Aussies sparkle as emerging tech stars
China has cemented its position as the globe’s “fintech” growth engine, taking top spot in an annual snapshot of the burgeoning industry that lauded several Australian start-ups.
A report from venture capital firm H2 Ventures and KPMG names Nine Australian companies as among the world’s leading fintech innovators, including “established” players Tyro and SocietyOne alongside “emerging” start-ups Data Republic and HashChing.
The amount of cash backing fintech continues to bulge, with the aggregate capital raised growing to $US14.6 billion ($19.2bn), up more than 40 per cent on a year ago.
While the NSW government seized on the report to spruik Sydney’s emergence as a “key Asian fintech hub”, China will take some catching.
Within three years, China’s fintechs have gone from only one company in the top 50 “established” players to having four of the top five this year.
Hangzhou-based Ant Financial, a third-party payment platform, topped the list ahead of Beijing lending platform Qudian. Of Australasian established fintech operators, New Zealand-based cloud-based accounting software group Xero led the pack ranked 14 out of 50, ahead of small business lender Prospa (31), payments group Tyro (43) and marketplace lender SocietyOne (50).
Several foreign players operating in Australia such as Spotcap, OnDeck, Square and Kabbage were also named.
Australian start-ups to win recognition among the world’s 50 “emerging stars” were Afterpay, Brighte, Data Republic, HashChing, Identitii and Spriggy.
Ian Pollari, KPMG’s Sydney-based global co-lead of fintech, said the growing success of “disrupters” opposed to “enablers” was striking, with more than 90 per cent of the top 50 ventures challenging traditional business models.
He added the 100 companies secured more than 65 per cent of global fintech investment capital in the past year.
Although being more mature than other fintech sub-sectors, lending returned to the fore with 32 of the 100 business models related to extending credit, up from 22 last year.
The payments space was seen as most at risk of disruption from fintechs while insurance and the regulation sectors were attracting more attention.But incumbents aren’t standing idle, with research yesterday from East & Partners claiming treasurers among Australia’s largest companies by revenue planned to increase their own fintech investment spend in the coming year by 12.2 per cent.