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fraudsec

Movies often make whistleblowing look glamorous, with the whistleblowers taking down corrupt corporates James Bond-style. Sylvain Mansotte knows that, in reality, this isn’t quite the case. He had only been working at Leighton Holdings, one of Australia’s biggest contracting firms, for a few months before uncovering some strange numbers in the company’s books. He had uncovered over $20 million worth of fraud, but was scared about coming forward. While it worked out well in the end, with the culprit going to jail, Mansotte spent the next two years in the risk and fraud department and found that getting people to come forward was a common problem. People worry about losing their job, being blacklisted and the myriad other consequences that could arise from blowing the whistle and being found out. Anonymity is absolutely crucial in these cases, but it's hard to guarantee. It was through this experience that Mansotte came up with the idea for FraudSec. “I thought, I can help these individuals to blow the whistle in anonymity and it would be completely transparent to the organisation. I can also help organisations to manage more effectively with the investigation by communicating back and forth with those whistleblowers not knowing who they are,” Mansotte said. Launched in April, FraudSec is an app that helps whistleblowers give, and organisations collect, anonymous tips about fraud and other goings on within an organisation. Through the app, organisations can create incident forms and make them available to employees by distributing URLs and QR codes. Employees can then submit information including photos, documents, and other media anonymously, with the app working through 256 bit encryption to make sure the whistleblower’s IP address is never revealed. The whistleblower is then given a case number, by which they can access a two-way communication channel with the organisation. Mansotte began discussing his idea with Matthew Browne, a former colleague who had moved to the Commonwealth Bank, late last year, asking him to help find a developer who could create a bulletproof platform. Browne, now CTO, found Richard Ross at CBA, and told Mansotte they wanted to be part of the venture. Ross is now CIO of FraudSec. The platform offers two membership tiers. The first, for small and medium businesses, is priced at $9 per user, per month and allows for an unlimited number of whistleblowers to report issues to be reviewed by a user in one organisation. This tier was created because Mansotte believes that there's almost no business too small to use the platform. A worker at a cafe, for example, may notice that the cook doesn't wash his hands after using the bathroom, but may not feel comfortable telling their boss in person. The second, priced at $99 per user, per month, is aimed at enterprises, whether they be corporates themselves or companies that deal in investigating fraud, such as the big four accounting firms. A user can work across various organisations, which means that a global company with five offices worldwide may want a case manager in each country to have access to the platform, or an external investigator can work across three different companies. The enterprise tier also has case management functionality, allowing managers to create information forms for different areas or subsidiaries of the company. There is some competition in the market, the biggest of which are the firms that provide investigation services themselves, however Mansotte believes FraudSec can in fact work with them rather than against them, becoming another important tool in their arsenal. “All the current reporting channels include hotlines, fax, an email, the intranet of the organisation or an appeal doc which is mailed, and none of those channels are anonymous and two-way. They're not very effective. Most of the time whenever someone calls, you have to ask them a lot of questions because you know you're probably not going to talk to the whistleblower again and it's really hard as an investigator if you can't communicate with your source,” he said. FraudSec has built up a substantial client base since launching in April, with one of the big four accounting firms using the platform and “a large multinational” active in over 150 countries also on board. With companies using such a service not exactly rushing to disclose the fact, growing the startup through recommendations on the website and other such strategies isn’t a viable option. Mansotte said the team is sidestepping this by attending networking events with partners such as the Governance Risk Compliance Institute, who can promote the product to their members. It is also looking to target governments and government bodies. The FraudSec team is also working on a number of other products that take the same sort of approach to different areas: SchoolSafe is one new app in the pipeline, looking to help kids who are being bullied or harassed at school report what’s going on to someone of authority, while ReportDV wants to help victims of domestic violence. To help speed these developments along and spur growth, Mansotte said the startup is looking to raise a seed round of anywhere between $1.5 to $3 million over the next few months. But Mansotte’s grand vision is about more than just growing a business; with FraudSec he is on a mission to democratise the term ‘whistleblower’. “Being a whistleblower is actually doing the right thing. We need whistleblowers to be able to run efficient organisations to ensure that the organisation doesn't go bankrupt. It's all around the work that people understand that being a whistleblower is not dobbing in on your mates, it's helping the organisation, it's helping the government to ensure that the money will go where it should go,” he said. “I want to be an advocate for other whistleblowers. I'm actually on a mission. That's really why I started Fraudsec. That's my task. Ultimately I want to democratise whistleblowers, making sure that they're being looked at as heroes instead of being vilified in an organisation...for the first time in my life, I'm helping others in a way that I've never done before.”

harp

StartupAUS and the Australian Computer Society are among the organisations who have welcomed Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's announcement yesterday of Girls into Code, a $4.5 million funding program to help get girls coding if Labor wins next year's federal election. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten announced that grants of up to $150,000 will be available to organisations such as Code Club Australia, Code Like a Girl, and Tech Girls Movement to help them scale up their activities and reach more young girls. Grants will also go towards mentoring and networking programs, training for teachers, and school programs. ACS president Brenda Aynsley praised the initiative, stating that Australia has a "chronic shortage" of women graduating with computer science or coding skills, and that it is critical for the sector to capture the interest of girls as early as possible by teaching them coding and computational thinking in every school. Since 2001, the number of women enrolling in an IT degree has fallen from around one in four to one in 10, with women making up just 28 percent of the IT workforce. “All the research suggests that by the time girls reach 15 many of them have either dismissed or not even considered the option of a career in ICT. One of the key reasons is the lack of opportunity to engage in computing science, either through the curriculum or through extra-curricular activities. Feedback from groups such as Code Club and others suggests that once girls are given the opportunity to do coding they generally have a strong aptitude for it and excel," Aynsley said. Peter Bradd, CEO of StartupAUS, added that Labor's policy will spur the development of a more skilled and gender diverse workforce. “StartupAUS believes improving rates of participation by women in technology jobs starts by capturing girls’ interest from an early age, having great role models and clearly depicting the diverse career paths that provide plentiful opportunities for girls," he said. "The focused initiatives by Labor highlight some great policies and programs to help transform Australia into an innovation hub. It is through the creation of a thriving, diverse tech and innovation hub, that we can begin to compete on a global scale and attract and retain innovation talent." Of course, getting young girls into coding won't help increase diversity in tech in the long term unless the existing issues facing women in the ecosystem today aren't addressed. According to the US-based National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), 56 percent of technical women leave the field within ten years, more than double the dropout rate for men, citing issues such as isolation and "hostile" cultures. The Girls into Code announcement comes just a week after Shorten announced Labor's National Sharing Economy Principles, a set of guidelines for the sharing economy it will work on with state and territory governments to turn into regulations if elected next year.

Even though millions of us follow celebrities on social media, for the most part they are not really responsive on an individual level. To be fair, statistically it would be impossible when you have millions of people messaging you each day to (a) respond, and (b) even read those comments in the first place. Sydney-based startup Red Carpet wants to help change this by allowing users to connect with their favourite celebrities via its platform for a good cause. Founded by Kheang Ly, the Red Carpet app allows users to connect with celebrities and personalities starting at the price of $0.99. When a celebrity replies, they get to keep the money or give it to their favourite charity or cause. Red Carpet takes a 20 percent clip-of-the-ticket from the funds. Users only pay once a celebrity replies, so if they are not getting a reply, they can simply swipe the screen left, retract their message and get their funds back, meaning that users don't lose out at all. "It means celebrities receive only genuine messages, which makes it more manageable, and having a financial incentive will increase the chances that they will reply," says Ly. The idea stemmed from not being able to attract celebrities and other big names to use another app that Ly developed earlier this year, called Futr. The Futr messaging app allows users to schedule messages for friends and families into the future. For example, if a 70 year old dad whose daughter is 5 years old wants to be able to leave messages for her when she turns 18 and 21 because it is possible he may no longer be around when she is that age, he can do so using the app. "Users could leave text, images, video and voice messages that people can access later on," says Ly. "We wanted celebrities to use the platform and we envisaged celebrities announcing tour dates, big announcements or new materials for example via the Futr app - but we couldn't get any replies from celebrities. That's why we have created Red Carpet, gaining celebrity attention with financial incentives." To date, Ly has not raised any funding for Red Carpet. In fact there is no intention to do so right at this point in time, as Ly is first waiting to determine whether or not the concept will be a successful one. If that turns out to be the case, then in order for the application to have any chance of scaling and making decent money, Red Carpet will need to raise at least $5 million to kick things off, plus hire a sales gun or talent manager in order to get celebrities on board and using the platform - the biggest challenge, in my opinion. "We think it's a great concept that isn't being focused on by anyone at the moment," says Ly. "That being said, it's still in BETA and we know getting the celebrities on board won't be easy and we need that to make it a success." The focus for the next 12 months is all around acquiring users and reaching out to a broad range of celebrities and personalities to keep the user base engaged and growing.

real first aid

While I know that I sat through a number of first aid lessons in high school, learning how to give CPR to a dummy and what to do while waiting for an ambulance, I can’t actually remember any of it. Unless our work requires frequent training, most of us are in the same boat. Melbourne company Real First Aid, founded by Motti Blum, Ben Krynski, and Michael Boltman last year, wants to provide first aid training that people will remember by tailoring it to the specific situations they may one day find themselves in. While there are hundreds of first aid training services out there, the founders believe that just having a certificate doesn’t mean people are prepared. Boring courses mean a lack of engagement, with employees often resenting the fact that they have to take part. Blum said, “First Aid training is notoriously dull and boring, very little content is retained and there is at best a limited focus on the practical aspect. Most trainers run a stock standard course for all industries. A school, office place, gym, factory and doctor’s surgery will all go through exactly the same course. Even the handful of trainers who do run practical courses and do tailor their courses to specific industries struggle to prepare their students for the adrenaline, stress and chaos of a real medical emergency.” Real First Aid differs by inducing that adrenaline through the creation of chaotic atmospheres tailored to specific industries including schools and childcare, sports and gyms, medical professionals, warehouse and manufacturing, and corporates. The startup can also tailor courses to other industries or specific professions. Students must complete a theory component, which can be completed online, and then take part in classes at Real First Aid’s headquarters, or on-site at their workplace. The startup has created realistic simulations of medical emergencies. It uses role playing, costumes, moulage, fake blood and wounds, sound effects, and pyrotechnics to create high-pressure, stressful scenarios that are as realistic as possible, with the aim of throwing participants into the deep end to force them to remember the theory and skills they have learned in class while dealing with all the distractions that exist in real emergencies. Everything is filmed with GoPros so students can review their performance and learn from their mistakes. Of course, simulation training isn’t a new concept; it’s used in various industries, particularly in the defence forces and in medical training, but Real First Aid is one of the first to offer it to the average participant. However, Real First Aid still faces significant competition in the space. St John Ambulance Australia is one of the leading providers of first aid training Blum admitted, “The biggest challenge is breaking into an industry where there is one dominant company, St Johns, whose name is synonymous with first aid training. A lot of the people we are approaching, like OHS managers, HR managers, and school nurses, are nervous to go with an unknown startup and risk their own credibility in their organisation. Sticking with the status quo is often a lot easier and obviously less risky.” The other challenge is finding high quality trainers as the startup grows. All of Real First Aid’s current trainers have experience as paramedics and are amenable to learning the startup’s training style. The startup also recently launched a new project, Defib For Home, through which they want to get defibrillators into as many homes around Australia as possible. Through Defib for Home, consumers can buy one of two machines online in a $1950 package that includes a face to face introduction to the device. "We are targeting people in the high socio-economic bracket, as defibs are still very expensive. The logic is that if, for example, you’re spending $2000 on upgrading your overseas flights to business class, then maybe sit in economy once and invest in something that will last for 15 years and could save your life. The chances of every having to use it are quite low. But if you ever do need it you’re really going to hope that you have one around," Blum explained. The founders have self-funded the development and growth of Real First Aid and Defib for Home thus far, and have no plans as of yet to find investment. Though the service is already active around Australia, the founders will begin promoting courses more actively in Brisbane and Sydney from early next year. At the moment the startup runs around three courses a week; by mid-2016, Blum said they want to be running a course each day. "But we want to be getting the right clients. If companies call us up and are looking for the cheapest and quickest way to get their staff certified we politely tell them to go somewhere else. We’re looking for companies and industries that really care about knowing first aid and being prepared to deal with a medical emergency, not someone who just wants the certificate." That attitude reflects what Real First Aid is about at its core: saving lives. Blum said, “The proudest moments are when students tell us that this is the only first aid course they have ever left feeling confident and prepared to deal with a medical emergency if they ever encounter one.”

Simon Lenoir - CEO - Rezdy (1)

Independent TravelTech platform Redzy announced yesterday that it had closed a $3 million round in funding, led by Bailador Technology Investments, that will be used to expand its operations into the United States. This brings the total raised by Redzy since its launch in 2011 to $4.5 million. Travel is by far one of the toughest nuts to crack in the startup space, particularly in Australia, and Redzy's B2B approach has positioned it to be one of the shining stars among a sea of other operators in the space struggling to stay afloat. The platform, founded by Simon Lenoir and Hugo Sterin, is a B2B technology provider for tour and activity providers and travel agencies. It does not sell or resell its customers' products, instead providing a suite of tools for these types of businesses to do it. Redzy also has an open API, meaning that it is easy for its clients to integrate their internal applications and systems with the Redzy booking system. Part of the reason why the company has experienced such commercial success and has grown rapidly in the last two years is due to the fact that Lenoir himself was a tour operator, previously managing a dive centre in Thailand. Redzy was designed to alleviate all the administrative frustrations he used to face just to keep up with his bookings. Since its launch, the platform has been used to aggregate 28,000 tours across 73 countries. As part of the recent funding, David Kirk, captain for the New Zealand All Blacks in the 1987 Rugby World Cup and former CEO of Fairfax, will be appointed as Redzy chairman. This is now Bailador's sixth investment in an Australian SaaS-based tech company. “Bailador’s experience in the industry is unparalleled," says Lenoir. "With their support we are looking forward to building the world’s leading channel manager for tours and activities. In the last 12 months Rezdy has doubled its customer base and is now connecting more tour and activity providers to more distribution channels that anyone else in the travel industry.” Right now 40 percent of Rezdy’s revenues are generated outside of Australia, the region where Rezdy was founded and has since established itself as market leader. Existing seed investors like Les Szekely's Grand Prix Capital are also excited about having Bailador join the Redzy family.

“We are very pleased to welcome Bailador to the Rezdy family," says Szekely. "With David Kirk as the new chairman of the board, Rezdy gains valuable insight from his experience, particularly as a director of SiteMinder, one of the first investments in Bailador’s fund. Bailador played a critical role in helping SiteMinder become a global leader in the accommodation industry.” Redzy will be using these new funds to boost its growth in the United States and improve the platform for customers by adding more features.

unicorn article

Big names from the Australian tech scene have dominated this year's BRW Young Rich list. Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, top of the list with their combined wealth of $2.3 billion, are joined by 35 other young entrepreneurs who made their money in technology and internet-based ventures. Campaign Monitor's Dave Greiner and Ben Richardson are the next tech entrepreneurs on the list, coming in at 4 and 5 overall with a combined $502 million. Ruslan Kogan of Kogan.com, Ori Allon of real estate app Compass, investor Simon Clausen, and iflix founder Patrick Grove rounded out the top ten. Also making the list were Hezi Leibovich of Catch Group with $236 million, investor Sean Tomlinson, Lucas Elliott, Halfbrick founder Shainiel Deo, and Bigcommerce co-founders Mitchell Harper and Eddie Machaalani with a combined wealth of $119 million. Further down were entrepreneurs including Appster's Josiah Humphrey and Mark McDonald, Jeremy Same and Adam Schwab of AussieCommerce, LiveTiles co-founders Peter Nguyen-Brown and Karl Redenbach, BikeExchange's Sam Salter and Jason Wyatt, and Jack Delosa of The Entourage. Model Erica Baxter is the woman highest up on the list at number 31, but Canva's Melanie Perkins isn't too far behind. Perkins and fellow Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht came in at 40 and 41 with their combined wealth of $60 million. invoice2go co-founder Michelle Strode was the only other female tech entrepreneur to make the list, debuting this year in 46th position with $55 million. The five other women making the cut - which makes a grand total of eight - amassed their fortunes in industries including sports, retail, and entertainment. However, the tech boom could mean that we will see a few more women on the list next year. Entrepreneurs like Jane Lu of Showpo, Gen George of OneShift, and Julie Stevanja of Stylerunner are all heading up fast-growing companies, and with Casey Stoner rounding out this year's list with $19 million, it's possible that one of these ladies may make the cut next year. The property sector was the other big wealth generator on this year's list, with three of the individuals in the top 10 making their fortunes in property. List debutant Paul Blackburne came in at number three with his $536 million fortune, built in the Perth property market. Australia's obsession with property cannot be understated; though two tech entrepreneurs topped this year's list with billions to their name, the AFR today had a front page story titled "If you want to get rich young, property works", encouraging readers to "look beyond tech" and get into property development if they want to be billionaires. [table caption="BRW Young Rich Tech & Internet Entrepreneurs" width="650" colwidth="250|250|100" colalign="center|center|center"] Name,Company,Worth Mike Cannon-Brookes,Atlassian,$2.3B Scott Farquhar,Atlassian,$2.3B Dave Greiner, Campaign Monitor,$502M Ben Richardson,Campaign Monitor,$502M Simon Clausen,PC Tools (Acquired),$391M Patrick Grove,Catcha Group,$364M Ruslan Kogan,Kogan.com,$355M Ori Allen,Compass,$261M Hezi Leibovich,Catch Group,$213M Mitchell Harper,Bigcommerce,$119M Eddie Machaalani,Bigcommerce,$119M Lucas Elliot,Catcha Group,$93M David Schafer,Kogan.com,$87M Shainiel Deo,Halfbrick,$78M Justin Cameron,SurfStitch,$39M Lex Pedersen,SurfStitch,$39M Melanie Perkins,Canva,$60M Cliff Obrecht,Canva,$60M Josiah Humphrey,Appster,$58M Mark McDonald,Appster,$58M Michelle Strode,Invoice2go,$55M Sam Salter,Bike Exchange,$50M Jason Wyatt,Bike Exchange,$50M Jeremy Same,AussieCommerce,$49M Adam Schwab,AussieCommerce,$49M Guy King,RetailMeNot (Acquired),$47M Peter Nguyen-Brown,nSynergy,$47M Karl Redenbach,nSynergy,$47M Chris Boshuizen,Planet Labs,$45M Erin Deering,Triangl,$36M Danny Bhandari,Tibra Capital,$30M Ben Werther,Platfora,$34M Zhenya Tsvetnenko,Mpire Media & Digital CC,$26M Richard Preen,NetSpace (Acquired),$26M Nick D'Aloisio,Summly (Acquired),$23M Casey Ellis,Bugcrowd,$19M Chris Raethke,Bugcrowd,$19M [/table]

Untitled design (25)

In news that's sure to make the old Melbourne vs Sydney rivalry flare up once more, Freelancer has announced this afternoon that its SydStart conference is rebranding to StartCon and moving to Melbourne next year following an investment from the Victorian Government. Victoria's Minister for Small Business Innovation and Trade Philip Dalidakis announced the news after a SydStart event at Sydney's Town Hall, where he was joined on the Town Hall steps by Freelancer CEO Matt Barrie. Freelancer acquired SydStart in 2014. “We welcome the move of the newly unveiled StartCon to Melbourne. This conference has done great things for entrepreneurs and startup business owners over the past few years and our vision is to make it even bigger and better next year," said Dalidakis. “Freelancer.com’s decision to move Australia’s biggest startup tech conference to Melbourne highlights Victoria’s reputation as the number one tech destination in Australia." Barrie announced that Sydstart secured $1 million in funding and additional in-kind marketing support from the Victorian government over a period of 5 years. He also acknowledged that the Victorian legislative environment is highly favourable to startups and the technology industry. “We are very appreciative of the support shown by the Victorian Government and we can’t wait for StartCon’s debut in 2016 – not only will it be the biggest startup conference in the country but across the whole Asia-Pacific region," said Barrie. “We’re very excited to put the new StartCon conference on in Melbourne. We have seen a lot of success with companies coming out of Victoria and Melbourne is definitely primed to be the new hotbed for the startup and tech scene." It is glaringly obvious that this move by Barrie does a great deal to help position Melbourne as the new hub for Australia's growing startup ecosystem. The conference, originally started by Pete Cooper, has grown each year since it first launched in 2009, attracting more than 2,000 attendees including top investors, entrepreneurs, and mentors from around the global startup scene. Freelancer's new Regional Director for Asia-Pacific, Kyri Theos said that the company is committed to supporting the growing Australian startup ecosystem. “A large annual startup event is important to bring great minds together. Entrepreneurs share ideas, knowledge and lessons on how to build a business. A large event attracts leading Australian and international speakers and enriches our startup ecosystem," he said. There have been a lot of pledges and commitments made by various government agencies at a local, state and federal level in the past two months, particularly in the area of startups and innovation. It pains me to say it, but this is a devastating blow to NSW. While I am sure that there will indeed be someone that launches a replacement event for the Sydney startup ecosystem that will achieve similar traction and engagement, the fact that something so personally branded "SydStart" is undergoing a name and location change is not only sad for the City of Sydney, but a big middle finger from Premier Daniel Andrews to Premier Mike Baird.

Image: Sean Ellis speaking at SydStart yesterday. Source: SydStart.

craig lambert

Slingshot, a company that runs accelerator programs for corporate clients, has partnered with health fund HCF to launch Catalyst, an accelerator program focused on health tech startups. The six month program is split into two stages. The first is a 12 week 'entrepreneurial education' stage, which aims to help the startups develop their idea, while the second is more of an incubator, focused on driving business results. The participants will receive a $50,000 investment in exchange for ten percent equity, and receive mentoring, marketing, and infrastructure support, as well as legal and financial advice. They will also have the chance to secure round investment of up to $100,000 from the Slingshot Venture Fund.

Like other corporate-supported accelerators, such as Slingshot's NRMA Jumpstart accelerator, the association with HCF means that participants could have a ready-built market waiting for their product. HCF is Australia's largest non-profit health insurer, covering 1.5 million Australians.

Sheena Jack, HCF's chief strategy officer, said the organisation is delighted to partner with Slingshot on this initiative.

“HCF has a longstanding reputation as an innovator amongst Australian health insurers, so it is only fitting that we create new ways to nurture the people and ideas that will drive the next wave of health tech innovation,” Jack said.

Slingshot founder Craig Lambert said that the opportunity to work with HCF's customer base will be "invaluable" for the chosen startups.

“The health industry is extremely innovative by nature, but this program marks the first time a major corporation has made this type of long-term commitment to nurturing startup innovation in the health tech space,” he said. ‘The accelerator will focus on ideas that impact the health sector in different ways, from improve access to information and the use of data analytics to preventative care and decreasing health care costs. We see so much potential for startups in this sector and we’re thrilled to be partnering with HCF to give entrepreneurs an opportunity to make a real impact in Australia’s health industry.”

The Catalyst accelerator will also include a 'scaleup' program, to help more established startups in the field gain access to a larger audience.

One can expect that the program will run much like Slingshot's Jumpstart program, which has just wrapped up its second intake and also included a scaleup program. The potential benefits in a corporate-backed program are huge for both the corporate and the startups participating - NRMA President Kyle Loades has called the Jumpstart program a "logical extension of our ongoing quest to develop and offer new products and services to our members."

The news comes after Australia Post announced its new innovation partnership with the Melbourne Accelerator Program at Melbourne University, worth $1 million over three years. The partnership will see two extra spots created in the Program, as well as a scholarship to the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship.

Startups interested in applying to HCF Catalyst can learn more here.

Image: Slingshot's Craig Lambert. Source: Supplied.

geraldine mcbride

The average internet user accepted long ago that, by being online, they were giving up their privacy in one way or another; iTunes’ terms and conditions could have been asking for first born children, but no one ever bothered to read through and find out. But with the rise of smartphones has come a growing awareness of just how much other people can learn from our data, and users are getting wary. MyWave, a startup headquartered in New Zealand with a development hub in Melbourne, was born out of recognition of this growing sense of unease. It has created Frank, an intelligent virtual personal assistant that allows users to control the data they share with businesses based on their preferences and buying intentions, in turn allowing them to receive products and services better targeted to them. It’s a bit like Siri on steroids. Founder Geraldine McBride, former CEO and President of enterprise software company SAP in North America, said the platform revolves around the idea of flipping customer relationship management (CRM) to customer managed relationships (CMR), a concept pioneered by Joe Pine and Doc Searls, who are on MyWave’s advisory board. McBride explained, “CRM is about gathering personal customer data and attempting to own it and monetise it. CRM combined with Big Data turns individuals into a pipeline, stalking them, tracking them and trying to sell them stuff without their consent. CRM is just part of a one hundred year old industrial age paradigm on Big Data digital steroids. It never really delivered on the promise of generating great experiences for customers.” At the core of CMR is allowing users to control their own data and choose which brands and services they want. “CMR can work with CRM and update it if needed, but customers are no longer passive participants, they are in control of their data and the experience in conjunction with the brand.” McBride, who co-founded the company with CTO James Ladd and CXO Amy Johnson, said the idea for the technology came while she was at SAP at the height of the global financial crisis, where she saw the beginnings of a “seismic shift” in power into the hands of customers. “I could see the beginnings of a customer-led digital revolution which would affect and disrupt almost every industry. And I could see that the rate of change would be extremely fast, accelerated by the consumerisation of devices and the impact of millennials, the social digital natives who have those devices and who want more from enterprises than just buying stuff. They want deeper experiences and a different kind of relationship with companies, built on frictionless commerce where they can be in control,” she said. Frank is all about ease; it works through a user’s personal cloud, in which all kinds of information is stored. It then connects to different brands and services to help users shop and get through the day easier. When you buy a TV Frank can fill out and file the warranty, or order you a coffee after you wake up each morning. It can keep track of your favourite brands of shoes, for example, and alert you when there are sales in your price range. You can take a look at what’s on offer, click to buy, and Frank organises the rest. [caption id="attachment_47113" align="aligncenter" width="788"]

mywave.me[/caption] Though Frank can be licensed for specific services and brands - MyWave’s first announced client is Saveawatt, a New Zealand company that is using Frank to help customers manage their power usage - McBride said MyWave is an open platform which any product or service can be a part of. With Gartner Group estimating that more than USD$2 billion of online shopping will be done by mobile personal assistants by 2016, the opportunity here is huge. However, McBride said one of the biggest challenges faced in the building of MyWave was simply communicating the product vision to both prospective customers and investors. “People understood only when we were able to build and demonstrate MyWave use cases which showed Frank in action doing stuff such as finding and buying a home, managing household accounts, and small but valuable things such as finding and buying a new mountain bike or a pair of shoes. Our mantra is ‘show not tell’. Once people see Frank in action they get it and want it.” Despite the difficulties getting the vision across at first, MyWave has raised two rounds of funding, a Series A round of NZD$2.5 million in May last year, and a Series B round of NZD$4.5 million in early October that has valued the startup at NZD$50 million. With the startup having recently launched in the US and hired former eBay director Wally Brill as US vice president, McBride said the funding will help spur its international growth, with the launch of its UK subsidiary planned for December. It will also help the startup double the size of its Melbourne software hub. The startup is talking with major brands around the world, who McBride said love having a direct way to work with consumers. “We have a flexible partnership model which will see us partnering with consulting firms specialising in the emerging Intelligent Assistant market, as well as directly with large global brands. We have a strong lead in the Intelligent Assistant market with more than 2.5 years intensive software development behind us, and the first live customers,” McBride said. “My goal is to keep building market momentum at a rapid pace. Intelligent Assistants will change the way the world uses smart devices, they will replace the browser and search as we know it. We can see that change happening much faster and in a much more disruptive way than most people realise.”

MTurn

In the six weeks since Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister, boosting the Australian startup ecosystem has seemingly risen to the top of the government's agenda. Only a couple of weeks after Innovation Minister Chris Pyne sat down with StartupAUS and Wyatt Roy ran PolicyHack, the government has announced a partnership with startup incubator Pollenizer to deliver DataStart, an open data initiative to support data-driven innovation. DataStart will see 20 startups pitch their ideas to a panel of judges from government and industry, and investors. The winning startup will then take part in Pollenizer's nine month-long Success Core Program, where it will go from concept to delivery. It will be supported by a team working out of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, who will help the startup access government data, customer discovery, and technical support. The successful startup will also have the chance to secure seed funding of $200,000 from Pollenizer Investments and Right Click Capital. Daniel Ringrose, a partner at Pollenizer, has welcomed the launch of the initiative, explaining that the government's approach to DataStart is vastly different to that of policies implemented by governments in the past. "The focus is not on just 'starting' companies. By sponsoring an incubation program it allows founders runway to find a globally scaleable and valuable business model, and not just initiate projects and just hope they scale. Government now understands that a fast failure should create learning insights, and new ideas can pivot," he said. "The thought leadership has been entrusted to experienced startup founders, rather than well intentioned public servants with big organisation mentality. This brings credibility and empathy to the state of tech startup founder challenges. Partnership with world class private-equity startup VC investors also ensures the right questions are asked when making decisions to find high-growth potential opportunities." He said that founders are now being given the freedom and support to create. "Founders can pursue their big vision without restrictions to comply with mandated themes or outcomes. It's founders, not the data, that will make this program succeed." DataStart comes just a couple of months after the NSW Government launched a 'whole-of-government' data initiative, giving startups access to government data through an analytics centre in the hopes that they will create smart solutions to societal problems. The DataStart initiative is sponsored by Optus and Google, with support from CSIRO's Data61, Rozetta, and the Australian Information Industry Association. PwC has been named as strategic advisor. Information nights will be held in capital cities this month. Interested startups can find more information here.

how about eat

The thing about working in an office is that you can spend all morning daydreaming about what you’re going to eat for lunch, only to then get swept up in work and forget to eat until 3pm and then just eat a small, sad snack at your desk, or forget about eating altogether. The team behind HowAboutEat, the latest startup to join the ranks of Sydney’s FoodTech army, know they can’t stop people eating at their desk, so they want to make sure people are at least eating well. Founders Giovanni Ravone and Serg Metelin came up with the startup’s original premise - a platform allowing users to order products and services in bulk - for Disrupt@Scale, a joint Westpac and BlueChilli initiative. This idea one of four to make it through, and later evolved into HowAboutEat. The service works by offering a lunch a day and then texting it out to users, who simply reply with ‘Yes’ to get that item delivered to their workplace. The idea first came to Ravone when he was fresh out of university and working at Citigroup in New York. “I was very excited about everything but I would skip lunch because I was just too busy. And so I started to think, this is not nice, why can't I have someone deliver it to me?” he said. With one of the goals of the Disrupt@Scale challenge was to take advantage of large numbers of users in the one place, HowAboutEat As works by having workplaces as a whole sign up for to the platform, rather than individual users scattered around. The first text of the day advising users of the day’s meal is sent out at 10am, with users given until 11am to either reply 'yes' or just ignore the message. Lunch is then delivered to the office’s front desk between 12 and 12.30pm. Payment details are asked for and processed during the first order, with a delivery fee of $1 for each order. The service is already active in four workplaces around the Sydney CBD. The involvement of Westpac as a corporate partner for the BlueChilli challenge means HowAboutEat is gearing up to launch for Westpac’s 4000 CBD employees in the coming weeks. The startup has signed on around ten restaurants so far, with Ravone explaining they have been eager to come on board because the way the service works gives the restaurants ample time to prepare. The cut off time for ‘yes’ replies means that all orders are in by 11am, giving restaurants an hour - during off-peak time - to prepare their dishes. The fact that the startup and the restaurants work together to set their dishes day in advance also means that the restaurants are able to plan and manage their inventory. “Because of the model of the business where we just get one dish a day having 10 restaurants - and assuming a restaurant has three dishes to pick over time - gives us a month of turnover, which means an employee doesn't see the same dish for at least 30 working days. Once we have enough restaurants in the area, then we sign up all the companies and we have a variety of dishes,” Ravone said. The startup has brought on a third party for deliveries, though is exploring the viability of a mixed model where restaurants deliver themselves if they have the logistics in place to do so already. Given the heated competition in the food space at the moment, Ravone and Metelin are carefully considering their every move to make sure they don't put a foot wrong. However, they don’t see the likes of Menulog and DeliveryHero as competition. In fact, they believe the fact that HowAboutEat offers the simplicity of just one choice a day works well for both customers, who are busy at work and don’t have the time to go through and pick from dozens of restaurants, and restaurants themselves, who aren’t competing with dozens of others on a huge platform. The fact that it’s all done through SMS rather than an app, with replying yes or no literally all the user needs to so, simplifies it further. While fellow Sydney FoodTech startup YouChews is finding success by focusing on the startup and tech scene, Metelin and Ravone plan to cast a wider net. “Starting with the startup community is always good because they're open to try new stuff, they're more tech savvy but for us, the busier you are at work, the better it is. So if you think about law firms or banks, consulting firms, those kind of agencies are very busy and they're actually quite tech savvy. With those people they usually skip lunch because they're too busy, and we can be there,” Metelin explained. HowAboutEat was awarded $75,000 in seed funding through the Disrupt@Scale program, and is now looking to raise angel funding to help increase its marketing efforts and push growth around Sydney, expanding outside the CBD. Ravone said, “We want to get at least to 500 orders a day, which is a lot, and after that, once we consolidate, we want to expand. We just want people to not skip lunch, so I think we can do it.”

fishburners nab

A month after announcing its partnership with Sydney coworking community Fishburners, National Australia Bank has launched its NAB Hackathon Challenge, to be held at the Harris St space on the weekend of November 27. There are two challenges teams can work on throughout the weekend. The first asks teams what the management of money will look like in 2020, while the second asks teams to use the data, digital channels, platforms and partnerships that power NAB's existing financial services business to create adjacent opportunities that NAB could support or enable. Murray Hurps, general manager of Fishburners, said the hackathon will give startups the chance to focus on areas they perhaps weren't aware of. “Fishburners defines a startup as a company with a significant market, which uses technology to capture that market quickly. They will only target markets they’re aware of though, and often aren’t solving problems because they just aren’t aware of the opportunities," Hurps said. He also praised NAB for their approach to the tech and startup ecosystem. “I’ve seen a lot of corporate innovation programs, and NAB’s really is unique. They’re not just trying to find ideas. They’re not working in a bubble. They genuinely want to support new startups to help them deliver better experiences to NAB customers,” Hurps said. The winning team for each challenge will be awarded $10,000 cash, with a $5,000 prize for second place. Winning teams will also be given the opportunity to work with NAB to commercialise the idea. They will also receive mentorship and advice from the NAB Labs and nabAPI teams. The teams will be judged by Hurps, executive general manager of NAB Labs Jon Davey, CEO of UBank Lee Hatton, Anne Bennett, general manager of Wealth Digital and Direct Service at NAB, and a mystery VC. Fishburners and NAB linked up last month, with Hurps saying that the bank "aligns perfectly" with the Fishburners vision. The main benefit of the partnership for the coworking community is that it is getting a customer for its startups, with NAB also given a desk at the space to work with and observe the startups each day. With NAB having announced the launch of NAB Ventures, a $50 million innovation fund, earlier this year, the partnership also means Fishburners startups will have the opportunity to work closely with a potential investor day in and day out. The NAB Hackathon Challenge is just one of several hackathons set to be held at Fishburners this month. HackFood, Australia's first food-themed hackathon, is taking place this weekend. HackFood will be asking teams to identify and uncover unique technology solutions to challenges facing the Australian food industry, with the challenges including food waste, getting to market, food traceability, convenience, and healthy eating.

Image: Jon Davey of NAB Labs and Fishburners' Murray Hurps with Fishburners members. Source: Supplied.

bills

The announcement that Blackbird Ventures had raised $200 million for its second fund was big news on September 15. For a brief couple of weeks or so it was the largest tech startup-focused VC firm in Australia; fellow $200 million fund Brandon Capital focuses on HealthTech through its Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF). Two days ago, SEEK cofounder Paul Bassat joined the club with his new $200 million venture capital fund. The fund is backed by major investors including James Packer, some super funds, and a plethora of other wealthy individuals also focused on investing in Australia's startup ecosystem. Three big funds all supported by superannuation Brandon Capital's fund is supported by existing MRCF investors AustralianSuper and Statewide Super, who in April were joined by Hesta and HostPLUS in this latest fund. According to the organisation, $50 million of the fund is being used for 20 to 30 very early seed stage investments in promising biotech or medical device technologies. The other $150 million will be reserved for supporting the most successful of these, and existing MRCF portfolio companies, to take these opportunities through to mid-stage clinical trials in patients. Under the latest structure, each of the superannuation investors have the opportunity to invest much larger amounts of capital (tens of millions) into the most promising assets as they mature. The newest fund is the third MRCF fund to be raised by Brandon Capital, bringing the total MRCF funds to $251 million. Blackbird Ventures had existing investors participating in its latest fund, which include successful technology founders like Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar of Atlassian, Leigh Jasper and Rob Philpot of Aconex, Bevan Clark of RetailMeNot, and Simon Clausen of PC Tools. Blackbird also now counts two superannuation funds as new investors: First State Super, which has $53 billion in funds under management, and HostPLUS (also invested in MRCF), which has over $15 billion under management.

Blackbird has a strong portfolio, having invested in well-regarded companies like Canva, LIFX, Shoes of Prey, Bugcrowd, CultureAmp, SafetyCulture, Autopilot, and Elto (acquired by GoDaddy), among others. Its first fund has invested in 20 companies, and another 21 through its startup accelerator Startmate. Blackbird Ventures says it will continue to invest in 10 new startups per year, however the new funds will allow it to continue supporting companies through the later stages of their lifecycle, meaning portfolio companies will be able to more easily raise post-seed growth rounds like Series A and B.

And now there is Square Peg Capital. With its latest $200 million fund, it will be putting dollars into both local and international startups. According to a statement given to the Australian Financial Review, the fund will aim to identify and invest in the next SEEK, carsales.com or Atlassian. Current investments in the Square Peg Portfolio include Australian tech startup companies like GoCatch, Rokt, Vend, and ScriptRock. On the growing local competition in the venture capital space, Square Peg Capital cofounder Justin Liberman told AFR that because of the nature of what VC firms do, they are actually competing as much with global funds as they are with local funds like Blackbird and Brandon. "We see Accel as much as a competitor as Blackbird, frankly; they have made six investments in Australia including Atlassian and 99designs, so these days it doesn't matter whether you are in Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney or South Yarra," he said. It is not just venture capital funds increasing funding There is also a noticeable change in the accelerator space when it comes to an increase in funding for startups. Sydney-based startup accelerator Startmate, which has one of the highest startup success rates, announced recently that it will invest up to $150,000 into its next batch of startups. It has also partnered with creative agency Droga5 to help 2016 participants with storytelling, a struggle for many founders with promising products. Likewise, Telstra-backed muru-D has increased investment into its startups to $80,000 and announced a new independent follow-on venture fund run by a number of its mentors. Named Bardama, the fund is to be managed by an advisory board comprised of Andrey Shirben of Syd Ventures, angel investor Angela Kwan, Rob Castaneda of Service Rocket, Carl Hartman of Temando, and Andrew Coppin. Its aim now is to facilitate $200,000 of investment through the program and networks. $80,000 for 8 percent, with $120,000 as a follow-on. In addition to the funding, muru-D also recently announced two big partnerships, linking up with Shanghai’s Chinaccelerator and the 500 Startups accelerator in Silicon Valley to provide its participants with a clearer path to the Chinese and North American markets and easier access to capital. The agreements will see muru-D companies be able to pitch directly to the organisations for early investment, have their applications to both accelerators fast-tracked, and connect with US and China-based startups, investors, and mentors, and potential customers. In Melbourne, the AngelCube accelerator also increased its funding this year from $20,000 per startup to $40,000 per startup. Cofounder Nathan Sampimon said at the time the move was a reaction to the Australian startup ecosystem starting to mature. We are definitely maturing Particularly since the change in federal leadership this year, there is definitely a perception of the Australian startup ecosystem maturing at a much more rapid pace than usual. For the first time, innovation, coding education, and technology investment are mainstream discussions in both the Liberal and Labor party camps. Stakeholder sentiment across the startup space has quite obviously shifted and government departments are proactively partnering with the private sector now with events like PolicyHack, DataStart and the newly rebranded StartCon, putting funds and resources into the sector instead of just talking about it. A critical area that has always needed improvement in Australia is a more supportive regulatory environment to enable startups to ‘get on with the job’ and build businesses with a global reach that contribute to the city, state, and federal economies in a positive way. Making things like equity crowdfunding and crowdlending accessible to Australians without so many conditions is an example of what I am talking about here; countries like the UK and New Zealand have seen a lot of positive traction by implementing supportive legislation around these two things. We are now starting to see serious in-depth discussions happening around these topics. We are growing up, we are maturing as an ecosystem and government support is allowing that to happen a lot more rapidly than previous years. As this support continues we will see more access to money, talent and, of course, infrastructure that will encourage innovation, creativity, and ideas. It will change the way the Australian startup ecosystem is viewed on the global stage.

Invoice2go

Australian startup Invoice2go today announced that it has raised a further round of funding, closing a $15 million Series C capital raise. The application is the number one mobile invoicing app on the App Store globally, and currently processes in excess of $1 billion in invoices per month via its platform. The round was led by existing investors Ribbit Capital, a Silicon Valley firm that specialises in disruptive financial tech companies like Gusto, Wealthfront and Xapo. Other investors that went in on this round include Accel Partners, who were part of the startup's $35 million round of funding in 2014. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Invoice2go to date to $50 million. Founder Chris Strode said that the funding will allow the business to leverage off its strong position globally to aggressively widen its footprint in the FinTech space with the development of new features, and to assist small businesses and enable them to experience more growth with its suite of tools. “We’ve always kept a keen eye on solving real life challenges shared by business owners around the world, and we take great pride in making world-class software accessible for everyone," says Strode. "The funding we’ve raised will help us serve our customers in new ways, as we continue to bring the FinTech revolution to every type of small business owner who wants a simpler way to get paid, from tradespeople and service professionals to creative freelancers." The startup has experienced some pretty rapid growth in recent years, servicing over 200,000 businesses since it launched. The company has always been focused on helping small businesses and it has been extremely successful as a result of that single focus. This additional financing is going to enable Invoice2go to build on that foundation, fuelling its growth even further. Ribbit's investment is also quite significant, and it has come from working closely with the company over the past year and seeing first hand how it is solving the problems faced by millions of small business owners.

"They wanted to make a larger investment in the company," says Strode. "We’ve laid a lot of groundwork over the past year and this new round of funding gives us the right amount to help us turbocharge our efforts and accomplish what we are now perfectly positioned to do."

Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit Capital, echoed the sentiment, stating that, “Businesses are interacting more and more through Invoice2go and we’ve been thrilled to be a part of it over the last year. We’ve now significantly increased our ownership through [this] Series C financing to further support what we believe is one of the most exciting financial software companies today."

In conjunction with the announcement, the company also announced that is has introduced a new mobile payments feature that will allow small businesses and freelancers to accept credit and debit card payments from customers in order to get paid faster. This feature will be powered by Stripe Connect, one of the startup's new partners. The new feature is unique because it integrates the entire billing process seamlessly into one app, a game-changer for every small business owner who has spent countless hours manually invoicing, collecting payment, and reconciling their accounts to keep on top of their cashflow. This new feature will roll out across Australia in 2016.

"I think one of the most powerful things about the feature for me is how simple it is," says Strode. "It means that literally with one click, businesses will be able to immediately offer more payment options to their customers, straight through the invoice. No more waiting around or filling out endless paperwork to open a merchant account. Having been a small business owner, I know first hand how painful that process really is."

"Also, it helps small businesses get paid quicker. We’ve always been focused on helping people get paid, so the fact that our customers no longer need to wait for a check in the mail is really exciting. Giving people easier ways to pay on the spot means businesses will see that money deposited in their bank account faster." Strode is excited about the next stage of growth for his business, especially at the prospect of being able to leverage his solid base of customers that use the product now on a daily basis. He said, "We’ve now raised a significant amount of money, have a strong base of customers who use our product every day, and have the right team in place to aggressively deliver new features and products for small businesses everywhere."

Featured image: Chris Strode | Source: Supplied

Daily Crow News

Making it in the media market is tough. Traditional media outlets with centuries of history behind them and hundreds of millions of dollars in backing are downsizing, while many a startup trying to approach the market from a new angle has burned out quickly. Brisbane’s Daily Crow News, cofounded by marketer Isabelle Debnam and UX/UI designer Lara Salameh, is yet another media startup hoping to make its mark. It’s like a news-focused audio Twitter feed, delivering 10 second snippets, or ‘crows’, of hyper-local audio news, allowing listeners to find out what’s happening around them. The app allows users to upload their own stories, essentially having them become citizen reporters. These stories can then be upvoted or downvoted by other users, with users also able to follow other users they enjoy. The idea for the app, which the co-founders envision having “the informative power of Twitter and the hyper-locality of Yik Yak”, came from their own experiences as media consumers in the age of the 24 hour news cycle. “Everyone is so time-poor these days and we felt personally frustrated by not having a quick way of taking in the news and events happening in our city. We are passionate about celebrating Brisbane and its cultural offerings, and wanted to create something that helped give young people a voice in our city,” Debnam said. “We saw a gap in the market for a cross between traditional news and social media - something that would be conversational yet informative and useful.” The co-founders have largely self funded the development of Daily Crow News, receiving a small amount of funding from a Brisbane digital agency. Debnam said that this has allowed the startup to pay employees fairly, however as is the case with many new media startups, most of the content itself has so far been created largely by a team of volunteer journalism students from local universities. “We hold regular content workshops with them to brainstorm angles and make sure we don’t miss anything happening in Brisbane,” Debnam said. The startup has found that users are responding positively to light-hearted, conversational content, from which they have inferred that listeners are using the app to find out about cool things to do in Brisbane. Debnam added, “Our funny weather reports are always a hit. There is a lot of heavy, serious news already covered by existing news platforms and we want our market listening to news that is directly relevant to what’s going on in ‘their world’. At this point in time we have a few hundred returning listeners, and we’re focusing on ways to make them engage with the app every day.” The app is easy to use - you simply open it and click on the ‘record’ tab to record your own crow and upload it, while another tab lets you scroll through the app feed. The app is has a funky, colourful design that makes it pleasant to use, but after a few minutes using it, it’s clearly lacking something: visuals. The team acknowledges this and is working on integrating visual components into the app to accompany the audio. The other huge elephant in the room, of course, is the issue of growing and monetising the app. Making money in media right now is really, really hard - just ask the Fairfaxes of the world. There are thousands of media outlets and platforms out there competing for readers, viewers, and listeners, and standing out is hard. The basic concept of Daily Crow News itself is a little similar to that of Outloud, a Washington DC startup that allows users to upload short snippets of audio, though there’s no specific focus on types of content. However, whether it's due to the fact that it was a side project for the founders or couldn't find users or other reasons, Outloud doesn’t seem to have taken off. Now, citizen journalism is growing and these people are often the first adopters of new technology and platforms. Platforms like Twitter, Vine, and Periscope were crucial during the events in Ferguson earlier this year, so there could, in theory, be a market for Daily Crow News. The problem for the startup is that visual mediums usually trump audio, particularly on social media, but while they’re looking to add visuals to the app, adding too much risks making it too similar to existing platforms. For now the co-founders are focused on building a solid listener base in Brisbane and becoming a valuable resource for the community. Debnam said, “Down the track, we’ll consider things like tasteful advertising and strategic partnerships to ensure our team is compensated for their work and the app is as strong as it can possibly be for our community.”

moneyplace

Melbourne FinTech startup MoneyPlace has launched after becoming just the second peer-to-peer money lender to attain a full retail and wholesale financial services licence from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The startup, founded by former National Australia Bank executive Stuart Stoyan last year, will provide unsecured consumer loans from $5000 to $35,000, with rates starting at 8.9 percent. The rates are determined through risk-based pricing, with loans offered by wholesale and retail investors.

Stoyan said the platform aims to provide fairer rates for borrowers.

"For too long Australian borrowers have been penalised by the big banks, with their ‘one size fits all’ approach to personal loans at 15 per cent and credit cards at 20 per cent. At the same time they are penalising people for simply saving their money, even this month keeping deposit rates flat while raising mortgage rates, all ahead of announcing $30 billion in profit," Stoyan said.

Once the platform has fully launched, a user interested in getting a loan will be able to simply detail how much they want to borrow, the duration of the loan, whether they would classify their credit as excellent, average, or poor, and select what the loan is for, whether it's for a new car, home improvement, and so on.

Though it took "considerable time and effort" to gain regulatory approval from ASIC, Stoyan said it was encouraging to see the ASIC's willingness to understand the MoneyPlace model and ensure it is properly regulated.

“This demonstrates ASIC's readiness to work with startups and foster innovation in financial services while ensuring it protects the consumer.”

Rob Coombe, group CEO at Quick Service Restaurant Holdings, and Marcus Oakley, a former chief risk officer for GE Capital Consumer Finance, have joined the startup's advisory board.

MoneyPlace is just the latest in a line of lending startups to launch or do big things this year. Most, however, have focused on lending to startups and small businesses.

Rocket Internet-backed Spotcap launched its Australian arm earlier this year, offering SMBs credit lines that make available to them amounts varying from $1,000 up to $100,000, from which they can then draw a loan. Startups apply for a credit line by providing Spotcap access to their cloud accounting software or their ecommerce store, for example, after which Spotcap’s algorithm will determine whether the business has been approved for a credit line and its terms. Melbourne startup Moula, which uses similar data to provide short-term capital of up to $100,000, closed a $30 million funding round in June.

MoneyPlace's direct competitor as a peer-to-peer lender is SocietyOne, a startup founded in 2011 that counts James Packer and Rupert Murdoch among its investors. SocietyOne is the only other peer-to-peer lender to have attained a full licence from ASIC. Its last round of funding came in December last year, raising USD$21.13 million in a Series B round.

As it currently stands, MoneyPlace is letting borrowers and wholesale investors register their interest on the site. Once loan volume allows, the platform will also open to retail investors.

ivvy dimmi

Online restaurant booking startup Dimmi has today announced a new partnership with iVvy, a platform that allows users to search and book function space and helps these spaces manage their bookings. The partnership will open Australian restaurants up to event organisers, providing them with a solution that will assist with lead generation, giving restaurants access to iVvy's marketplace and its partner network, and management of bookings, from catering to accommodation and event orders. Meanwhile, organisers will have access to restaurant function space that is not readily available online, and will be able to see live availability and pricing for these spaces. Launched in 2009, iVvy provides cloud-based event management software for organisers and venue management software for hotels with meeting and conference spaces. Event organisers can use iVvy’s software to manage everything from ticketing, enewsletters, and accommodation, to reporting and surveys, with iVvy also integrating with other platforms including MailChimp, MYOB and Salesforce. Stevan Premutico, founder and CEO of Dimmi, said, "We love the iVvy product and we’re excited to help expand their great work in the Aussie restaurant sector. At Dimmi our goal is to help restaurants run a better business and we see this exclusive new partnership as a critical part of that aspiration." Premutico explained that Dimmi's restaurant partners had been asking the startup for years how they can better sell their private dining rooms for private functions and events, but Dimmi never had an answer. And so in came iVvy. iVvy CEO Lauren Hall added, "We are excited to work with Dimmi to deliver a seamless solution for the hospitality industry. iVvy's function management provides restaurants and hotels with the opportunity to streamline processes and improve profitability." The event management startup, which is based on the Gold Coast, has gone from strength to strength since Hall launched it a year after arriving in Australia from South Africa. iVvy has raised just under $4 million in funding since its launch and has won work from a variety of big corporate clients including Telstra, Flight Centre, and Woolworths. The partnership comes a few months after Dimmi was acquired by TripAdvisor. Like iVvy, Dimmi was also founded in 2009; since then, it has seated more than 12 million diners through its network of 2,800 restaurants Australia-wide. It has 35 booking partners, including Qantas, Zomato, and Yelp.

Image: Lauren Hall and Stevan Premutico.

diversity

The level of discrimination in Australian workplaces is higher than the global average, according to a new report from HR firm Randstad. The latest Randstad Workmonitor report, published quarterly, found that while 79 percent of Australian workers believe their business has an open and inclusive culture and 89 percent of workers value diversity in the workplace, one in four or 25 percent of Australian workers said they had been discriminated against on the basis of their gender, compared to the global average of 21 percent, while 20 percent said they were subject to racial discrimination at work, three percent higher than the global average. Steve Shepherd, employment market analyst at Randstad, said that while both employers and employees generally believe that diversity can help a company, the report shows putting this belief into practice has been harder than it looks. “There is currently an untapped opportunity for Australian employers to embrace the wide range of cultures, experiences and skillsets in our society for the benefit of their workforce. By educating employees to embrace the differences they have with colleagues – be it gender, race, culture or religion – teams will be able to identify each person’s strengths and motivations and utilise them to boost efficiencies,” Shepherd said. The Randstad report has come at a particularly interesting moment, with the tech world once again debating the issue of discrimination and diversity in tech after former Twitter engineering manager Leslie Miley announced that he had left the company because he was unhappy with the way Twitter was addressing issues of diversity. Miley explained in a Medium post that while Twitter had been making efforts publicly to address diversity within its workforce, he was concerned with how managerial staff actually understood the situation. He wrote that he frequently had to lobby for diverse candidates in hiring meetings, with "a particularly low moment" coming when the senior vice president of engineering replied to his question about what specific steps Twitter engineering was taking to increase diversity with, “diversity is important, but we can’t lower the bar.” He and the same SVP, Alex Roetter, also disagreed on how to track the ethnicities of job candidates, with Roetter wanting to create a tool that analyses the surnames of candidates in order to classify their ethnicity. "While not intentional, his idea underscored the unconscious tendency to ignore the complex forces of history, colonisation, slavery and identity. I left that meeting wondering how I could, in good conscience, continue to work in an organization where the senior VP of engineering could see himself as a technology visionary and be so unaware of this blind spot in his understanding of diversity," Miley wrote. According to TechCrunch, Miley was part of Twitter's engineering job cuts last month, however he had already told the company of his intention to resign before being made redundant. Miley also decided to pass on the redundancy package in order to speak out about his experiences. With Miley no longer at Twitter, there are no longer any managers, directors, or vice presidents of colour in engineering or product management. Miley wrote that the return of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to the company "has the potential to change the diversity trajectory for Twitter. It is my belief that Jack understands the use case of Twitter better than anyone else, understands how diversity can be additive to growth, and is committed to making that happen."

Simon Bishop

Congratulations to everyone for making it through the tax deadline last week. If you spent hours poring over hundreds of receipts that you had hastily 'filed' throughout the year, don't worry, you likely weren't the only one. While a number of apps have emerged over the last few years to help speed up this process, Australian offering Point & Claim has steadily climbed up to join the market leaders thanks to its data capturing and reconciliation technology. Rather than helping users sort out their personal and business finances right before tax time, Point & Claim aims to make expense management easier all year round. The app works by having the user take a photo of a receipt, with the app then capturing the data and filing the information under the appropriate expense type so it can be reconciled and shared with the user’s employer, accountant, or tax agent. Data is processed automatically within the platform rather than being outsourced to a data processing centre, unlike similar services such as Shoeboxed, reducing the chance of human error. The app is intuitive, learning from each use to categorise further purchases and expenses down the line. Of course, the platform also offers easy integration with different accounting software, as well as the ability to nominate a preferred accountant or tax agent with whom they can securely share their information. The idea for the app came when founder Anthony Pettiona, group strategy manager at Carsales.com.au, was stuck at home with a broken ankle. Given tax time was creeping up on him and he had a shoebox full of receipts staring him down, Pettiona decided he would use the extra time to think of ways to get around it. Pettiona initially thought an app that could simply scan receipts and sort and save the data for reconciliation and sharing with third parties would be a lifesaver for thousands of ordinary users; if it could also manage businesses, that would be even better. Simon Bishop, appointed director of Point & Claim this year, said that while the team recognised that there were already a few optical character recognition (OCR) technologies on the market, they believed that none were powerful enough for what they needed. “We invested a lot of time and energy into R&D around OCR and creating our own intelligent data extraction software. Underneath our patented tech there now sit six unique nodes that capture and categorise data from an image. The benefits of all our initial hard work is that as smartphone cameras and operating systems improve, so does the accuracy and efficiency of our app,” Bishop said. Many tax time apps that allow for data capture via smartphone camera are used for just that - tax time. Australian budget and expense tracking app Pocketbook, for example, released its Tax Returns app earlier this year. The app is designed for use while completing a tax return, allowing users to snap a photo of a receipt or document which is then filed and sent to an accountant as part of the whole tax return for them to review; it’s not really an as-you-go type app. Point & Claim, which is fully ATO compliant, has ten whitelabel partners. With these including big accounting firms like Sage and ITP, the platform is available to one in three accountants in Australia. Through these partners the app is free to download and use; there are 14,000 active users on the app, a number which Bishop said is growing organically by around 100 a day. “To be honest, it wasn’t really a tough sell to get our foot in the door with some of Australia’s biggest accounting firms. The process of sorting through client receipts and manually entering data is a massive pain point for accountants. It’s really time consuming and many accountants only bill for a small number of hours, even though it generally takes much longer,” Bishop said. “A key part of our strategy is to work with our corporate partners to develop new customised features that meet their specific business requirements. This process of co-creation and development means we can create new capabilities for our partners and deliver the benefits to all users. For example, we’re working with one of our current partners to streamline the logbook process of managing vehicle expenses.” Other features on the horizon include real-time reconciliation of receipt data against an online transactional statement.

Image: Simon Bishop. Source: Supplied.

Drew Houston

Dropbox held its annual Dropbox Open event in San Francisco this week. It was a chance for the company to celebrate its business customers and the future of work. In attendance were key leaders of the Dropbox business, as well as well-known players in the technology space, including Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Meg Whitman (HP), and Eddy Cue (Apple). The core focus of the event was the Dropbox mission: to simply the way that people, companies, and industries work together. This mission has seen the company become one of the leading examples of how global collaboration can work, and create a more simple and connected working environment for businesses. Dropbox currently connects over 400 million people and 8 million businesses across the world via 2.8 billion sharing connections. It has begun to change the way that individuals approach building their businesses and set up their teams. Since launching its Dropbox Business product, more than 150,000 companies have chosen the solution to tap into its powerful collaboration tools. There were several announcements made at Dropbox Open this week regarding how growing companies can utilise the platform even further. One of those announcements was the introduction of Dropbox Enterprise, a new product that has been designed to meet the requirements of the world’s largest businesses. Dropbox Enterprise will still include all of the same core security features, administrative capabilities, and modern collaboration tools that users have embraced on the Dropbox Business platform. In addition to these features, the enterprise-focused platform will include new deployment tools, advanced controls for users, and support that has been designed with large companies in mind. There are a couple of key areas where the product will add considerable benefit. The first is by making deployment of the technology within a company simple and scalable. Many employees around the globe are already using personal Dropbox accounts to work within; via domain verification and account capture, the migration from a personal account to a Dropbox Enterprise account will be accelerated. The second area of benefit to companies is that there is now increased visibility and control; the domain insights tool allows designated administrators to view the usage activity of their employees on the company Dropbox account. Through the new collaboration insights technology, they can also view contractor usage outside of the organisation they are working with. Dropbox Enterprise customers will also have unlimited access to the Dropbox API, allowing them to integrate its platform with their existing IT systems and create their own custom integrations. There were several other announcements made during the event, including the launch of the new Dropbox Partner Network and the Dropbox Capabilities Platform for developers. Have you checked out Dropbox Australia's new startup and small business blog, Drop Everything yet?

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