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 »
Crypto investors hoping to get their cash in a hurry through Binance Australia will be forced to wait a day or two longer after the crypto exchange said it has been forced to stop offering PayID deposits for Australian dollar account holders following “a decision made by our third party payment service provider”. The bebanking… Read more »
Four-year-old Melbourne online mortgage broker Finspo has raised another modest round, pulling in $2.55 million in a Series D for upgrades to its digital platform. The company did not disclose who supported the raise. Founded by ex-bankers in 2019, and launched in 2020, Finspo previously raised $2.7 million in Series A in November 2020, $4 million… Read more »
The board of ASX small cap IOUpay handed control to PricewaterhouseCoopers as voluntary administrators on Wednesday after a major fraud that siphoned off millions of dollars left the fintech unable to pay its bills. Shares in the Malaysia-focused fintech (ASX:IOU) have been suspended at $0.04 cents since the fraud was first uncovered in mid March.… 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 »
Waave, a fintech using open banking to build a direct debit alternative to card payments, has raised $4.7 million in a Seed round. The round was backed by a range of prominent individuals, including Menulog boss Morten Belling, eCommerce pioneer Paul Greenberg and Chemist Warehouse founder Jack Gance, who joins the fintech as an advisor.… Read more »
Brisbane fintech Paypa Plane, which is at the forefront of instant payments, has raised $10 million in a Series A. The round was led by the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) through the government’s $100 billion Business Investment Fund, with support from payments platform Cuscal, Mastercard and Queensland VC Sprint Ventures. Paypa Plane is hoping to… Read more »
Senator Andrew Bragg is pushing once again to introduce regulation for the cryptocurrency sector in Australia, amid ongoing exchange collapses and US regulators investigating alleged illegal activity by Binance. The NSW Liberal, now in opposition, introduced a private senator’s bill to the Senate on Wednesday, accusing financial services minister Stephen Jones of being “uninterested in… Read more »
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