Japanese fintech Moneytree eyes Australian market
(2 May 2017 – Australia) Japanese fintech Moneytree is gearing up for an Australian launch, backed by a ¥1 billion (A$12 million) funding round from Japanese banks Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and SMBC Venture Capital.
Moneytree chief executive and co-founder Paul Chapman has spent two decades working to bridge Australia and Japan and said the app, which has 1.3 million users in Japan, is coming to Australia.
The app aims to provide tools and services for businesses and individuals to aggregate and control all financial data on a single platform.
“We raised $12 million to grow what we’ve already validated in Japan,” he said. “We already have staff on the ground in Australia and we’ll be hiring.
“Australia has a very fragmented banking environment and we think the whole world is moving towards greater fragmentation, not less.”
“We don’t claim to have the most features, we don’t send you interesting articles, we just show you your money clearly and accurately,” Chapman said. “Fintech is really about trust, and that’s been lacking. We don’t want to launch without aggregation and without the app being stable enough, so we’re running a beta program now then launching for Australians in coming months.”
The move comes as the Australian banking and finance industry waits on a productivity commission’s inquiry into open APIs.
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