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 »
Consumer Data Right startup Adatree has raised $1.2 million in a seed round co-founder Jill Berry says was nearly three-times oversubscribed. Tyro Payment co-founder Peter Haig and the company’s chair, Kerry Roxburgh, led the round alongside Equity Seed, Kylie Frazer and Rachael Neumann of Eleanor Ventures, and bank executive Angus McBean. Equity Seed’s Mark Hutchins is… Read more »
Enrico Palermo starts his first day as head of the Australian Space Agency today. He takes over from Dr Megan Clark, who is now chair of the Australian Space Agency Advisory Board. Australian-born Palermo, 40, is President of The Spaceship Company, which develops and builds the Virgin Galactic spaceplane fleet. Last year he became Chief… 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 »
Dr Elaine Stead, the former head of venture capital at the now defunct Blue Sky Alternative Investments fund, has been awarded $280,000 in damages a defamation case against the Australian Financial Review and its Rear Window columnist Joe Aston. Stead, who was described as a “feminist cretin” and “venture capital pyromaniac” in a series of… Read more »
Booktopia Group (ASX: BKG) saw revenue jump by more than 50% in the second half of 2020, while earnings rose by more than 500%. The e-commerce retailer, which listed on the ASX in December at $2.30 a share, posted 52% increase in revenue first half to December 31, 2020 to $113 million (H1 FY20: $74.5 million); … Read more »
Commonwealth Bank’s venture scaling entity, x15ventures, has made two key appointments, including its first non-executive, independent chairman in Ben Heap, while Jane Martino will become x15’s first external portfolio adviser. Heap is prominent in startups and investment, as founder of fintech VC fund H2 Ventures, having invested in more than 50 fintech start-ups over the… Read more »
Female founded (or co-founded) businesses have raised around 25% more in Australian crowd-sourced funding campaigns, as well as attracting more than three times as many investors, according to a new analysis by equity crowdfunding platform Birchal. While women are underrepresented in the startup sector, especially when in comes to venture funding, it appears that public… Read more »
2020 was a good year for ASX tech stocks The S&P/ASX All Tech Index (ASX: XTX) is proof. See the chart above – it’s the green linen and even beat the US Nasdaq (light blue line. The index launched in late February last year, just before Covid-19 hammered the economy – and within four weeks,… Read more »
Electricity generator and retailer AGL has short listed two major global energy storage companies to supply a huge battery system at a South Australian power station that will be more than twice the size of Tesla’s original 100 megawatt ‘Big Battery’ commissioned in the state’s Mid North in 2017. The Australian energy utility today announced… Read more »
Google Australia’s managing director, Mel Silva, has told a Senate hearing into plans to force the global tech giant, as well as Facebook, to pay media companies for news, that it will turn off Google searches in Australia if the government passes the laws. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg tabled what’s known as the news media bargaining… Read more »
The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has raised concerns that Australia’s proposed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code could fundamentally break the internet as we know it. His concerns are valid. However, they could be addressed through minor changes to the proposed code. How could the code break the web?… Read more »
● Q2 quarterly revenue of $102m (up 88% YoY). ● BNPL December revenue $40.2m (up 94% YoY). ● Transaction volume of $1.6b (up 103% YoY). ● December transaction volume of $628.4m (up 104% YoY). Shares in buy-now-pay-later fintech Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) have jumped more than 12% in early trade on Thursday after the… Read more »
South Australia begins program to launch a low-orbit small satellite as next phase in burgeoning space economy. Led by the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), the AUD$6.5 million SASAT1 Space Services Mission was announced on Wednesday in Adelaide, South Australia. Based at Lot Fourteen, which is also home to the Australian Space Agency, the SmartSat… Read more »
Over the past few years, Australians have embraced online food delivery services such as UberEats, Deliveroo and Menulog. But home-delivered food comes with a climate cost, and single-use packaging is one of the biggest contributors. Our research found Australians placed 27 million online food orders in 2018. By 2024, this number is projected to increase… Read more »
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