Global investors have started to notice. As the pandemic recedes, economies are adjusting through new rates of technology adoption. Companies that typically took years to transition customers to new platforms now do it in weeks. The pace of change has changed — almost overnight.

One major beneficiary is Australia’s fintech industry. Until two years ago, developers from down-under barely figured in global rankings. But in 2021, industry analyst, Findexable, promoted Australian finance technology again. Australian fintech is now rated sixth in the world.

This means Australia’s A$4 billion fintech industry has pulled ahead of every European country, except Switzerland and the UK. The ranking also signals Australia’s leadership in Asia-Pacific. Findexable ranks Australian fintech second only to Singapore in Asia

Australian fintechs are capitalising on their success. Around 44% of Australia’s 700-plus fintechs have raised more than A$100 million in financing. Small commercial lender, Judo Bank raised US$209 million at the height of the pandemic.

Some Australian fintechs have become global players. US-based Block Inc. has offered US$29 billion for Australia’s buy-now, pay-later pioneer Afterpay. And Airwallex — based in Melbourne and Hong Kong — raised US$100 million in November, giving it a US$5.5 billion valuation.

Australia: a nation of early adopters

Australia’s vibrant tech industry sits on solid foundations. In 2018, the UK’s Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Australia first in the world for tech readiness along with Singapore and Sweden. When compared to other countries, Australia stands out as a nation of tech-happy, early adopters.

This benefits Australia’s big four banks. All are now investing heavily in fintech to improve customer services. In fact, nearly 60% of digitally-active Australians use fintech products.

A high-skills workforce also helps. Australian colleges and universities train a local tech workforce to service critical industries. Besides its fintech cohort, Australia is home to roughly 600 edtech companies, 500 medtech companies, and 400 agtech and foodtech companies according to Australia’s 2021 Benchmark report. Approximately 98% of these companies are small or medium-sized.

Also read: Meet the 26 innovators pitching on JETRO x Techstars pitch day

And Australia’s fintech talent pool keeps getting bigger. The tech workforce has grown by approximately 65,000 since the start of COVID-19. As borders re-open, expertise will expand. Australia’s talent visas, lifestyle cities and fast-growing demand for skilled people continue to attract technology professionals from around the world.

At the core of Australia’s fintech prowess is a sophisticated A$10 trillion financial sector. This is the nursery for Australia’s extraordinary rise in global fintech. It has in-built advantages. Australia is one of the few countries in the world that has 100% banking penetration. This means millions of citizens checking their funds on advanced banking apps.

These factors all add up to core competitive advantage. Australia’s technology sector is now worth A$167 billion and employs 861,000 people, according to research by Accenture. The sector is highly diverse, with over 35,200 sole traders and 26,100 companies that employ fewer than 20 employees. Fintech is one of its biggest constituents.

A fertile fintech ecosystem — from regtech to insuretech

One key feature of Australian fintech is its very broad base. Today, fintech has spawned multiple subsectors that cater to different finance-related activities.

Regulation technology – or Regtech – thrives in Australia’s pro-innovation regulatory climate. By some estimates, Australia is now the third-largest regtech hub in the world. Canberra-based Castlepoint Systems went global while still a startup, thanks to its world-first, standalone audit and compliance technology.

Australian Insuretech is also taking off. This is partly because Australians have the confidence to complete complex financial transactions via smartphone apps. Embedded insurance startup, Covergenius secured A$100 million in Series C funding in September last year.

Niche skills are also on tap in Australia’s diverse talent pool. Proficiency in BlockChain powers Australian prowess in payments technologies  – from consumer-oriented Afterpay, to open access platforms at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Pro-fintech regulation attracts global investors

A healthy fintech ecosystem has made Australia a magnet for investors. US- and UK-based fintechs see Australia as a natural testbed for global expansion. Recent investors are lured by pro-innovation regulation and organic clinks to huge markets in Asia-Pacific.

British super-app developer, Revolut, made Australia an early first stop in its global expansion. Temporary licensing helped the company set up in Australia. Australian CEO, Matt Baxby, lauds Australia as a venue for piloting new fintech.

Also read: Regional insurtech Igloo’s AI-driven capabilities drive customised products and seamless customer experience

“Australia has a familiar regulatory regime and high-quality fintech talent,” he said. “This makes Australia an attractive market for Revolut’s expansion outside of Europe.”

Afterpay talks up Australia as a testbed for fintech development. Marty Gray, Senior Manager for Public Policy, cites a regulatory environment that is oriented towards innovation. This includes sandboxing.

“There is a proactive relationship in Australia between the industry and regulators, and this helped us get our financial product established,” he explained. “It gave us a first-mover advantage.”

Australia also has a fintech bridge with the UK and one in the works with Singapore. These government-to-government agreements reduce barriers for companies to develop and deploy fintech products across markets.

Overseas advisers help startups go global

The Australian Government has been quick to aid fintech expansion. A global network of 68 offices and missions deliver market insights to inquisitive investors. Meanwhile, fintech advisers based in Australia help local startups go global, faster.

The result is that even small Australian fintechs can gain first-mover advantage in global markets. Handii took its online market place for insurance rectification work to the US just three years after launching in Australia. Its journey included mentoring organised by Austrade and introductions to venture capitalists in San Francisco.

“The Austrade team guided us through the VC [venture capital] process,” shared co-founder, Christie Downs. “The mentor helped us refine our pitch, curate a target list of investors and build a forecasting model.”

Overseas investors encounter an advisory network that’s keen to attract fintech pioneers.

Also read: Japanese aerial-tech startup Aerosense bullish on opportunities in Southeast Asia

“Introductions made by Austrade helped us to navigate the local regulatory and compliance environments,” said Revolut’s Baxby. “This has been a key enabling factor for us.”

Revolut is just one of a growing number of investors that pay testament to Australia’s ability to nurture fintech pioneers and act as a testing ground for global expansion.

“Australia can also serve as a gateway to markets in the region because of its location and economic ties”, added Baxby. “We believe the resilience and growth shown by fintechs in Australia highlights the maturity of the industry in Australia. This bodes well for the future of fintech in Australia.”

To learn more about how Australia’s best and brightest fintechs can help power your business, please visit Austrade.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Austrade

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During the past year, the advent of blockchain technology has accelerated throughout developing regions, including Southeast Asia, with Ethereum functioning as the preferred network for many financial institutions and various developers. 

The growing popularity of Ethereum can be linked to the fact that it is used by thousands of developers who set up decentralised apps that power everything from the DeFi and Metaverse movements to the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

According to Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of the Ethereum project, many developing nations are gradually improving the financial and technological infrastructures of their respective countries using Ethereum. 

For instance, Chile has utilised Ethereum’s proof-of-work blockchain to track energy data. According to the National Energy Commission, the country chose Ethereum because of its ability to “augment levels of security, integrity, traceability, and confidence in the information available to the public.” 

Being one of the most popular chains to build on, traditional institutions also leverage Ethereum. For example, Union Bank, one of the largest banks in the Philippines, has partnered with Lubin’s ConsenSys to develop banking solutions run on Ethereum for the country’s rural sector. The government has also decided to offer Manila residents rewards in Ethereum tokens for cleaning up their polluted beaches.

Despite the rise in adoption of Ethereum across emerging markets, there are also growing concerns regarding high transaction costs caused by increased usage and demand. Why then is adoption still growing strong in emerging markets? 

Also Read: The transition is now: these Web3 apps are transforming global finance

Many factors influence these dynamics, which will be explored in the following sections.

Decentralised finance: An alternative for the underbanked

Ethereum was the major catalyst in introducing DeFi or “decentralised finance”, a protocol that aims to provide financial and banking services on the blockchain network that is also geared toward disrupting intermediaries like banks.

When compared to the traditional financial system, DeFi is a form of financing that specifically adds value to the rising miseries of the underbanked since anybody may join and connect to this novel system framework, even without KYC and without a bank account.

As of now three biggest DeFi lending protocols are Maker, Curve Finance, and Aave, with a total value of US$17.5 billion, US$15.2 billion, and US$11 billion, respectively, all of which are built on the Ethereum Network.

In many developing nations, the existing loopholes in the financial system prevent many individuals from opening their bank accounts, much alone using them for business. 

Especially in regions like India, the Philippines, and more, lending and borrowing are challenges because most people under the poverty line struggle to provide proper documents and collateral. 

For such places, almost anyone with access to an internet browser can start using DeFi protocols and begin lending and borrowing without signing anything. 

By doubling down on the path to lower barriers to entry and easily accessible loan activities, the idea of DeFi gained popularity with TVL at 96 billion as of 14 Jan. 

For example, imagine a DeFi loan built on top of a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. With this digital financial instrument, borrowers and lenders can put up their collateral, where a tamper-proof smart contract is responsible for distributing interest payments. The technology is securing the collateral in case of default.

DeFi also has other use cases built on Ethereum, like digital remittances. As predicted by the World Economic Forum, the adoption of digital remittances might drive the growth of the global economy.

This way, families may save money on remittance costs while still contributing to long-term development. Furthermore, DeFi provides an alternative to hefty transfer costs, which are currently estimated to be 7 per cent of each dollar sent home by migrant workers. 

While it is too early to know if DeFi is the only answer to assisting the unbanked, they constitute a viable opportunity for individuals to investigate other financial possibilities.

Also Read: Top people to follow for developments in blockchain and crypto in 2022

Growing adoption is driven by culture

Without any doubt, Ethereum-based blockchain innovation is delving into one of Asia’s most vibrant cultures, that of gaming and e-sports. 

NFTs and play-to-earn games such as Axie Infinity have swept the APAC regions, especially growing economies like Southeast Asia, demonstrating the influence that decentralised applications based on Ethereum have on communities. 

One of the major innovations in blockchain technology is the development of play-to-earn gaming, which allows users to earn money while playing. What previously was simply a source of leisure in communities is now becoming a source of income that enables gamers to play the games they love with purpose and deeper vested interest.

The growth of play to earn gaming can be attributed to the success of Axie Infinity in the Philippines since there has been a boom in the number of daily users for a slew of games built on the Ethereum network, including Alien Worlds and Gods Unchained. 

Due to lower minimum wages in developing countries, more people are drawn to GameFi, speeding up the industry and developers who build on Ethereum. 

The money usually generated from play-to-earn gaming can go near approximately US$50-US$100, which may not be as high for developed regions like the US. Still, in emerging economies with lower capital income, the amount earned through game playing can put at least a day’s meal on the table. 

Another popular choice is the NFT fantasy soccer game Sorare, built on Ethereum, which allows players to manage their soccer teams via digital player NFT cards.

Play-to-earn and GameFi dApps are making a noticeable impact due to their attractive model incentivising passive income, especially in lower-income countries.  

Limitations of Ethereum in emerging markets

Regardless of its growing popularity, scalability has been a major issue for the Ethereum platform. As more individuals embark on Ethereum, the network starts to encounter problems. 

Ethereum uses a Proof of Work (PoW) model, allowing only 30 transactions per second (TPS) compared to the massive demand of 1.355 million TPS every day, causing network congestion and excessive transaction fees. 

Nonetheless, early efforts to resolve the problem have resulted in unacceptable compromises regarding security matters or other factors such as the user experience.

For emerging economies, while there are many reasons to join the various blockchain trends like DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi, the high costs of entry have been a major hurdle. 

For example, NFT minting fees on the Ethereum blockchain fluctuate according to the supply and demand for processing power, ranging from US$50 to US$100.

There has been an emergence of other networks like Solana, popular among developers who no longer want to deal with Ethereum’s volatile transaction fees, with Solana advertising itself as the cheap and more efficient alternative.

Also Read: NFT adoption is soaring in Southeast Asia. Here’s why 

Ethereum’s scaling solutions

Scaling solutions are needed if Ethereum’s smart-contract-based blockchains are ever to grow to support finance and Web3 applications for billions of users. Thankfully, the cavalry is beginning to arrive, with many proposed solutions coming online recently.

Today, there is a vast community working towards solving the issues of high transaction costs on the Ethereum network. 

Being around longest, the Ethereum community is strong, with billions of dollars of investment going into scaling solutions that will bundle up transactions off-chain, introducing a newly emerging ecosystem of Ethereum congestion alleviation. One of these solutions includes zk-rollup technology, a scaling technology that enables reduced transaction fees and improves user experience.

In general, there are hundreds of transactions on the main blockchain, but with ZK-Rollup, they are combined into a single transaction. Since fewer data has to be transferred over Ethereum’s primary blockchain, transactions may be completed more quickly and at a lower cost. 

According to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, “ZK-rollups would be Ethereum’s go-to scaling strategy for the near and mid-term future”. Buterin also published a roadmap called Endgame, in which ZK rollups have a key role to play. 

ZK rollups are making a strong statement and could very much have the ability to become the key protagonists of the current development phase of Ethereum scaling solutions.

Many notable companies like Aztec, Polygon, ZK-Sync, and Polygon Hermez, to name a few, are working on scaling solutions for the Ethereum blockchain. In the following three to six months, these networks may begin to compete with each other. As they do, they will become even stronger and better, increasing the opportunity for developers and users. 

Conclusion

With large unbanked populations, significant banking risks, and lower bank and credit-card penetration in aggregate, the deployment of cryptocurrency can be advantageous in developing markets. But while the idea of Ethereum and DeFi, on principle and by design, is meant to be universally accessible to all, high costs on the network have become the biggest technical problem facing the industry today. 

One of the key solutions to Ethereum’s woes is Zk rollups designed to have superior speeds at lower costs and have the potential to play a prominent role in Ethereum scaling solutions. 

The advent of technology like this will be especially important if the growth of Ethereum should continue in major emerging markets where high costs can be a major hurdle for entry.

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Blockchain gaming incubator and launchpad Seedify has secured undisclosed funding from NGC Ventures, a Singapore-headquartered institutional investor focusing on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.

As per a press statement, this strategic investment will drive Seedify’s expansion within the blockchain gaming arena and the broader metaverse.

Besides, both firms will collaborate to incubate and grow new gaming projects for optimal impact.

Also read: 7 Metaverse companies in Southeast Asia that caught our attention in 2021

Founded in 2021 by CEO Levent Cem Aydan, Seedify runs on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and is a platform for IGOs (Initial Game Offerings). It facilitates the launches with detailed verification processes for the participants.

The startup allocates tier systems to participate in these projects’ private and seed funding rounds before their official launches on exchanges. Interested game innovators submit their project proposal to the Seedify decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). It then allows the holders of its SFUND token (Seedify’s native token) to vote proportionally to their holdings on project proposals and participate in the governance of key decisions that Seedify faces.

If the project passes the community voting process, the entrepreneurs become part of the Seedify incubation programme and receive their seed fund. 

The venture also helps build a community of gamers and creates a marketing strategy for these projects. The incubatees often give Seedify 3 per cent of its total token supply to cover costs, besides transferring some part to the SFUND holders in the form of rewards. With this, token holders play a role in the startup’s success and receive a return on investment through decentralised finance (DeFi) seed fund mechanism.

Three main pillars of the startup’s offerings are Seedify Game Studios, Seedify Game NFT Launchpad, and the Seedify Utility NFT Set. 

Notable games that have been listed on the Seedify platform include strategy-based land building metaverse Cryptoblades Kingdoms, play-to-earn NFT space game SIDUS, real-time multiplayer PVP arena NFT game Cryowar, and metaverse VR experience Bloktopia.

Also read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

NGC Ventures’s other metaverse investments are BigTime Studios, Republic Realm, Terra Virtua, VRJam and Boson Protocol.

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Image Credit: Seedify

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US-headquartered global independent asset manager Franklin Templeton has launched an early-stage fintech startup incubation programme in partnership with F10 Global Innovation Network Singapore.

This two-year programme, dubbed FT Singapore FinTech Incubator, will kick off in July 2022. It will focus on startups in artificial intelligence/machine learning, capital markets technology, cybersecurity, blockchain, P2P lending, digital distribution and wealthtech, insurtech, regtech, data science, and predictive behaviour analytics.

The selected startups will receive seed funding from Franklin Templeton and are expected to be housed at 80RR FinTech Hub in the heart of Singapore’s business district.

Other benefits include two years of residency in the island state, individualised milestone-based programming and extensive mentoring and guidance by Franklin Templeton and F10.

Also read: Jakarta, Singapore named as top global fintech ecosystem in new report

These startups may also be considered for collaboration opportunities with Franklin Templeton in terms of early business unit exposure, technology steering, potential Beta customer trials and further early-stage funding.

The partnership aims to strengthen Franklin Templeton’s leadership and reach in fintech and innovation in Asia and support promising new startups in Singapore and the region.

Founded in 1947, the Franklin Templeton holding company is one of the world’s largest independent investment managers, with more than US$1.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM) and clients in over 165 countries. In 2019, it launched its inaugural fintech incubator in Silicon Valley in collaboration with Southern California’s incubator EvoNexus. Startups admitted into the fintech programme each receives a seed funding amount of US$150,000 in simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) from the firm. 

Launched in 2015, F10 is a global incubator and accelerator with offices in Zurich, Singapore, Madrid, and Barcelona. It teams up startups and big businesses such as banks, insurance companies and investors to foster innovation.

To date, F10 has incubated over 200 startups that have raised US$200 million+ in funding, as noted on its website.

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Image Credit: Franklin Templeton

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Most have probably heard of The Great Resignation by now, but what of The Great Paradox? The latter is a relatively newly-coined phenomenon referring to employees that need to feel connected to one another as well as the organisation yet at the same time desire more flexibility in their work life.

These seemingly contradictory desires have been driven largely by how work and the workplace have evolved in the last two years. The pandemic has accelerated automation and artificial intelligence advances due to sheer necessity.

These days, more people are using video conferencing software than ever before. In mid-March, as many countries across the world established lockdowns, video conferencing applications saw an incredible 62 million downloads worldwide within a week, a 90 per cent spike compared to the same week in 2019, according to mobile data and analytics provider App Annie.

The communications and collaboration industry represents the fastest growing market segment by value. It largely benefits from the fact that most new platforms are cloud-based, making their deployment relatively cost-effective.

The underlying problem

However, employees increasingly feel disengaged and complain about video-conferencing fatigue and anxiety, being summoned to video calls more often than they would need to. Digital transformation is hardly a bad thing, but virtual teamwork also does have its pitfalls.

Also Read: How COVID-19 accelerated digitalisation in the F&B industry in Malaysia

Interacting with coworkers remotely tends to lack the richness of a face-to-face conversation. The absence of social connectedness and physical interaction with colleagues and clients can lead to a fall in productivity and mental well-being and an increased feeling of isolation, loneliness, and uncertainty.

Even though many of us are moving towards hybrid working models, there is a glaring need for technology that can help bridge the gap between employees when not everyone can be in the office at the same time due to physical restrictions.

Remote work has raised our expectations of what video conferencing should look like, and rightfully so. So how can technology help us be more productive and connected and feel more involved?

The evolved solution: Smart video technology

Intelligent video integration brings on features like facial recognition, which can recognise each person in the virtual meeting room and frame each face to ensure that we can see each other in a less cluttered interface.

This enhancement means that we can read non-verbal cues more easily in meetings, and remote workers no longer feel excluded because virtual and physical attendees of the video conference can be represented on equal footing due to the full room feature, which can show a 180-degree view of the space.

Room systems with intelligent audio and video features, in addition to purpose-built devices for video conferencing, can result in delivering a consistent user experience throughout the organisation—whether for internal meetings or conferences with external stakeholders.

By standardising and optimising devices and software, enterprises can better support their employees in the office or working remotely.

Also Read: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Is the technology only as good as the human behind it?

However, currently, less than 10 per cent of rooms are video conferencing enabled, let alone intelligent video-enabled. Interestingly, an overwhelming 80 per cent of respondents in a 2021 survey shared that they will be accelerating their investment in conferencing solutions within the next 18 months.

This means that there is a growing need for businesses to adopt such technologies better to suit the changing needs of both customers and employees.

To ease the despondency of virtual teamwork, organisations must learn to adopt smart technologies to help them lessen the mental anxiety that arises from constant video conferencing among employees. COVID-19 wreaked havoc on businesses in all industries, yet some of the biggest employee-related challenges, from travel restrictions to difficulties in supporting the remote workforce.

Therefore, intelligent video integration can create a virtual environment that mimics real, physical conversations, returning employees’ feelings to the same room, creating involvement.

Adopting an intelligent video conferencing software solution helps address these issues and supports businesses in building a more engaged workforce. It needs to be part of the larger business processes to ensure that remote working does not cause disruption but rather provides continuity for their employees. The right technologies must be adopted to enable collaboration, push innovation, and drive growth.

Attracting and retaining valuable employees is a top priority in many organisations. The way to enable that is to transition to technology in their collaboration spaces, which can help employees perform at their best.

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