Nine of the UK’s FinTech companies have landed in Australia to explore opportunities and partnerships.
The move has come from the UK-Australia FinTech Bridge Pilot Programme which was launched last year to foster links between the two countries’ FinTech ecosystems.
This cohort will share their experiences at the intersect FinTech conference and will then move onto Sydney for a program of meetings and events.
Crowd2Fund is one of the nine companies to make the cohort. The company offers businesses access to an alternative source of funding by accessing funding from retail investors.
Another company to make the list is Disburse, which helps donors and aid organisations to send and receive funds from around the world and better track funds through the whole funding chain.
Fractal Labs offers SMEs access to various APIs designed to improve their operations. the company’s payments API boasts immediate settlement at a discount to cards or other methods and is secured with authentication methods. Other APIs include data aggregation, cash flow profiles, and targeting tools.
Another to make the trip to Australia is Pirkx. The FinTech supplies benefit packages, which include cashback, restaurant discounts, wellbeing offers, and shopping discounts, among others.
Recordsure is a communication monitoring platform to help firms ensure their compliance requirements and audit processes are completed. The technology can automatically gather data from all customer interactions and convert them into valuable insights and flag hidden risks or opportunities.
SmartPension aims to transform the pensions, savings and financial wellbeing space, offerings companies a variety of tools to help their employees better save money and manage finances.
Another cohort member is Tradinghub, which supplies trade data analytics to the financial services industry. With this, clients can identify actions which could be considered market abuse, identify potential rogue trades, analyse best executions, and objectively assess and improve trader performance.
Open banking API builder TrueLayer has also joined the group. The company has developed a data API which can help a client better access their users’ bank accounts and cards information, helping to better take advantage of open banking opportunities. The company has also built a payment API, which is currently in the beta stage and will ease transaction workflows.
Finally, Thyngs aims to connect the physical world to build a multi-channel commerce solution. The platform works by letting a consumer simply tapping a physical product with their phone to complete a payment for the product.
Michael Ward, British Consul General and UK Deputy Trade Commissioner, Asia Pacific – Australia and New Zealand said, “The UK has long been a world-leader in financial services; it remains one of our most important sectors. And, with our highly developed tech eco-system attracting unprecedented levels of capital investment – more than anywhere else in Europe – our innovative fintech sector is thriving.
“It is great to see such a strong cohort of UK FinTechs visiting Australia – it says a lot about the opportunities in this market and the potential to further build our 2-way trade and investment links.
“The UK-Australia FinTech Bridge has been a tremendous success to date with over 24 Australian fintechs setting up in the UK since its inception and more than 14 new UK fintechs doing business in Australia and I encourage companies in both countries to take advantage of the opportunities it offers.”
The key objectives of the UK-Australia program are to strengthen engagement on FinTech policy and regulation, facilitate trade flows and access to capital opportunities, and address international growth barriers.
Last month, DIT supported 10 Australian FinTechs on a visit to the UK in a similar programme.
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