Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 2 August 2018
Judo Capital raises 140 mln Australian dollars
Judo Capital has closed on 140 million Australian dollars ($103.9 million) in an initial equity raise. Judo, of Melbourne, is a specialist lender to the Australian SME sector. First Avenue Partners acted as placement agent for Judo.
We are pleased to announce the successful close of the initial equity raise for Judo Capital, a specialist lender to the Australian SME sector. Investors committed an initial A$140 million with substantial follow-on capacity over the next five years. This is one of the largest fundraisings of a pre-revenue company in Australia’s corporate history.
First Avenue Partners acted as placement agent for Judo.
Ashurst acted as legal counsel for Judo.
Co-CEOs of Judo, David Hornery and Joseph Healy said: “We are delighted with the outcome of our Round One Equity Raising and the tremendous support provided to us by First Avenue.”
First Avenue’s Managing Partner, Paul Buckley said: “The success of this fundraising was in no small measure due to investors recognising the quality of the Judo team and its credibility in being able to execute on a plan to build Australia’s first challenger bank.”
Ion Bank Selects ProfitStars’ Commercial Lending Center Suite
Jack Henry & Associates’ ProfitStars division announced that Ion Bank has selected the Commercial Lending Center Suite to boost lending efficiency and provide a more seamless experience for commercial borrowers.
Ion Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ion Financial, MHC, has $1.3 billion in assets and has served customers throughout central Connecticut and the greater Naugatuck Valley for nearly 150 years. Ion Bank was looking to implement a comprehensive digital lending platform that provides greater transparency into borrower relationships. With Commercial Lending Center Suite, the bank benefits from automated workflows that allow them to more efficiently manage lending relationships from one loan experience to the next.
Commercial Lending Center Suite incorporates completely digital loan origination, a simplified decisioning engine, faster approval cycles, and portfolio management workflows to save time while helping ensure accuracy. The platform arms Ion Bank employees with a more comprehensive, precise view of both the entire portfolio and individual borrower relationships.
Edma Canaan, senior vice president of commercial loan administration for Ion Bank, stated, “With Commercial Lending Center Suite, we not only gain efficiencies in the lending process, but add new layers of visibility and mobility that allow a convenient, expedited experience from origination to closing. This advanced, centralized system will help us better serve customers.”
Liv. to offer instant access to credit score
Liv., the lifestyle digital bank by Emirates NBD for millennials announced that they are working with Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) to provide customers easy and instant access to their AECB Credit Score, by simply clicking on the CreditCheck feature on their Liv. app. The new service is unique to Liv.
and is aligned with the mobile-only bank’s commitment to enabling a healthy financial lifestyle among its digital-savvy customer base. Liv. was established last year in line with UAE Vision 2021’s aim of establishing a smart innovation-driven economy, and is now the fastest growing bank in the country on the back of its unique lifestyle-led proposition and intuitive tools that help customers keep track of their day to day routine and finances on one app.
“With over a 100,000 customers now, Liv. is fast becoming the bank of choice for young customers in the UAE,” said Suvo Sarkar, Senior EVP & Group Head – Retail Banking & Wealth Management, Emirates NBD. “Liv. is a key pillar of our growth strategy and we will continue to enhance the platform through new services and strategic partnerships that help our millennial customers get the most out of their money and their daily life.”
“Offering easy access to your credit score via Liv. builds on our unique proposition as a mobile-only financial ‘buddy’ for young customers,” said Jayash Patel, Head of Liv.. “As credit scoring gains relevance in the UAE, we want to educate and guide customers to help them better manage their finances today for a healthier financial future.”
Xero Acquires Hubdoc
Xero has acquired Hubdoc, a data capture solution that helps accountants, bookkeepers, and small businesses streamline administrative tasks such as financial document collection and data entry.
This acquisition moves Xero even closer to achieving its vision for code-free accounting, enabling accountants to focus their efforts on helping small businesses make sense of their financial data, as opposed to collecting it.
Helping Accountants and Bookkeepers Work More Efficiently
With Hubdoc and Xero, the most time consuming tasks are streamlined, helping accountants and bookkeepers save time and run their practices more efficiently. The existing integration between Hubdoc and Xero delivers:
Streamlined data capture: Hubdoc complements Xero’s “financial web” strategy by auto-fetching financial documents from over 700 utilities, telecom providers, banks and online vendors, extracting the key financial data and source documentation and then seamlessly syncing the data into Xero.
