more »
ASX-listed accounting platform Xero has more than doubled its net loss on the previous year to the chagrin of investors who wiped more than $1 billion from the company’s valuation following the announcement and news that CEO Steve Vamos is stepping down after nearly five years at the helm. The New Zealand tech company’s half… Read more »
Early stage investment company Antler Australia recently backed 13 startups as part of its ongoing program to build great local tech companies. Startup Daily has shared the details of each venture in the “Antler Investor Memos” series and today it’s the final profile of those ventures. This series is designed to give you a quick, sharp… Read more »
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