Australia’s fintech start-ups raised US$401 million ($584 million) in H1 2019, compared US$122 in H1 2018, an increase of 229%, according to Accenture research.
This research showed Australia was now the fourth biggest fintech market by funds in the Asia Pacific, trailing only China, India and Singapore, as global activity fell, particularly in China.
This was driven by a US$176 million line of credit round to small-to-medium enterprise (SME) lender Moula in March.
March also saw US$100 million raised by cross-border payments start up in Airwallex, and Judo Bank received US$71 million in debt funding in April.
Lending start-ups received 71% of the funds, with payments companies getting 28%.
Alex Trott, banking lead for Accenture Australia, said Australian fintech was on pace to reach its highest ever levels on fundraising.
“It’s clear that investors see significant growth potential in the fintech space, both as challengers and partners to Australia’s big four banks, and this bodes well for the future development of cutting-edge financial technology in Australia,” Trott said.
With the Consumer Data Right being passed into the law and the banks testing their open bank systems before next February, there are opportunities for fintechs to take advantage.
“Lending is primed for disruption for example, especially in the corporate and SME space, [which was] demonstrated by Moula and Judo Bank’s recent rounds of funding from credit lines and debt transactions, which were two of the biggest funding recipients this year half,” Trott said.
“Digital payments is also an area of growing competition, as we’ve seen in markets all over the world, and well-funded start-ups will certainly create future revenue challenges for the incumbent banks in Australia.”
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