MoneyMe Tops Techboard Ranking for November/December 2017

Topping off a big year, this is Techboard’s final Ranking for 2017. We normally close off our rankings at the end of the Month but the end of November and beginning of December were massive for the Techboard Team. We had our Techboard 2017 National Awards in association with StartCon in Sydney on 30 November, followed by the StartCon Conference itself. then the Co-founders headed back to Perth for a hectic Week in the Perth Startup Calendar with the West Tech Fest which also incorporated our own event in collaboration with StartupWA incorporating the WA version of the Techboard Awards. So we decided to do our final ranking for the year covering November and the first half of December. Here it is… and have a Merry Christmas.

Peter van Bruchem

Editor and Co-Founder

By Rafael Kimberley-Bowen

Firstly, some stats and insights on startups and tech companies in November/December:

• Since last month we’ve added a further 122 companies net – we’re now profiling 1,936 Australian companies.
• Among other metrics, we captured 785 global press mentions of Australian companies, 280 milestones, 63 funding milestones, over 28,000 tweets and 12,000 Facebook posts, over 300 iTunes apps and 230 Google Play apps, and employee counts at over 1,320 companies.
• Only two of this period’s top ten companies are ASX listed. 92 (or 5%) of our total companies are ASX listed. The top performing (share price wise) ASX company was The Hydroponics Company, up 274%.
• In a fitting conclusion to what might be described as the year of the fintechs, there were six fintechs in the top ten, and nine in the top 15!
• Three ICOs and three IPOs during the period, the largest being HCash‘s $53m ICO.

moneyme was the top trending startup of November-December, following $100m funding from Fortress Investment Group in a securitisation deal. The consumer lending fintech also received a $20m bond from Evans & Partners.

“A capital investment of the magnitude provided by Fortress Investment Group and Evans & Partners is not just recognition of the strength and depth of our value proposition,” according to CEO Clayton Howes. “It’s actually an indication of the strong potential for Australian fintechs to capture serious wholesale market funding – which we see as a win for Australian fintech as a whole.”

It was a big month for moneyme, which won the Fintech Business of the Year category at the Optus My Business Awards, and featured in the Financial Review Fast Starters 2017, KPMG’s Fintech100 and Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia awards.

Howes further commented: “This past year has been an important one for us here at MoneyMe as we officially transition from startup to scale-up. We’ve created a funding path that will allow us to capitalise on growth and market share opportunities where bank branch models are not a natural fit in this digital age, and solidified our position as a mainstay in the improved distribution of consumer finance.”

Unlike most Australian fintechs, four-year old moneyme is both profitable and cashflow positive. The company has hinted at a possible IPO in 2018.

Fastbrick Robotics was the second highest trending company. The ASX-listed robotics company raised $35m in a share placement, and received a merit award in the Industry Application category at the 2017 APICTA Awards in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Fastbrick CEO Mike Pivac told Techboard 2018 would be its “breakout year”. “We will see the culmination of over 12 years of development work come together, enabling our company to gain a firm footprint in the innovative construction arena. This will create value for our shareholders and prospective end users of the technology, and importantly showcase the Hadrian X Machine as the first demonstration platform of our unique and enabling Dynamic Stabilization Technology.”

Fastbrick announced it would build a second commercial prototype of its Hadrian X robot, and captured strong mindshare with increases in social media engagement, website rankings and press coverage.

Power Ledger was ranked third, maintaining its record-breaking run in our top three, now for the fourth month in a row. The energy blockchain company, which earlier this month won Techboard’s Highest Trending WA company award for 2017, received a $1.3m grant through the Smart Cities and Suburbs Program, and partnered with Curtin University, Murdoch University and LandCorp to manage water and energy systems in the City of Fremantle. The startup also saw strong mindshare with increases in social media engagement, website rankings and press coverage.

HCash, ranked fourth, was the highest trending Victorian company, following Australia’s largest ever initial coin offering, netting $53m.

As well as HCash’s, the period saw two other ICOs, Horizon State ($1.4m) and Skrilla ($0.8m). In a more traditional setting the ASX saw over $100m flow into startups and tech companies, with three IPOs (SelfWealth, Parkd Group and 5G Networks) and ten share placements.

The largest non-public equity fundraise was Spaceship‘s $50m round, which included US-based VC Amplo ($8m) and Mike Cannon-Brookes ($3.5m). The round valued the one year old superannuation startup at $170m. Spaceship ended up ranked fifth, and commented: “We’ve had an exciting year at Spaceship and we appreciate the recognition. Finance should be approachable and easy-to-understand – we’re on a mission to help our generation build wealth and we’re starting with superannuation. We’ve got some really exciting announcements to come and we’re looking forward to an even bigger 2018.”

NSW fintech Douugh was the sixth highest trending company, having closed a $2.5m seed round involving Choice Financial – who it is partnering with to launch an integrated bank account and debit card. The startup also saw strong social media traction and press coverage.

NevHouse (26th) was Queensland’s highest ranked company, following its win at the Pitch@PalaceGlobal 2017 in London, while 1414 Degrees (59th) was South Australis’s highest trending company, with a $1.6m grant from South Australia’s Renewable Technology Fund and a move into its new 3,000-square-metre factory in the Adelaide suburb of Lonsdale.