Marc Evans

Afiniation (The FinTech Network) has announced the winners of its Melbourne Showcase following 30, seven minute FinTech demonstrations at the Grand Hyatt last Thursday.

Online platform Macrovue took out the top award for “Best in Show” at the Showcase. Macrovue provides portfolios of global stocks or exchange-traded funds with the click of a button via a secure, easily-navigable platform.

“This is an excellent example of globalising investment horizons, helping investors discover and execute international thematic views,” said Robert Wallis, Product Development Manager at IRESS and one of the panel of judges at the Showcase.

Runner-up for Best in Show was Melbourne-based My Local Broker, started in 2008 in an attempt to better connect everyday Australians with mortgage brokers, and inspired by the fact that there isn’t that one place where consumers could find a local finance professional.

My Local Broker has a “well thought out customer experience design enabling a frictionless transaction in an area that is generally known for its complexity,” said panel member Annick Donat, Head of Licensee Development, BT Group Licensees. “Interesting use of other disrupters such as wearable tech and interaction with UBER create an ecosystem that supports many aspects of a clients’ journey.”

Full List of Winners:

• Best In Show Winner – Macrovue
• Best In Show Runner-Up – My Local Broker
• New Entrant Winner – Billsumo
• New Entrant Runner-Up – Coredination
• Best Disruptor Winner – XTB
• Best Disruptor Runner-Up – Simply Wall St
• Best Technology Winner – SuiteBox
• Best Technology Runner-Up – SWIPE

New entrants Billsumo and Coredination whet the appetites of the 160 strong audience made up mostly of financial services powerhouses and investors.

“Billsumo has amazing potential to help with a problem that most of us face in our day to day lives and demonstrates great mass market appeal, while Coredination is a platform with a great future and applications across so many industries,” said Mr Wallis.

“The words FinTech and disruption are never far apart and XTB is a fantastic example of democratisation of financial products, making the corporate bonds investment products available to the retail and SMSF market,” added Mr Wallis.

Afiniation co-founder, judge and self-proclaimed technology geek Marc Evans, said that SuiteBox was a “clean and simple solution that shows how technology can continue to innovate and improve how we connect with our clients. The solution has applications in many areas and can prevent unnecessary travel, pollution and help in our time-poor lives.”

He added that SWIPE was “technology that allows customers to better understand products and ensure that we can present detailed and complex information in ways that are easily consumed. The presentation of complex data has uses in all areas of finance and beyond.”

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Marc Evans

Wellington-based startup Banqer, the online platform that facilitates the teaching of financial education in the classroom in a fun engaging way creating a virtual ‘classroom currency’, took out the Best Innovation in Show Award at the recent Afiniation FinTech Showcase.

The Afiniation Showcase, held at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney, featured over 30 of Australia and New Zealand’s top FinTech innovators, sponsors including AustralianSuper and Dion and keynote speakers including the NSW Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, Victor Dominello, Citi’s Managing Director of Customer Franchise, Linda Duncombe and the NZ Trade Commissioner David McLeish.

Afiniation co-founder and head judge Marc Evans explained, “Banqer helps children who have their own bank accounts get a rich understanding of what it means to be in charge of your own personal finances. As a result the judges felt that Banqer was the most innovative and interesting presenter at the Showcase as they showed that society and FinTech can work together.”

Banqer co-founder Kendall Flutey said, “”The Afiniation Showcase was our first introduction to the Australian FinTech community and we couldn’t have asked for a better entry point. This initiative was the perfect platform for Banqer as it enabled conversations with the right people, people that we may otherwise not have been able to meet. The calibre of the demonstrators at the Showcase was extremely high, so it’s a real honour for Banqer to be named best in show. A huge thanks to the organisers of the Afiniation Showcase for fostering this community, and we look forward to future involvements.”

Runner up for Best in Show went to another New Zealand-based company, 8Wire who showed an automated solution to the migration of data between systems, a problem encountered by many companies at the showcase and generally regarded as the highest risk part of any FinTech project.

The Award for Best New Entrant went to Capital Pitch with Simply Wall St taking the runner up award. Marc Evans commented, “CapitalPitch adds a new way of assisting innovative companies to prepare for the future and allows organisations to grow and develop with better access to capital. They were a worthy Best New Entrant winner. Simply Wall St has developed a new way of representing complex financial information to allow easy comparisons by non-technical users. It was a close content in this category.”

Simply Wall St co-founder Nick van den Berg said, “The Afiniation Showcase was a great event to attend, it was a good mix of startups, regulators and corporates all keen to drive FinTech forward. I have no doubt that deals and relationships between these groups will form because of the event bringing them together. I’m very proud that we came runner up in the New Entrant category. There was an extremely high calibre of people presenting which is a reflection of the FinTech scene both in Australia and New Zealand. We are very much looking forward to attending future Afiniation events.”

The Disruption award highlights the innovative presenter that the judges felt have a significant disruptive event on the current market and participants and in this category DomaCom took the top prize with HashChing the runner up.

Marc Evans explained, “The winners in the Disruption category are going to change the way that the financial markets work moving forward. We felt that DomaCom really is a new way to invest in the Australian housing market and that this new innovation will fundamentally disrupt the way people invest in housing in Australia.”

DomaCom CEO Arthur Naoumidis said, “I am very pleased to have the disruptive nature of the DomaCom Fractional Property platform recognised by winning the Afiniation Showcase Disrupter Award. With over 30 Australian and NZ FinTech companies presenting last Thursday, innovation is well and truly alive in the local FinTech arena.”

The Technology Award recognises the best advances in technology that will influence FinTech in the future. Top honours here went to Sharesight the company who offers a way to manage online investments in one place, whilst consolidating positions across a number of platforms. Runner up was innovative online meetings and conferencing service SuiteBox with its clever new way to connect with clients, share documents and gain a better understand financial products.

The final award of the Afiniation Showcase was for Best Robo-Advice product where the winner was Ignition Wealth with its service offering customers the ability to easily and seamlessly execute automatically on the decision made around their plan. Runner up in the Technology Award category was BigFuture and its excellent and compelling financial planning tool for both beginner and experts alike.

BigFuture co-founder and CEO Donald Hellyer said, “The Afiniation conference provided not only a great forum to demonstrate BigFuture but also to meet other developers where natural relationships exist.”

Marc Evans concluded, “The Afiniation Showcase was an unparalleled success. The sold out event brought together the crème de la crème of FinTech innovators and investors all keenly intent on driving FinTech in Australia and New Zealand forward.”

Click here to view highlights from the recent Afiniation Showcase.

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Marc Evans

Automated advice firm Ignition Wealth has been recognized as the best robo-advice service at the inaugural Afiniation Showcase held last week at The Ivy Ballroom in Sydney.

Ignition Wealth was pitted against several robo-advice and wealth firms among more than 30 fintech companies presenting to an audience of innovators, entrepreneurs and investors.

Managing director and co-founder Mark Fordree said Ignition Wealth was delighted to win the award, which recognised the company’s technology and track record.

“Ignition Wealth’s bank-grade, advice technology has been successfully used for six years by hundreds of thousands of super fund members across services such as online financial calculators, illustrators and advice tools,” he said.

“With our track record of generating intra-fund statements of advice for super funds, we have a proven service we can offer to the public and financial advisers.

“We’re not here to smash traditional advice businesses – we’re here to help them scale their practices and reach new customers.”

Afiniation Co-founder, Marc Evans, said Ignition Wealth’s technology, which allows customers to automatically implement their recommended portfolios, was a key point of difference from other robo-advisors.

“The generation of a plan and automatic execution of the market investments makes Ignition Wealth the best robo-advice innovator at the showcase,” Evans said.

The Afiniation panel which selected Ignition Wealth comprised Afiniation director Marc Evans, AustralianSuper’s Shawn Blackmore, Industrie IT’s Con Zeritis, and The Fold Legal’s Claire Wivell Plater.

The Afiniation Showcase also recognised a number of other fintech firms including financial education startup Banqer, which took out the overall best innovation in show award.

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