4th Q 2022 – fintech headlines

Thank you for supporting this newsletter in 2022 – nearly 3700 strong ! Lots to come in 2023 to keep one eye 👁️ on what’s happening in fintech in Australia/NZ 🙂

Summary of 4Q2022

• Adelaide based digital mortgage platform Tic:Toc has raised $54m in their series D round. 💰

• Equity Trustees will be launching a Portal in 2023 🏡 to offer an accessible entry point for opening a philanthropic fund 📋

• Yondr Money partnered 🤝 with BillHero to allow customers to pay & monitor their energy bills 🔆 through Yondr. Bill Hero will then run a market-wide comparison on every bill received, so customers can get choice across the market ⚡️

• ASX listed Bendigo and Adelaide Bank announced their Unaudited cash earnings (after tax)1 year-to-date (YTD) of approximately $245m, is up 22% on prior corresponding period (PCP).

• Envestnet | Yodlee partnered 🤝 with okke to bring bookkeeping 🗂️ software to sole traders and the self-employed. 📋

• Zip Co said 💬 it “remains confident it has sufficient cash and liquidity to support the Company through to positive cash EBTDA in the first half of FY24.” 🛒

• Raiz Invest launched the “Raiz Property Fund” – where users can now have access to Australian residential property in their portfolio from as little as $5 💰🏠

• Sydney based Livewire Markets acquired Market Index to combine analysis 🔬from Australia’s leading investment professionals with extensive market data 📊research tools and scans.🗂️

• Westpac announced they will invest 🗂️ US$30 million in to ShopBack that will allow credit & debit card 💳 customers to access offers via a dedicated Westpac page in the ShopBack app 📲 & website.

• Brisbane based YouPay partnered with My Room – Children’s Cancer Charity to give affected children the ability to shop 🛍️ online and allow donors to pay 🎟️

• KOBA Insurance and Ayla announced 🎤 a partnership 🤝 to allow users who manage their bills & finances via AYLA to apply for a quote for KOBA’s pay-per-kilometre car 🚙 insurance automatically.

•  Sydney based Slyp announced 📢 they welcomed Kmart Australia Limited & Country Road Group to the Slyp network. 🧾

•  Helen Keppe joined Envestnet | Yodlee as their new Sales and Partnerships Lead

• ASX listed Payright has announced a capital raising to raise up to $5.03 million via a placement and an underwritten entitlement offer.

• Online home loan marketplace JOUST has partnered 🤝 with Nectar Mortgages to provide Australian 🇦🇺 borrowers with a fast, easy, seamless home loan application process ⚡️ and also ensure a constant flow of lead generation for Nectar Mortgage brokers. ✅

• Brisbane based Ettle has successfully facilitated a pilot 🛫 transaction between business clients on its stablecoin infrastructure platform 🔗 using the digital Australian 🦘 dollar token “AUDE”.

• Melbourne based FrankieOne announced 📣 they have raised $23m as part of an extension of their Series A to take the total funding for the round to $45m. 💰

• Westpac launched a “Split Billing” function🧾 ➗that enables hospitality merchants to allow groups to split a bill 🎟 so that each individual within a group can pay a portion of their bill. 🍕

• ASX listed Wisr has secured a $25m institutional-backed debt facility. 🗂️ 🤝CFO Andrew Goodwin said “Given the current market conditions, diversification of scalable funding sources and balance sheet robustness is prudent.”

• Commonwealth Bank launched a new credit score hub 🗂️ to enable millions of customers to easily view & access their Experian credit score 👾 & personalised credit report, free of charge. ✅

• Bendigo and Adelaide Bank announced their “BEN Express” digital home loan offering has hit $100 million of lending since inception. 🏡 Tic:Toc 👋

• Zeller announced a partnership 🤝 with Xero to enable customers to feed their payments, transfers, & spending data from their Zeller Transaction Account or Mastercard into Xero ⛓️ 📬

• Rate Money announced 📣 they hit $4 billion in loan settlements, with over 4000 customers since their launch in 2019 📈

• David Thodey announced his resignation 📃 as Chair of Tyro Payments to be replaced by Fiona Pak-Poy

• Commonwealth Bank announced 📣 cash net profit after tax (NPAT) of $2.5 billion for the quarter ending 30/9. 💰 Matt Comyn, CEO said 💬 “In a competitive environment we remained disciplined and achieved good volume growth in our core markets” 

• Y Combinator backed Wagetap secured a $15,000,000 senior secured receivable facility ⚙️ from newly created Rixon Capital to support their growth

• ASX listed Zip Co announced they are now live 🛒 on eBay Australia 🇦🇺

• Non-bank lender Bridgit partnered 🤝 with Finsure. The new partnership sees Bridgit join the aggregator’s lender panel 📋 as its first tech-driven 🔗 bridging solution.

• Brenton Charnley launched 🚀 Open Finance Advisors , a consultancy to “help local and global 🌎 businesses make open banking and open finance a reality through the Consumer Data Right (CDR). ”

• Vanguard Australia launched their Superannuation product – 0.58% fees including a “Lifecycle” option to adjust growth v defensive ⚖️ assets overlayed with your age 🧩

• Melbourne based Thriday announced 📣 they are partnering 🤝with Regional Australia Bank to provide transaction accounts 📲 to business customers.

• ASX listed Xero reported their HY Result :Operating Revenue 📊 : $658,000,512, Subscribers 📂: 3,496,000, AMRR 👀 : $1.480,912b, Free Cash Flow 💰 : $ 15,000,569

• Raiz Invest (once again) reached > $1b FUM with >670,000 active customers. ✅\

• Novatti Group (ASX:NOV) was issued 🎟 a RADI for their “International Bank of Australia” 👋.

• Westpac announced 📢 that over 720,000 users interacted with their embedded “Personal Financial Management” feature 👾📲 since launch in Sep 2022.

• Bill tracking app Ayla announced 🎙 their EOI via crowd-funding platform Birchal 📊

• Savings platform Blossom App reached $25m in funds under management

• ASX listed MONEYME has appointed an investment bank to assist with a growth strategy for their Autopay 🚗 product & reduce their debt facility. 📊

• Sydney based Greener raised $4M AUD in funding led by NAB Ventures & RealVC ✅💰

•  Commonwealth Bank partnered with More to launch Mobile SIM Plans 📲 to help customers with the cost of living and rising bills. 🧾

• ASX listed Wisr announced 📣 a trading update :Prime Loan Book 📕 $885m, Quarterly Revenue $21.2m 📊, Quarterly Originations of $186m 🚗

• Wisr also launched “Wisr Today”Australia’s 🇦🇺 first money coaching app 📲 that uses psychology & behavioural science 🧫 to help users build smarter habits & improve holistic financial health. 📈

•  Plenti reported their Q2 FY23 results : Loan portfolio of $1.55 billion 🗂, Revenue of $33.3 million 📊, Quarterly loan originations of $269m 🚙

• Judo Bank announced their loan book 📖 is at $6.8b with a a target 🎯 of $9b being “half way to achieving our medium-term metrics at scale” ✅

•  humm group gave a 1Q23 business update 🗂:Consumer Finance 📂 volume $601.7m, Cards volume 💳 $296.5m, BNPL big ticket 🎫 up 8%, small ticket 🎟 down 11 %

• Embedded finance platform Nine25 App launched their investment EOI on Equitise 👋🏻

• Commonwealth Bank partnered 🤝with Griffith University to create a new academy to offer financial crime investigation & compliance programs.  

• Athena Home Loans, Mortgage Choice & REA Group partnered 🤝 to offer innovative white-label home 🏡 loans ✅

• Sydney based Brighte have announced 📣 they have helped Australian’s use $1,000,000,000 ($1b) towards sustainable home 🏡 improvement. ✅

• Tanggram launched their EOI for their crowd funding raise via Birchal 🗂

• ASX listed Tyro Payments confirmed it has received approaches from several parties expressing interest in a potential change of control transaction, including Westpac.

• ASX listed Zip Co updated the market : Group quarterly revenue of $163.2m 📊Transaction volume for the quarter of $2.2b 🛍, Customer numbers for the Group of 12.0m 📲, Active Merchants on the platform increased to 94.1k 🛒

• bit.leave launched in Australia 🇦🇺 to help organisations reduce excess leave liabilities whilst also rewarding employees with more time off 🌅or more money 💰

• Long-term focused wealth retail management platform pearler launched 🚀 “Pearler Exchange” – an online forum for investors to chat 💬, ask questions, test ideas 💡& share experiences 🤔 in a professionally moderated general advice environment.

• NAB announced the launch of lower 📉 variable rates for eligible home loan customers on homes that meet energy efficient criteria. ✅

• Airwallex has raised an additional US$100 million in a Series E2 financing round with the same US$5.5 billion valuation. 💰

• Sydney based Cape has partnered with Codat to automate 🤖 accounting 🗂 administrative tasks at scale.

• Byron bay based Zepto has announced 📢 their launch in to New Zealand 🇳🇿 ✅

• NAB has launched “Easy Tap” that turns your Android device into a payment terminal to accept contactless card payments 💳🧾 – whilst also launching “NAB Messaging ” for customer chat on web and mobile

• ASX listed Tyro Payments has updated its earnings guidance range for FY23 :Forecast transaction value retained at between $40 billion to $42 billion 🍔 EBITDA Range $28m-$34m 📊

• Zip Co announced their Co-founder and Global CEO Larry Diamond was moving to New York 🇺🇸 to help “spearhead Zip’s next phase of growth in the US”

• ASX listed Tyro Payments has provided their monthly transaction summary 🗂 September : $3.529b (+63%) September YTD : $10.367b (+59%)

• Raiz Invest released their September 2022 Metrics – 671,243 active customers, $976.57m FUM , 3,080,855 Customer sign ups

• Zeller has released their Tipping Report📓 – with QLD being the state with the most frequent tippers

• B4REAL – Buy Real Estate With Crypto outlined their brand new lending product that allows customers to use your crypto as collateral

• MyState Bank announced they will be increasing their interest by 0.40% on their flagship Bonus Savers account

• Sydney based Shaype has raised A$33m💰to accelerate growth, with particular focus on expanding the team to support a full pipeline of Australian clients, as well as international 🌎expansion. ✅

• Melbourne based SME automation fintech Thriday has raised $6m to scale by onboarding their 11,000 waitlist & launch new features such as BAS lodgement & automated bill management 🧾🤖