Member showcase February 2018

Below are some significant announcements from our members during the month of February 2018:Lending members

• Spotcaphas announced Vishal Uppal as the winner of the Fintech Scholarship 2017. The first of its kind in Australia, the scholarship awards one aspiring graduate with an interest in fintech $10,000 towards the cost of their tuition.
• Sydney-based online small business lender, Prospa, has been identified as the top high-growth company in Asia Pacific.
• Westpac has doubled its investment in online home loan broker uno with another $25m to support the mortgage service's ambitious targets.
• Non-bank lender Libertyhas purchased consumer marketplace lender MoneyPlace, in a deal that will provide the marketplace lender with funding flexibility to grow its loan book.
• Home loans marketplace Jousthas announced that, from 30 January 2018, home loans from CBA, ANZ and NAB will be accessible via the Joust "live" auctions.

Wealthtech members

• Clients of Sharesight can now find out about their share portfolio via Alexa Skill
• Fintech startup clover.com.au has announced that it will be moving to the financial technology hub at YBF Ventures (formerly known as York Butter Factory).
• Real estate company Brickxhas hired Asok Boopathy as its group director of product and Jennifer Snell as its head of acquisition and customer marketing.
• Robo adviser Six Parkhas closed a nearly $2 million funding round andnow plans to snare partnerships with big banks on the hunt for technological advantage.

Payments members

• Adelaide-based fintech Link4recently launched its new office space on Waymouth Street to give the company more space to grow as they expand internationally this year.
• Melbourne-based mobile banking and payments app Pelikinhas teamed up with Birchal to launch a $400,000 crowdfunding equity raisecampaign.

Blockchain members

• Blockchain-based retail payments fintech Shpinghassuccessfully closed a $US3 million ($3.7 million) initial coin offering. It has also been named by Business News Australia as one of five Australian blockchain companies to "keep an eye on".
• Revolutionising the supply chain for the construction industry, disrupting healthcare funding and creating a technology-driven retail bank are among the goals of ten startups accepted into the first cohort of Block Engine, Melbournes first blockchain incubator program by the Blockchain Centre.
• Melbourne-based university RMIT has joined forces with Stone and Chalk to launch blockchain course for entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Members in other fintech areas

• Cybersecurity provider Entersoft has been namedFinTech Startup of the Yearat the inaugural Financial Technology awards in Hong Kong. This is the third major award that Entersoft has received in as many years.
• Moneytree, the Asia-Pacifics leading financial data portability platform, has been named Best Growth Stage Startup at this years Next Money Fintech Finals (FF18) in Hong Kong. The "Best in Show" award went toCheckbox, another one of our Australian regtech members.
• UK personal data platform digi.me has signed partnerships with Sydney-based fintech startup Mainframe Cloud andinvestment and behavioural planning tool Mafematica. FinTech Australia member ID Exchange, a partner of digi.me, facilitated both partnerships.
• Three-year-old startup and Smart50 finalist ActivePipe is confident it will be one of Australias next unicorns after closing a $5.9 million Series A round led byNAB Ventures.
• FinTech Australia member Look Whos Charging has helped NABwin the Money Magazine best of the best award for Best Innovative Banking Feature. Look Whos Charging uses data and public information to provide customers with detailed information about their transactions.
• Member-owned credit union Credit Union Australia (CUA) has partnered with Sydney-based Flamingo AI toconduct a pilot of a new chatbot across its health insurance arm.
• Instreet Investment Limited, an Australian asset manager with $500 million under management, has taken a controlling stake in the Australian arm of micro-investing app Acorns.