What a week it’s been for the challenger bank business in the Land Down Under!
Australian small business challenger bank Judo just announced a major fundraising, securing an investment of $307 million (AUD 500 million) from a pair of Australian government agencies.
The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) and the Australian Structured Finance Support Fund (SFSF) contributed equally. The investment makes Judo the first recipient of funding from Australia’s two-billion dollar small business funding program. The program was initially designed in 2018 to help promote competition between the country’s major banks and to provide more financing opportunities for the country’s small business.
“At a time when the availability of credit has never been more important to tens of thousands of Australian SMEs, Judo is delighted to be able to announce such a substantial investment by the AOFM,” Judo co-founder and co-CEO David Hornery said.
The country’s first SME-oriented challenger bank, Judo earned its full banking license just under a year ago. This spring, Judo announced securing a three-year, $350 million credit facility with Citi. The challenger bank has a deposit book of $860 million (AUD 1.4 billion).
An infusion of capital from the private sector has boosted the coffers of fellow Australian challenger bank 86 400. The firm announced this week that it has raised $20.8 million (AUD 34 million) in new funding in a round led by Morgan Stanley.
The Series A round takes 86 400’s total capital to $57 million (AUD 90 million). Also participating were an Australian superannuation fund, high net worth investors and family offices, as well as fund managers.
“At our current rate of growth, we should hit 500,000 accounts on the platform in the next 12 months,” 86 400 CEO Robert Bell said. “Of course, that will be balanced by growing the lending side of our business and we anticipate having a mortgage book of close to $2 billion by the end of 2021.”
86 400, which bills itself as “Australia’s first smartbank,” launched in September of last year and currently has more than 170,000 accounts on its platform. With more than 350,000 transactions and balance updates processed daily, and a mortgage book of $20 million, 86 400 currently offers two accounts – Pay and Save – that make spending convenient and incentivize savings.
Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Mamo Pay, a Dubai-based fintech developing a P2P payments app, raises $1.5 million in seed funding.
- Saudi Arabia’s Halalah attains e-money institution license after graduating ahead of schedule from its sandbox trial period.
- UAE-based fintech Rise locks in growth funding believed to be in excess of $1 million.
Central and Southern Asia
- Fintech News takes a look at the “10 Fastest Growing Fintechs in India.”
- BusinessWorld India examines the role of fintech in driving the digitalization trend in India.
- Pakistan Today features American fintech entrepreneur Brandon Timinsky and his efforts to launch SadaPay in Pakistan.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Cryptonews looks at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Mexican fintech.
- Contexto sees more fintechs in Chile’s future, courtesy of a new global entrepreneur network, Endeavor.
- Latin American on-demand delivery startup partners with Arcus to launch new payment app, RappiPay.
Asia-Pacific
- Hong Kong fintech Neat raises $11 million in Series A featuring participation from Visa among other investors.
- HSBC goes live with its Smart Mobile Onboading for customers in China.
- Hong Kong-based online lender Credit Hero partners with Salt Edge.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- South Africa’s Vodacom and Kenya’s Safaricom conclude acquisition of mobile money platform, M-Pesa.
- Senegalese mobile network operator, Free, deploys Comviva’s mobiquity Money solution.
- South Africa’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) unveils new innovation hub.
Central and Eastern Europe
- Russian payments platform Qiwi picks up investment from Japan’s SBI.
- Germany corporate pension and life insurance digitization company Xpension raises $27 million (EUR25 million) in Series C funding.
- Fintechs innovating in ecommerce, payments, and real estate populate EU Startups’ look at top 10 Romanian startups for 2020.