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Leading fintechs gathered to celebrate the best in the industry at an awards event in Sydney last night.
The Finnie Awards is now in its second year and is arranged by FinTech Australia and the state government's Jobs for NSW. This year offered a total of 23 awards in areas such as lending, wealth management, payments, crowdfunding, blockchain and regtech.
Peer-to-peer lender RateSetter picked up the award for Excellence in Consumer Lending, in an event that praised fintech ability to offer alternatives to traditional lending and financial services.
RateSetter beat the likes of HashChing, MoneyMe, MoneyPlace and SocietyOne in the category. Although SocietyOne did still win an award in Best Marketing/Branding Initiative of the Year.
In the Business Lending category, Trade Ledger took home the award over Finstro, Prospa, Spotcap Australia and The Invoice Market.
Energy financing startup, Brighte, was named Australia's outstanding fintech leader of the year. The company provides on-the-spot finance for energy home improvements, such as solar panels, insulation and batteries. Applications take two minutes for customers to complete, with a credit outcome received in nine seconds.
Since it launched 18 months ago, the startup has approved over $50 million of applications from more than 6,000 Australian homeowners.
FinTech Australia CEO Brad Kitschke congratulated Brighte CEO Katherine McConnell and all the other winners of the 2018 Finnie awards.
He said the winners reflected the maturity and growth of Australia’s FinTech industry.
He added, “The winners of the 2018 Finnies are providing consumers and businesses new and improved services and a real alternative to the banks and other traditional financial institutions.
“The winners include smaller FinTech startup companies but now also include larger scale-up FinTechs which are dominant players in their sectors and are major employers in their own right.”
Kitschke said the Finnie Awards recognise the high potential of growth in the Australian fintech industry which are already generating future economic returns and jobs, adding, “The fact we received 223 award entries, a 40% increase from the 158 entries in 2017, in itself illustrates the increasing number of strong companies and leaders within our growing Australian fintech industry."
